Tribute to Teacher's Everywhere

I have to divert from my usual "travel" blog to tell you about my last few days. Let me tell you the last couple of days have been real eye openers.

I have a new appreciation for elementary school teachers in particular, but also teachers everywhere. I guess I never thought about how all those beautiful and creative school rooms came into being.

My cousin Janice, who is a former teacher, and I have been helping 2 of her friends set up their rooms for the start of school next week.

First we helped Debbie who is a terrific 1st grade teacher. She is so organized. Janice made sets of sticky labels for each of the children as well as other useful labels to save teacher time writing them out. For this age group, she uses a system of numbering everything the kids use. Each child gets a specific number so that when an item is misplaced, the number gets the item back to the right child. I numbered all kinds of things, from pencils and markers to Halloween type rubber finger tips, which are used by the children to read each word individually. You have no idea of how much money she spends on her classroom. She bought so many interesting and creative things to help the children learn. Debbie is so animated when she talks to children. I bet the kids love story time in her room. Teachers are just amazing people.

Yesterday we spent the day helping set up Laurie's forth grade class. She is new to this school, so the job is even more daunting. Walking down the school halls, it looks like moving day. There are so many empty boxes in the halls.

Each room has 3 large bulletin boards and a 10 foot long one in the hall. Each one is covered and set up using the teacher's creativity to incorporate learning in interesting ways. Laurie created one of the bulletin boards as "All about Me". Eventually, it will contain something about each of the children, but she started it with things about herself. The kids will love it. She even has her baby picture on it.

The school does supply large rolls of colored paper to cover the bulletin boards, but I noticed that many of the teachers supply their own coverings to complement the theme of their board. Many use fabric. They are a very dedicated bunch of people.

I helped put the children's names on a multitude of things. By the time I was finished, I knew every child's name in the class. Every child gets a take home bag the first day of school with all the information parents need.

Janice used her organizational skills to arrange and label all the supplies, which was no small job. The paperwork for teachers is, in my opinion, obscene.

I guess there have been a lot of budget cuts since I had kids in school, No more school nurses. Now, teachers are expected to test the blood of diabetic children and administer insulin, if needed. That is a tremendous responsibility for them and in my humble opinion, should not be their job. I always believed that teachers were there to teach, not be nannies or nurses. Their job is too important to be diluted by other tasks.

So here is a big THANK YOU to all teachers everywhere.

Until next time..................