Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No one could have predicted…

Hot air and ill-informed banter

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

I really should read my own blog.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Nothing worth doing is easy.

This blog will pay for itself.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

The willow is too close to the house.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / We All Need A Little Kindness / Acts of Kindness: Teacher Appreciation

Acts of Kindness: Teacher Appreciation

by | 48 Comments

This post is in: 

I have been saving these for the beginning of the school year. Thanks to everyone who sent things in.  This is a quick hit today because I had a horrible migraine this week and today is my day to catch up on all the things I had to let slide.

Acts of Kindness: Teacher Appreciation 1

Acts of Kindness: Teacher Appreciation

 

 

Not all teaching heroes have a classroom:

Acts of Kindness: Teacher Appreciation 2

Okay, that’s it for today. Remember, kindness begins at home. Be kind to yourself.

 

Reader Interactions

48Comments

  3. 3.

    PaulB

    From two years ago but trending now as a Twitter post went viral a few days ago:

    Noah Tingle, a 17-year-old high school senior, has been waiting in a goofy costume for his little brother, 12-year-old Max, to get off the bus since school started in mid-August.

    Yes, it was embarrassing, at first, to his brother. That was the original idea. But also, it was to make memories, the Louisiana teen told USA TODAY.

    “Knowing I’m going to college next year and won’t see him on a daily basis, I thought this would make things memorable and strengthen our bond as brothers,” he said.

    The Twitter post had a video that showed several of these costumes and the reactions of the two brothers as they met every day. Sadly, when I checked today, I found that the account had been suspended. It’s a shame, as I absolutely loved the video.

  5. 5.

    ArchTeryx

    G.O.A.T. – Greatest Of All Time.  Quite a complement from the kids!

    I don’t blame the teacher for being confused, tho.  I was for quite a while before I finally Got It.

  6. 6.

    Princess Leia

    My mom was a schoolteacher – she passed away on Friday last. These really touched my heart. Thank you so much for sharing them. So many people doing so much unsung good.

  7. 7.

    cmorenc

    One of my favorite teachers ever was 6th grade Ms Hardin, who had a great sense of humor, as well as great teaching skills.  One day just before recess, as a prank, I put a small pink mesh trash can over her head.  Instead of going ballistic and sending me to the principal’s office etc, she just grinned like a Cheshire cat at me and giggled, as did the other students.  After we went outside for recess to the playground, she recruited the biggest kid in the class to sneak up behind me and stuff me into a big metal barrel trash can outside.  Classmates laughed (so did I), tit for tat, lesson taught and learned.  Of course, this was in a small town in the early 1960s, when such informal ways of teaching behavior and consequences were still possible without tons of formal rigamarole and fear of losing control of class or teaching wrong lesson for handling things this way.

  10. 10.

    The Lodger

    Colonel. The whole process of coming up with that was absolutely great. They had to improvise that in real time for it to work as fittingly as it did.

  11. 11.

    brendancalling

    I’ve spent the past three days—and have one more to go—in 7-hour Zoom meetings with the School District of Philadelphia for orientation, and I’m just destroyed after each one. I hate Zoom. I hate online meetings.

    One of the facilitators was, for lack of a better word, triggering me left and right. She was one of those people who “honors” and “lifts up” everything, and encourages people to “feel their joy.”

    Those buzzwords just grate on me. They really grate on me. My therapist asked me if I ever play my instrument “for joy,” and I nearly bit my tongue off.

    And it was all day. A day of being honored for lifting up voices while encouraging and facilitating joy, and simultaneously unpacking diverse paradigms of resilience through a lens. I’m so tired and deflated.

  12. 12.

    Princess Leia

    One thing I most miss about my moms’ teaching days was August in the teacher’s room, running off dittos for her 4th grade classes. I don’t know what the (probably toxic) fluid was that made them work, but it is a smell of childhood for me!

  13. 13.

    Fleeting Expletive

    @Princess Leia: I am so very sorry to hear that as well. I’d already shed tears from the first word of this much appreciated post. May her memory and her life be a comfort.

  14. 14.

    FastEdD

    Retired public school teacher here. I remember the week before school we had day after day of useless meetings and we were all aching to get some real work done. One year our contract for the prep days started on a Tuesday; we weren’t paid to be there on Monday. I thought, “maybe I’ll just go in on Monday and do some planning and get a head start.” I went in to work early and found every teacher in the faculty was there. Perfect attendance. Not one of them was paid. That is who we are.

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Princess Leia:

    I’m so sorry to learn about your mother. You certainly chose the best possible thread to share that news. I hope these stories, as well as your own memories, sustain you.

  19. 19.

    brendancalling

     

     

    @frosty: for real, when I hear the word “joy,” the first thing I think of is Stimpy from “Ren and Stimpy” drooling while saying “oh JOY” and then singing the “Happy Happy Joy Joy” song

  20. 20.

    FastEdD

    @cmorenc: Teachers who can poke fun at themselves are the ones that survive. The kids learn your weak spots and they can be merciless, but if you roll with the punches they can be fun. I remember a physics teacher who had a kid who said the word “penis” and the teacher went ballistic. Tried to bust the kid every way he could, but that teacher only lasted a couple years. My kids would try to embarrass me but it never worked so they quit trying. “Why does Mr. So-and-So have so many children?” they would ask. “I don’t know, he’s a science teacher so I would think he knows what causes them,” I’d reply.

