Teacher Appreciation

 I wish I could say that I have always appreciated the hard work that teachers do.

But, unfortunately, that is not the case.

During my years as a student, they were certainly taken for granted, no thought for all the prep work and time spent outside of the classroom.

The classrooms just come looking that way, right?  With all those posters and creative bulletin boards?

I didn't think about all the homework assignments, tests, project, quizzes that had to be prepared before ever giving them to the students.  They just took them right out a book, didn't they?

I mean, I know they had to spend time grading tests and homework, but they could get that done in about 30 minutes after school was done for the day.

Done with work at 4PM?  Getting 3 months off in the summer and two weeks at Christmas, plus all those other random holidays? Psh.

But that was then.  Sorry, teachers, I was a self-absorbed, naive student.

I've had a few other lessons taught to me since then.

I became thankful for teachers a decade ago, while a Houseparent at Gateway Woods, when I realized that their work allowed me to have a few moments with my toddlers.  About 6 hours of breather before heading into hours of supervision, behavior management, and mentor talks.

My appreciation grew as I started to send our own children off for school.  We have been blessed with awesome teachers for all 3 of our kids and I am so thankful to have God-fearing teachers to partner with when it comes to our kids' education.

And over the last 7 years my appreciation has grown by leaps and bounds, for I am married to a teacher.

We had heard that the first year of teaching is hard.  Really hard.  And it proved itself true.  It's a tough schedule to hold with a family to boot.  But of course, Paul did it without complaint.

And the next six have proved to be just as crazy as the first, with long hours of curriculum creating as there has been a new class to teach every year (except 1!).

So, out of curiosity, I did the math.

Paul puts in a 15+ hour day, getting up at 4:00 AM and not stopping work until 5:00 PM (I put in 30 minutes for drive time, but no meals because he eats while he works).  He then helps coach varsity baseball for 2.5 hours, coming home to eat dinner after 8PM.  He then puts in another 2 hours after the kids go to bed.  He works weekends, too, putting in about another 11 hours between Saturday and Sunday.  Lesson plans, grading papers, answering parent emails, answering student emails, etc, etc.  Multiply all that times 37 weeks (August to May minus 3 weeks for Christmas break and Spring Break, which in actuality, he worked all of those breaks, too!) and you get 3182 hours.

3182 hours. In 37 weeks.

A person who works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year puts in 2080 hours.

And though I know he will continue to get up at 4 AM through the summer and put in a few hours of work before the kids wake up, let's just say we are all looking forward to the summer.

So, teachers, I know Paul is not the only one doing these crazy hours.  You do SO much for such little pay.  And with this being the strangest most-need-for-flexibility year we have seen in our lifetime, you have all gone above and beyond for your students! But you didn't get into this for the money did you?  It's those 'naive children' (my words, not yours!) that assume you just show up and teach 8-3 and that's it. That is who you care about.  And that is what makes you great teachers.  I hope you feel appreciated by your students, their parents, your principal, the School Board. Because you have one of the toughest, most exhausting, frustrating jobs in the world.  Thank you.