teachers are crazy amazing (& a free little something for teacher appreciation)

this week is teacher appreciation week at our kids' school, so we are putting lots of effort into saying thank you to the teachers who work with our kids all day every day. 

i love teachers! after all, i come from a family full of educators! my mom taught high school for 27 years, and all three of my siblings work in elementary schools. some of my closest friends and extended family are teachers. i even taught for a bit: my first year out of college i worked- for better or worse- in a 4th/5th grade combination class. i quickly learned that i wasn't cut out to teach (of course it might have had something to do with the fact that i was 21 years old, had my emergency credential, and knew nothing about standards, classroom management, bilingual education or 4th or 5th grade!) that experience made me incredibly thankful for good teachers, because let's face it! that year i wasn't one. 

when monrovia was born deaf, it changed our timeline for entering school pretty dramatically. in order for her to mainstream with her peers in kindergarten, she began going to oral deaf school as a baby (yep! 7 months old!) where her teachers were incredible. they were patient, calm, energetic and creative. the philosophy of her deaf school was for parents to learn as much as possible since as parents we are the educators 24-7. i learned so much, and i often think that having a deaf child and starting out at that school made me a much more intentional and better parent. 

this year both of my girls have phenomenal, seasoned teachers, and they are thriving. 

        

they also have classes full of unique, at times squirrely, kids with a range of abilities and needs, and somehow they manage to teach them real, actual information like punctuation and addition. some days i can't even get my two kids to put their shoes on before they get out of the house, so the fact that they can impart real knowledge to twelve times as many children for an entire day much less 180 days? pretty crazy. so i'm pretty sure they deserve a thank you.

teachers? 

thank you for your patience. 

for putting up with low pay, lots of expectations, too much paperwork, and most of all, parents! 

thank you for spending your own money on our kids. 

for loving the ones who are difficult. 

for following iep's. 

for teaching the same thing over and over in different ways. 

for answering emails, staying up late to grade homework, and for putting in extra time for the kids who need it. 

thank you for bearing gracefully with helicopter parents and with checked-out parents.

thank you for recognizing the hurdles that so many kids face every day to show up to school and learn. 

thank you for hoping in our children. 

thank you for resolving conflicts all day long- from teeny tiny ones to great big ones.

thank you for continuing even on hard days.

thank you for going to long meetings and coming back at night for open house and back to school. 

for hugging our germy kids day after day. 

for dreaming up ways to take kids on field trips even though you don't have to. 

thank you for continually learning more so you can teach new things. 

for offering a safe place for kids in your classroom who might not have that at home.

for listening to children who might not have another adult's attention. 

thank you for knowing when to challenge a kid and for when to ease up.

thank you for spending 5 days a week with other people's children.

thank you for bringing the world of knowledge alive, and for creating little learners!

we see you. we appreciate you. we need you in our neighborhoods and our cities and our country.

parents?

don't forget to say thank you. 

and to the teachers in my own life? i think you are pretty amazing. each of you works so hard for your students and loves them even when they don't deserve it. i love hearing your stories about students in your life. you are so inspiring to me as a parent and human, and i hope that i bring the same intentionality, love and stamina as a mom as you bring to the classroom every day.

hooray for teachers!

(if you want this little printable that i made, click here to download it & print!)