  24. 24.

    J R in WV

    @Princess Leia: ​
     

    So sorry for your loss. I had some really good teachers, both in public school and later on in college, many repeated times in college. Hope she brings many happy memories to you and your family!

  26. 26.

    UncleEbeneezer

    After a really tough last couple of weeks (mother in law’s health issues may be completely changing our plans for next few years) we are at least gonna treat ourselves to a couple nights at an AirBNB with a pool near our home.  Close enough that we can go home to corral/feed the cats but still have a tiny vacation for our 10th Anniversary.

  27. 27.

    raven

    My old man was a teacher and a coach and he was very happy when I earned my doc and went into higher ed (even though I didn’t teach).

  29. 29.

    Princess Leia

    Teachers really are a special breed of folk. When I was growing up, I could always pick teachers out of a crowd. They really do live on in the kids they taught, but also through them to so many. Glad to see so many teachers here! And thank you, all for your kind condolences.

  30. 30.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    I received my class list today.  A brand new group of 20 2nd graders.  Today they are just names but by June I’ll have a lifetime of memories for most.

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    @FastEdD: Now that you posted another comment, I will delete your empty one.  The first comment by a new person – or by a person with a new device – has to be manually approved.  After that, they show up for everyone right away.

  36. 36.

    Torrey

    @Princess Leia:

    I’m so very sorry for your loss. Your comment reminded me of all the wonderful teachers I remember, from my first/second grade teacher on up, and a wonderful eighth grade teacher who I think is at least partially responsible for my doctorate. (It was the way she taught eighth grade that did it.) I hope it is some comfort to know that there are people who are thinking of your mother in just the same way, with the same fondness and respect.

  37. 37.

    FastEdD

    People think teaching isn’t a skill and that it is merely babysitting. I had a jury summons years ago. Plenty of fine folks in the jury pool from many walks of life. They asked all of us questions to check our suitability. When they asked me, I looked at the room full of people, spoke off the top of my head in complete sentences, and I wasn’t nervous at all. Of course, that was what I did  every day for 34 years, no big deal. Not one of the others in the jury pool could do that, and I wasn’t any smarter than they were. Teaching is a skill. It gets better with practice, and not everybody can do it. States with large teacher shortages this fall are going to find out that they can’t just plug anybody off the street in a classroom. I feel for the kids who will suffer.

  39. 39.

    StringOnAStick

    My favourite school teacher was  a guy who taught 6th grade science in 1969; we’d watch all the space events.  He had a car engine that was cleaned up but that we were all allowed to help take it apart and there was zero gender discrimination in who got to do that.  I learned so much in his classes.

    Years later I ran into someone who turned out to be his niece, and once we figured that out I told that he was my favourite teacher ever.  She told me she’s heard that many times.  He was a gem.

  43. 43.

    CaseyL

    One of my best teacher memories is from when I was in, IIRC, 8th Grade, which would have been in 1969-70.  We had Sex Ed that year: boys off to one classroom, girls off to another.

    The Sex Ed teacher for the girls was… I think she was an English teacher; that part of the memory is hazy.  She may have been in her 50s. Neither skinny nor plump, hair in one of those teased upswept dos held together with hair spray, and she wore glasses with one of those chains that let them dangle around her neck – which had a bit of a wattle.

    Not, you would think, the most promising individual to teach young girls about sex in any positive way.

    You would think wrong.

    She knew about everything.  She talked about everything.  Not shyly, not reluctantly, and certainly not with any sense of shame: very straightforwardly. She answered all of our questions.  She was the first person I ever knew who advocated for masturbation: you couldn’t get VD (what we called STDs back then), you couldn’t get pregnant, and you didn’t have to make conversation afterward.  I don’t remember if she was also an advocate for oral sex, but she did tell us what it was. And birth control: oh, yes, she told us there was such a thing, and when we were old enough to do any of this stuff, we should make sure we were on it.

    I don’t remember being gobsmacked at the time, just glad that we had gotten a really good teacher who gave us whatever information we wanted.  Later in life, looking back, that’s when I was gobsmacked. And realized how lucky we were.

  44. 44.

    Ripley

    @brendancalling:

    My therapist asked me if I ever play my instrument “for joy,”

    I’ve always been wired for live settings, and generally don’t practice my instruments at all because I don’t get anything out of long tones or scales. I need to play live with other people. That’s where “the joy” is for me.

    But I had some great music teachers in my youth, and learned a lot by playing with other musicians.

  45. 45.

    Riodawg

    Back at work teaching 7th grade ELA in Albuquerque.  I think I have a good group of kids!🤗

  46. 46.

    stinger

    @Princess Leia: Deepest sympathy.I hope you’ll share more about your mom as you are able.

    ETA: I helped my mom (the elementary school secretary) run off mimeographs during my free periods as a HS senior! Unforgettable smell!

  48. 48.

    Bostondreams

    I spent ten years teaching high school. And it’s stuff like this that makes me miss those kids and those relationships so much.

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