✨✨A Gratitude for Teachers ✨✨

¡Muchas gracias de verdad!

As a teacher of 15 years, I know and recognise the effort it takes to be one that is dedicated, teaches from the heart, with a passion, full of care and enthusiasm even on ‘bad’ days when you just want to crawl back into bed!

I know what it’s like to teach with a broken heart or with worry for someone yet as soon as you step into the building you put on a mask as these are your students, not your friends.

I’ve spent many years with an open door policy, students could come in and talk or help. I noticed a lot of my Turkish students seemed to prefer helping me prepare for the next lesson during their break instead of playing even after telling them to have a break, they were insistent.

Sizlere teşekkür ederim, sevgili öğrenciler - I thank you all dear students!

This open door policy was also to my colleagues, after school I had people venting, some in tears, others for a laugh… We also used my classroom to dance to a Just Dance song on our last school day!

At other times, it was for one to one time with my school bestie and sister by heart S.E.

I’ll never forget the days when we concocted pranks to play on one another, shout out to Naz and Keeley from one school and Paula aka ‘Naughty gal’ from another!

I could walk in and find the most random stuff on my table! So I would pass on the favour right back to the culprit!

My prank right back to the culprit, you know who you are! 😅

Working in schools we held each other up with the understanding of how tough it can get and made the effort to socialize in the staff-room or outside of the school gates.

Yet teaching with all it’s excitement, energy and workload can take over some people’s lives.

I’ll never forget while in the library during my PGCE training, a stranger asked me what I was studying and then said:

Teaching can be very lonely. I’m 40, unmarried, no kids, it took over my life, don’t let it do the same for you!

So at that same age as the woman, I can say thank you to her as I made the effort to keep a balance. Every Wednesday was my day, no matter how much work I had, I would write the date on my board for the next day, organize the resources and leave bang on time at 4pm.

From there, I would treat myself, go do something fun like meeting up with ex-colleagues from a school where I used to be a teaching assistant or some friends or just have ‘me’ time.

This really helped me to separate work from my personal life as it can spill over with endless evenings / weekends / holidays of planning, marking, report writing , responding to emails etc.

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The Other Side

I still teach but no longer in a school, solely online to students worldwide for the past 5 years. Now I’m on the other side of the table, as a parent and I’m extremely grateful to the teachers who are helping our child.

I see the love.

I see the care.

I see the times of exhaustion.

Our daughter was born here in Spain but because we’re British, she is an ‘extranjera’, - foreigner, she has a UK passport not a Spanish one, learning to communicate in both English and Spanish, digesting many cultures.

When our daughter first started school, she refused to listen to instructions, she clung to me, she didn’t want to go because she was used to being my mini-me. I was always present at the park, at home, at the beach, at our friends’ homes, hosting friends, you name it.

Now she had to adapt to not seeing her mama who had always been present even if in another room. My husband too, very present yet has a larger workload so she was used to having more time away from him.

However, she only really spent time away from me when I taught, but she knew where I was and of course enjoyed having solo time with her dad.

So this stage was not only scary for her, but also for me. I had to trust people I didn’t know to teach, look after and support our child. I admit, it was tough to hear her screaming, “No!” as she just wanted to come home with us.

But then all changed, she began hugging the staff, she would kiss me goodbye, hug me then run up to her teacher.

It was such a gift to know that she felt very comfortable and felt welcomed and loved.

Then one day, my phone rang and the school informed me that due to an administrative error, she had been placed in a younger class, so now would be put into another with children of the same age as her and slightly older…

I was slightly annoyed, she had just settled in and was happy, but we chose to believe that it was meant to be and that she would settle in quickly as she had been used to the new routine for 5 weeks.

I wrote an email of gratitude to her former teacher as I knew she had made a huge impact on changing our daughter’s fear of detachment to us, to joy to being in the school.

The teacher responded with a beautiful reply, some of her words are below:

Screenshot of her previous teacher’s email

Photo translation: Thank you very much for your words. It has been a privilege to be able to accompany (daughter’s name) during her first days of school and to work hand in hand with you.

Even though she is no longer in our group, we still see her and we are going to visit her. And she does the same with us. We love her very much!

It is a joy to see her so happy in the mornings and so excited to be at school.

Thank you very much to you for being such an attentive and involved family in (daughter’s name)’s education.

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The first day came to start her new class, I walked her up to her new class’ line and met her new teacher. Our daughter resisted, she didn’t want to be in a different class…

Yet after just one day of being in this class, her smile returned, the teacher hugged her and she kept on dancing at home.

I can’t tell you how relieved we were!

After just one week the teacher hugged her at the school gates and said, “Te quiero mucho.”

It was then that I began to reflect on how different the teaching culture is in the UK compared to Spain.

I’ve never heard any teacher say to a student the words, “I love you.” Believe it, we feel a lot of love for our students, we get to know them, we see their potential and progress. We see their fears and the hurdles they jump over. We see them cry at small things and major things.

It made me think about the students who once said, “Miss, I wish you were my mum.”

I remembered the students who cried because they told me their parents didn’t care about their education. There were a few students whose parents I never met (even though they lived across the road) as according to their child, their parents ‘didn’t care.’

I’m so grateful to these two teachers and support staff who have shown so much love to our daughter even at times when she has been ‘rebellious’ replying, ‘¡Que no!’ when asked to do something. They have emailed us to keep us up to date with all school events and have just made it so easy to stay connected. They show such kindness and even email their own gratitude:

A part of an email from our daughter’s current teacher

Photo translation: On the other hand, thank you very much for your words the other day, they touched my heart.

If you are a parent reading this, if there is a teacher who you really appreciate, show gratitude.

I know firsthand how much it means when a parent simply says the words, “Thank you.”

This can be extended to a card or a drawing from your child, I even had a student save her pocket money to buy me a rose gold bracelet when she left to start secondary school - I couldn’t believe the effort!

Teachers, well great ones, dedicate their hearts, their minds and a huge chunk of their time to educate, to mentor, to support, to encourage, uplift, guide and nurture our children. Some even let it spill over into their personal life, sacrificing their own chances of having a companion or extend their family just to be a great teacher.

Show a teacher today, that you see them, that you appreciate them.

From one teacher to another, thank you!

Thanks for reading!

𝓒 𝓢𝓲𝓶𝓸𝓷𝓮 ✨