The Importance of Saying Thank You to Teachers

I have officially finished my student teaching in North Carolina and it has left me with an incredibly bittersweet feeling.  I am so very excited for my upcoming trip to Brazil and am looking forward to everything in store for me there, yet I truly will miss my students who were all so very wonderful.  I am also becoming increasingly stressed about finding a job upon returning from my study abroad trip.

The constant barrage in the news of the “dire state of our education system” has left me feeling vaguely discouraged.  I am so very excited about becoming a teacher and enjoying what I have long considered to be the main benefit of teaching, and indeed the main reason I chose to pursue teaching as a career: the sense of fulfillment it provides to know that I am doing something meaningful and worthwhile with my life.  So many of the debates about education today focus on the negative aspects of the profession and those in the field, while losing sight of what makes education and educators such a unique bunch. By no means are all teachers wonderful teachers, but on the opposite end of the coin neither are all teachers bad.  In fact, I believe that most teachers probably have good days and bad days. 

Our education system certainly needs a change, which is part of what this study abroad in Brazil is all about.  By studying what other countries are doing to improve their education systems, we can perhaps adapt their ideas to meet our own needs and unique situations. 

However, we must also consider how our national conversation about teachers and education is affecting the desirability of teaching as a profession.  In order to ensure that individuals continue to choose teaching as an occupation we must remember to thank our teachers, tell them when they are doing a good job and help them do better when they are not meeting standards. 

Throughout my MAT program I have continuously learned about the importance of providing a positive model for students and of giving multiple positive remarks for every criticism handed down.  It has been found that this is the best way to keep students engaged with the material and striving to achieve beyond previous limits.  Yet our current education system lacks both positive models and positive feedback for teachers.  We must take this same advice given to MAT students and apply it to the treatment of teachers as we strive to better the profession. 

I have repeatedly mentioned on this blog the solitary nature of teaching.  Because no superiors, colleagues or peers see teachers working, compliments and positive feedback are few and far between.  In fact it is typically only given once a month to a handful of teachers at the faculty meeting.  (And I am saying this as a student teacher who has a cooperating teacher present in the classroom at all times and am continuosly provided feedback). Just this past week the teachers at the school I am placed in were required to go spend their planning period in another teacher’s classroom.  What a wonderful idea!  This idea has certainly been proposed before, but it is nice to actually see it being done.  Now if we could only incorporate this at all the schools on a regular basis.  How much we, as teachers, could learn from what our colleagues are doing just across the hall. 

From only a few months in the classroom I can attest to the often thankless nature of the job.   Those who do see the teacher working every day, the students, often at the time do not appreciate all the teacher does for them, particularly at the high school level. It is for these reasons that it becomes necessary for everyone: government, parents, communities and society at large to offer some positive feedback to teachers, to thank them for all that they do.  Certainly teachers must continue to receive constructive criticism, this is the only way to grow and develop as an educator.  However, teachers must also be reminded of why they chose to become a teacher in the first place, to know that they are appreciated and to continue to believe that what they are doing with their lives is meaningful and worthwhile.