Did I ever mention that my daughter is a kindergarten teacher? Well, she is and has been for a number of years. When she was a child, she was always setting up little libraries for the neighborhood kids in the old barn in the back yard or playing school, and it was always her dream to be a teacher, so I'm not surprised that's the career path she chose. When she was in school I didn't have a clue just how much a teacher does! Until you are a teacher yourself or you know someone who is a dedicated teacher, you don't really stop to think about, and perhaps couldn't possibly know, all the hours a good teacher puts into "her kids". It seems to me that every conversation I have with my daughter is related to her kids, her classroom, how she can make it better, how she can teach better, more effectively, more creatively. She spends her time at night after her own children are in bed printing off lessons, cutting out art projects, dying macaroni, baking cookies or cupcakes, and the numerous other chores that come with teaching a kindergarten class. Teachers spend so many hours a day with your child, and no doubt the person your child becomes will be in a big part a result of having spent so much time with his teacher. My daughter spends so much of her own money on cute things to make the classroom brighter, on name tags, paper to send home notes, Clorox wipes to make sure the pencils and scissors are wiped down so as not to spread germs. She buys snowpants and mittens and hats on sale for those children who come to school unequipped or have lost theirs somewhere along the way, she buys snacks for those who are without a snack. Even in the summer months she is busy planning, cleaning her classroom and organizing from top to bottom, gathering all the papers and notes necessary for the beginning of the year, and thousands of other little chores that add up to weeks of work. Yes, until my daughter became a teacher, I did not appreciate teachers the way they deserve to be appreciated. Now if I hear someone say teachers have it easy because they get the summers off, I laugh, and I defend the fact that their summers off are hardly that at all. Please show appreciation to your child's teacher who is such a big influence in his life. We have some gifts that teachers might enjoy getting!
