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 #4:  A Few More “Thank Yous” Would Go A Long Way. 

 Yes, I know, accolades in excelsis are anathema to the sensibilities of the typical public school teacher.  That’s what we say, right?  I know that is what we are supposed to say.  And the truth is that few of us enter the classroom for any of the rewards typically assigned to other professions.  Glory?  Not sure what that looks like in a classroom setting.  Fame?  I am only recognized, it seems, when I am at the movies on a date with my wife or when my three-year-old son is throwing a meatball across a restaurant populated with former students.  Money?  Insert an audible human reaction that is an admixture of laughing, frustration, and wrath.

So, yes, most of us, if we are being honest, would admit that the kind letter written to us at the end of the year by a student who seems to have grown in our classroom or the encouraging handshake on Parent Night from a parent who genuinely appreciates our efforts, absolutely means the world to us.  The letters and the handshakes are what we live for.

After all, at the most basic level, all teachers want to pave the road for our students’ dreams and the occasional acknowledgment means the world to us.

Click here for tip #3

Jeremy S. Adams is the author of HOLLOWED OUT: A Warning About America's Next Generation (2021) as...

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