Teacher Appreciation Week

One of the sites I follow on Instagram is Teacher Misery, which shows and discusses some of the outlandish or horrible things teachers have to suffer through.  My own district is run by idiots, but at least they don't (yet) seem malicious.

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week, and there are some posts on Teacher Misery that just strike me as complaining to complain.  Who among us hasn't gotten some cheesy piece of candy with a pun?  It's the thought that counts, right?  Such tokens may be silly, but at least they usually come from a good place.  I asked there, what would be a good gift?  What do you want?  I got replies like "cancel a meeting" or "cover my class so I'd get an extra prep period".

I thought about that last one.  My school has 4 administrators and 80+ teachers, 4 1/2 counselors, and dozens of aides and secretaries and other staff.  If those 4 administrators covered a class just for teachers, they'd have to cover 20+ classes each.  Doesn't that sound a bit unreasonable?  After all, they have their own work to do.  It would be a nice fantasy, but it's not realistic.

I don't know how much or how little my school's administration has worked with our PTSA this week, but those parents have been feeding us every day.  Today they held a barbecue after school for us!  I mean, come on, that's pretty generous!

This has been a relatively smooth week for me, and all the extra food has certainly helped.  Now I need to go get some steps in to work off some of those two burgers I had today.