It’s National Teacher Appreciation week and though teachers should be given more gratitude than they receive and thanks more than just one week a year.
1. For always showing up. Even after the most trying days and you’d rather do anything than be a teacher you still come back to the classroom.
2. For never giving up on your students. Some days are really hard and you never fail to stick it out and push past them.
3. For helping us figure out what we’re good at. You have this special knack of just understanding your students. You’re the one who helped us realize we like to write, to read, to draw or the fact that we could play an instrument or argue really well.
4. For encouraging us never to give up. When the subject is hard and that last math problem was too much you never stopped telling us we could get through it, you never stopped offering to help until it all made sense.
5. For pushing us to dream big. You never put our dreams down or told us we couldn't achieve them, instead you offered to help as much as we needed it.
6. For not letting us half ass anything. You made sure that we didn’t just do work to slide by, you expected our best and when we didn’t give it you didn’t accept less than our best.
7. For providing a listening ear when it was needed. You were always the person we felt we could come to when we just needed to vent about the struggles of school; you understood and never were quick to judge.
8. For reminding us the struggle is indeed real if we don’t stay in school.
9. For believing in all your students. You were supportive and motivational. Your optimism for our success was never forgotten.
10. For being a good critic. Sometimes the things we think are really great aren’t and constructive feedback has helped shape the person we are.
11. For answering the same question about 100 times. For some reason that quadratic equation and photosynthesis just never sticks and each of your students have probably asked you to explain it so many times that you could recite it in your sleep.
12. For all the prep you put into making sure class is not only informative but entertaining.
13. For giving up some of your freedom. You can’t hang out with all of your friends or do all the things you love outside of school because you put so much effort into your students success. Sometimes people forget teachers have lives outside of school.
14. For caring. Not just about how well your students do in class but caring about them as individuals and everything that makes them who they are.
15. For dealing with a flawed educational system.
16. For pushing when you’re being pulled.
17. For being a role model.
18. For creating memories that will last a lifetime.
19. For being the mentor we never thought we needed.
20. For sparking creativity and finding something within each of us.
21. For the days you feel underappreciated and overworked.
Without teachers like you we wouldn’t be where we are today and we have so much to thank you for.
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