Teachers are a Gift!

This past weekend, I went into the basement and pulled out my Christmas decorations from storage and began the annual transformation – my home was soon filled with twinkling lights and the the smells of the holiday season. As we were decorating our tree, I couldn't help but think about all of the students I have taught over the years – after all, many of my ornaments are ones I received from students – I found one of the first dated 1989!  As I carefully unwrapped each one and hung it on the tree, I began thinking about not only the students I have known but the many amazing teachers with whom I've had the privilege to work alongside. This month's Snack is dedicated to YOU – to every teacher who has dedicated their life to making the lives of students richer through education. 

Whether you celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, the 8 Days of Hanukkah, the 7 Days of Kwanzaa, Three Kings Day, Pancha Ganapati, Winter Solstice, or the various other winter holidays celebrated around the world, this page is dedicated to celebrating the GIFTS that YOU bring to your classroom each and every day – Thank You!

Our school district has so many amazing educators who work with our students. I'd like to highlight a few to represent the many – the many amazing teachers who bring a wide array of gifts and talents to their classrooms every day.

Ms. Puglisi, Ms. Baker, Mr. Freytag, Ms. Shores, Ms. Roland

This team of teachers has a spirit of teamwork and collaboration that is truly inspiring. They meet with each other every morning to talk through their day and to encourage each other. When I am invited to meet with one member of the team, I am sure to find all of them at the meeting - including the special education teacher who provides services to the students in 2nd grade.  I asked them to tell me the secret to such amazing collaboration – they sent me a group-composed email with permission to change whatever wording I needed – I didn't need to change a word! "We plan and meet together daily. This allows us to share what we are each doing, to talk about what is and is not working, and to discuss ideas for specific students to ensure appropriate instruction. Not only do we support each other instructionally, but we look out for each other's best interest and support each other in the personal aspects of life. We are there to lift each other up and rub each other's back as needed. We set aside time and commit to each other's well-being - personally and professionally." What an amazing gift to students – a whole team of teachers fully invested in each other and the learning of all of their students.

If you visit Mr. Taylor's 3rd grade classroom, you will find that student voices have a prominent role in the classroom. Not only does he give them time and space to talk, but he amplifies their voices (literally!). During Number Sense routines, students share their ideas using a microphone - a real microphone! Student ideas can be heard throughout the room by everyone, and I couldn't help but notice how much more ownership the students had of their own ideas by having their voices highlighted and heard when using the mic. We have so many classrooms where student voices are encouraged and celebrated (even when it's not through the use of an amp!) – allowing students to be heard and celebrating their ideas are true gifts that we give to our students.

If you were a student in Mrs. Murphy's room, you would certainly know the Golden Rule to treat others as you hope to be treated and would definitely understand that your words should be used to lift others, not pull them down. Mrs. Murphy will be the first to tell you that, in her room, learning the content is important but it is secondary to learning how to be a good person and a community of kind humans. Mrs. Murphy helps her students develop a positive mindset each day by greeting every student who enters the classroom with a cheerful "good morning" as she calls them each by name. Of course, every minute of every day is not easy and the room is not devoid of behaviors that may make being kind a bit challenging, but Mrs. Murphy works purposefully to develop true relationships with each student so, when she does need to redirect student behaviors, she knows just the right approach to use with each student while maintaining an environment still rooted in kindness. The gift of kindness is one that all can offer and every one deserves.

Like so many teachers, Ms. Brown brings many gifts to her classroom. One of those gifts is the gift of structure. As a Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Brown teaches some of our youngest learners, and a room full of 5 year olds could easily feel like herding cats, as they say, but in Ms. Brown's classroom, there is a secure feeling of structure – of knowing exactly what to expect and what is expected. As I entered her room, her students were just returning from recess. They went straight to the carpet where a video was playing to help them to transition from the free range movement of playing outside to a more structured type of movement while they practiced counting and getting their minds ready for math time. After a few minutes of counting with Jack Hartmann, they helped each other get dry erase boards and markers to do a "before and after" number activity. The focal point changed several times as Ms. Brown changed her point of instruction with each planned activity. As she moved from place to place, she simply said, "swivel, swivel" and the students tracked her with both their eyes and body position. After a few brief directions about the day's groups, students headed off to four different learning stations throughout the room – there was a lot of movement but it all seemed like a choreographed dance, of sorts. Everyone knew what to expect – these were clearly established routines – and everyone knew what was expected of them allowing it to just flow. It is truly a gift to our students when we provide an environment that feels safe, where students have been taught the expectations, and a consistent structure is in place to help them feel confident and secure.

