Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!
Make sure to enjoy this week, so don’t read the comments under any article, post, tweet, or Facebook share that in any way references teachers, teaching, or public education.
There is growing evidence that engagement in social media, including even the comment sections under mainstream media articles, can have a significantly negative impact on mental health. For people like me, whose twenty-year ebb-and-flow battle with clinical depression has made me unnecessarily sensitive to the venom and hate online, settling into some mindless social media perusal after a rough day at work ends up nudging us into the kind of downward spiral that for far too many culminates in bona fide burnout.
It is important during this teacher appreciation week that we also appreciate each other…both online and in person.
Often we take the time to (rightfully) single out those teachers who made a difference in our lives. For me, names from the 80s and 90s like Mary Jo Jones (science and math teacher), Jennifer Stenkamp (English teacher), Dale Crawford (FFA Advisor) and Elizabeth Shelley (English teacher) will always come first to mind. There’s also Wendi Kuntz and Jan Franke, whose support during my student teaching made me the educator I am today. There’s Fran Oishi, my amazing first-year-teacher mentor from my days in Federal Way. Appreciating the teachers of our past is important.
We need to make sure to show appreciation to our peers next door and down the hall as well, though. The “now” of teaching is hard. Not just because teaching is hard, but because being a teacher in our society right now is hard. While public polling suggests that many Americans support the walkouts in red states where teachers are pushing for better working and learning conditions, the raging and unfettered hate spewed toward teachers online is relentless and corrosive…its work is slow but sure. One week a year of inoculative appreciation isn’t enough, but it’s no small thing either.
Go ahead and tag your favorite teacher from the past in your Facebook posts or share that meme appreciating teachers. But make sure to also pop in on the teacher next door and share that awkward little moment where you say, face to face, hey, thanks for all you do for kids, it really does matter. The awkwardness will fade quickly, but the words won’t.
Hi Mark,
Teacher appreciation was a little quiet around out school this year. We are quite understaffed (principal is superintendent AND a teacher), while the secretary is on a wild mission to keep it all together on the storm that flooded half our area. Our Boost Club is composed of fellow teachers and classroom aides. I think our appreciation was a collective sigh at the end of the day and a high five that we had made it. It is not like this every year-just this year really.
But, I have immensely enjoyed seeing my “teacher friends” post FB messages asking kids for updates on their lives. What a great idea and way to connect with past relationships. I took a moment and commented on a teacher who I had had in high school. In that moment, it felt as good to appreciate as to be appreciated,
Your post reminds me though that next year, I am going to make it a point to have some reserved energy to celebrate my fellow teachers at our school. It is important! Thank you for reminding me of that!
Gretchen
Perfect timing, Mark. I’m getting a lot of love from former students and colleagues. That is what matters. The opinions of the trolls do not have a place in my world. That’s not to say that I don’t think we need to promote the positive image of the profession; it’s just simply that some people seem to enjoy spreading hate without reason.
The part where you encourage us to tell our peers about the appreciation–that resonates. In fact, I will make a point of spreading the love today.
Just say to yourself, the trolls all work in a warehouse somewhere in Russia. They are trying to make you feel bad. Nyet.