Teacher Appreciation Week – TER Thanks You!

We here at The Educator’s Room would like to send a huge THANK YOU to all of you teachers as we start Teacher Appreciation Week.  Though we appreciate teachers year round here at the magazine, this week is special because everyone else recognizes how significant you are as well!  Whether you teach little children, high school students, college students, adults, your own or other people’s children, or just generally educate those around you, your commitment to teaching is what enriches the lives all those who know you.

We all know being a teacher is not for the faint of heart.  We certainly aren’t in it for the fame, glory, or riches.  Some days the weight of the world is heavier than the joy of the job. Depending on what state you teach in, you may or may not have a say in your own contract.  Depending on what your district or school does to support you, you may have options for the rest of your career or you may have to take matters into your own hands. Yet you keep teaching.

We also know that you do more than simply teach.  You feed bodies, minds, and souls.  You help keep children safe, clean, and comforted.  You go out of your way to protect young people who are at risk.  You reach out to parents who are nervous, uncertain, detached or simply unavailable.    You invent creative ways to engage kids in subject areas you know will come back to enrich them later, long after they’ve left your class. You inspire, you unwrap potential, you demand courage, you insist on a future for each child that crosses your path.  And you keep teaching.

We honor you, and we want you to know that this community of educator writers has your back. The reason The Educator’s Room began was because there was a clear need for teachers to hear from other teachers who cared about the same things and understood their shared challenges.  We thank you for reading this magazine, but more than that, we thank you for choosing one of the hardest professions out there.  We believe in you, in your success and empowerment, and in your every day struggle to make this thing called “education” work for your students. Thank you for continuing to teach.

You give yourself every day.  This week we give you the honor, respect, and recognition that you deserve so much more than we can express.  Thank you.

--The Editors and Writers of The Educator’s Room