May 8th, Friday

My sweet little Mac returned from her spa trip in record time, looking like new, all cleaned up inside and out, revitalized and happy!

Day shared with me a letter she wrote to her teachers this week and I wanted to share it with you:

Friends,

Today I had a conversation with a friend who told me that all the talk in the community about the heroism of teachers sometimes made them feel like a really high bar had been set, a bar that sometimes felt like a heavy weight.  I get that.  Hero is a big word.

For the first time in our lifetimes, all parents are seeing firsthand the work we teachers do every day… the planning, the grading, the persuading/nagging/encouraging.  They’re seeing that the job is far too big to be explained by the paycheck.  They are seeing that the thing that motivates us can only be called one thing: Love.  It’s love for the kids they love.  It’s love for the kids they don’t even know.  It’s love for 30 of them at one time in one class and also for one of them at one time when they need us.  For the first time, they can see how big our hearts must be and they can only think of one word to encompass the sudden understanding: hero.

My friend and I talked about the reasons we teach, that prior to the lockdown we got out of bed ready to rock the classroom because we would be able to SEE their faces, understand their joys and sadness, hear their sometimes inappropriate jokes, and watch them act like kids.  Now, though, a lot of us have spent so much energy learning the tools and strategically planning the curriculum (thank you for that), that we forgot to plan time to get our number one paycheck – time laughing with our students.

If that’s you, for teacher appreciation week, I’d like to offer you the encouragement to plug in just a LITTLE more time to play with the kids in your classes.  Maybe that looks like setting up a Laughter Committee of students who plan a 15 minute online game for the class. Maybe it looks like throwing up a couple of slides with funny or poignant questions and having everyone respond in the chat. Turn on the microphones.  Listen to them laugh.  Call out some of the funny, beautiful, or honest answers.  Here is a document Chrissy and I created as your teacher appreciation gift: Adding Play to Your Class.

Their humanity is the reason we do this job and YOU are the reason they keep working.  Give yourself the gift of BE-ing together.

Always in awe of what you do,

Day