Great Day of Gratitude

Since this is the first I'm hearing about this fantastic idea, I am going to have to send something along with Ethan tomorrow!  Obviously, since I'm a crafty type, I'm going to have to whip up something fairly quickly... Hmmm.  For a teacher... a book cover/tote, perhaps?  This is an idea that I've been playing around with, but haven't necessarily gotten to yet.  Yep.  I think that is what I will do.

Over the past few years that we have been at Clackamas Elementary, all of the teachers and staff have been great.  We understand that they are super busy, and yet they still take the time to answer the calls, emails, and notes that they receive on a daily basis.  Not only do they do they deal with our rugrats every day, but then they go home and have to deal with their own!!  Every grade and age presents it's own challenges, and I'm sure the individuals who teach Kindergarten say, "I don't know how those teachers deal with the high schoolers!" but then, I'm sure that the High School teachers say the same thing about the Elementary level teachers too!  Hurray for Teacher Appreciation Week.  Of course, that being said, at the same time, there are also the lunch ladies, maintenence/janitorial staff, school nurses, and perhaps most importantly - the office staff, because really, without them the schools simply wouldn't function (That means YOU, BARB CHILTON)!

I have a few teachers that I look back on fondly, and for different reasons.  There were the ones that were so incredibly sweet and kind that you couldn't wait to go to school... there were the crazy creative ones (that were let go from the Catholic school you attended for being TOO creative - shame, really, Ms. Russo was fantastic)... there were the ones that pushed and pushed and pushed you to the point where you thought you were going to strangle them and then suddenly, it clicked that they were just pushing you because they knew you had too much potential to waste...  There are also a few teachers that my oldest son, who is now in third grade, has had that have just been phenomenal, everyone at the Early Learning Center for preschool, as well as Jenni Hutteball that he had last year for second grade.

The other side of this, and perhaps these teachers are slightly less recognized, because a lot of people don't think of them as being teachers... I'm talking about the various sports coaches that were in our lives as kids, and are now in our children's lives.  Over the years, parents have become okay with yelling at umpires, refs, opposing coaches.  Perhaps instead of doing this, we need to support the coaches that the kids have, and just sit back with our hot dogs and enjoy the game...

I know that I am grateful for the teachers that I have had, and hope that my kids can look back years from now and say the same... Check out PBS Kids Supersisters and see what others are doing to participate in the Great Day of Gratitude!