Want to come see a nice quiet classroom where students are sitting neatly in rows and listening intently to the lesson being delivered by the teacher? Then look somewhere else because that is not the type of learning community that Mr. Cox is striving to build among his students. In Mr. Cox's classroom, you will find a variety of flexible seating options that include some desks, some tables, and some hightop counters where students might even opt to stand instead of sit. Students are encouraged to talk to each other and Mr. Cox has been known to stir up a mathematical debate or two by posing questions that he knows will make some of his students analyze their own thinking. Last week, I found his students using cut up pieces of old overhead projector sheets (you know, the clear plastic sheets that have been long forgotten since the era of SmartBoards) to make "sliders" as they worked with decimals and multiplying by powers of ten. A few weeks prior to that, students were building rectangular prisms with Unifix cubes to create a structure that matched the details on their task cards in order to discover the missing dimension of the structure, and today I walked in to see his students moving throughout the room solving a variety of error analysis problems that centered around multi-digit multiplication. When we engage our students in their own learning, we give them the gift of ownership of that learning. It is well-documented that engaging students in the learning process increases attention and focus and motivates students to practice higher-level critical thinking – a gift that is certainly worth giving!

I just love visiting Ms. Torres' 1st grade classroom. It is a place that is filled with hard work and high expectations – but it is also a room of smiles and positive language. In Ms. Torres' room, students are embraced each and every day with words of encouragement that makes them want to strive for higher goals and achieve more. I recently spent just 10 or so minutes with Ms. Torres' class – actually, I was just passing through the library and they were there. Ms. Torres was working with students one-on-one offering personal feedback and instruction before making her rounds to those who were on the computers fully engaged in Dreambox learning. As she stopped by every single student's work station, students clicked on their progress monitoring button as Ms. Torres helped them to self-check their progress  – she offered just the right type of encouragement whether they were lagging behind or right on track. As she left each student's station, I couldn't help but notice two things: (1) every student seemed to work even harder to either meet the goal she set with them or to continue gaining her approval and (2) every student was smiling from the words of encouragement she had offered. When we encourage our students and help them to realize their own potential, we give them a gift that will last throughout their lives.

One of the most essential gifts that we can offer our students is the gift of patience. They are young – I mean, think about it... I have t-shirts that were born before most of our students. They are new to most things, and they really do want to do their best – but they may not always know how to do that, just yet. Patience is certainly a key ingredient when you work in education. So how do we give our students this important gift? I asked Ms. Brunner, a special education teacher working with several grade levels, because she always seems to take things in stride no matter how difficult the situation. Her approach is to begin by recognizing and celebrating all student growth because it allows her to focus on the positive and "when you are focused on the positive, you can't help but to be more patient." If focusing on the positive doesn't seem to do the trick, Ms. Brunner knows she just hasn't found the right fit (yet!) and it's time to start brainstorming for a new strategy or tool that will help her students learn and grow. And when all else fails, she says, "just take a few deep breaths and focus on moving forward."

Ms. Broussard is most definitely one of those "lifelong learner" types (I say this with the utmost admiration and respect!). Ms. Broussard is a phenomenal teacher – just ask any of the students that she has taught over the past 18 years or colleagues who have had the pleasure of teaching alongside of her. Despite her years of experience and success, she is still (and always) on a mission to learn more. Like others, she regularly attends the Wednesday night planning sessions – not to share what she knows, although she shares her knowledge freely – but to learn from her colleagues. She is equally eager to talk about an amazing lesson she taught yesterday or to learn about another approach or activity that she might try tomorrow with her students.  When she learns something new, it is difficult to contain her obvious excitement – but truthfully, why would anyone even try? An excitement for learning is contagious! When you think about it, lifelong learning is actually a double gift to our students: They "catch" our excitement for learning and because we now know more ourselves, we are even better teachers for them.

It is likely that as you read these vignettes, you recognized these gifts as ones that you and your colleagues bring to your students, too. You were, in fact, also a part of this story. Your photo may not have appeared in the article, but, as you are well-aware, it is simply not possible to teach without offering our students the gift of ourselves: our time, our talents, our hearts. As we head into the gift-giving season and then into the new year, let's unwrap all the gifts that we have to offer because the best gift we can give our students is being a caring adult whose goal is to help each student in our care become their best self 🎁