Blog #14
May 8, 2019 –Thank You
I’ll say it: nobody understands all the things teachers do every day.
Or week, month, or
year.
Say “teacher” and you get an image, perhaps, of a teacher standing in front of a classroom and a room full of students.
Take attendance, teach, grade—and repeat.
Right?
Wrong.
So much work goes unseen—and vastly under-appreciated.
There’s the preparation time alone—the planning that goes into every single class. Teachers know they are sunk, and class time is wasted, if they show up without a plan.
But there also
administrative duties, school committees, parent outreach, extra-curricular
activities in school, and always the individual attention for students who need
it or ask for it.
Plus, the grading. Many
teachers spend nights and weekends making sure that students are receiving
valuable feedback.
The hours are long and,
while the pay is getting a bit better, nobody is going into the teaching profession
thinking about how quickly they will be able to afford a second house in the
mountains. Teacher pay needs to catch up with other professions that require (yes,
require) college degrees!
Teaching is probably the best example of a job where you should probably walk a mile in a teacher’s shoes, or spend a couple of weeks following a teacher around, before you can really understand all the issues they navigate during any given day.
It’s National Teacher Appreciation Week, which means there is no better time to stop and shout it from the rooftops:
Thank You!
This week we also held our Staff Appreciation Day—a chance to pause and give thanks to all the fine employees of Sheridan School District 2, to reflect on all the work that goes into opening the school doors every single morning and to providing the wide variety of opportunities that are presented to students. It was great to see everyone out in a relaxed mode—eating tacos and chicken wings and enjoying good company.
It’s a team effort. From the front office staff to the bus drivers to the maintenance crews, Instructional Support Assistants and everyone else, I am convinced that Sheridan is home to the finest, most dedicated school district staff in the state.
From the bottom of my
heart, again, thank you all!