Celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week: the power and importance of teachers

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, we’d like to celebrate all of the teachers we’ve had the privilege to work alongside at Springboard Collaborative. We asked our staff to reflect on what makes teachers so special and how truly important teachers are. Our CEO and Founder, Alejandro Gibes de Gac–a former teacher himself–sees teachers as “change agents who can unlock children’s learning potential and families’ teaching potential.” 

Why we teach

Just about every educator can point to an inspiring event or situation that set them on their life path of teaching. Nicole Muller, Program Director, recalled:

“My grammar school teachers made school a warm, happy environment that was filled with learning. When I began my teaching career while completing graduate school, I was placed with a Lead Teacher that was an incredible role model. She demonstrated strong classroom management skills, content knowledge, and truly cared about our students as individuals. The classroom culture reminded me of my childhood classrooms. I was lucky enough to see this both through the lens of a student, as well as a newly aspiring teacher.”

Keo Chea-Young, Assistant VP, Academic Research & Design, arrived at a similar point along a very different path:

“Growing up poor, I had viewed education as the only path out of poverty and toward security. Formal education had been completely abolished during the Khmer Rouge period. When we were children, my father made chalkboards to teach us how to read and write in Khmer. So, I had only wanted to be a teacher. Right out of college, I ended up becoming a teacher in the same Philadelphia community I had grown up in. The parents and caregivers couldn’t believe that there was a Southeast Asian adult in the school, just like them. The rewards and challenges that I had faced as a refugee child, a former ESL student, teacher, and coach are all experiences that I try to bring into my role overseeing content at Springboard Collaborative.”

 

Teaching with power and inspiration

At Springboard Collaborative, we’re a learning community that supports over 2000 teachers each year to further develop their ability to engage families as partners in teaching and learning. We inspire and learn from one another, growing through our practice even as we help our students learn and grow. Kara Martinez, Learning Designer, talks about one of the important lessons she’s learned from teachers:

“Teachers are motivated by the desire to help students be successful. When I realized that my teachers were never out to get me, that they each had the desire to challenge and push their students to be successful, my outlook on school changed. I wouldn’t be a successful individual without the push of several teachers.”

Mary Paranac, Executive Director, offers this dramatic and heartfelt analogy:

“I think teachers have one of the most complicated jobs on Earth. To paraphrase an adage, the only job that’s as complicated is an ER doctor during a humanitarian crisis, where they are diagnosing and treating a disparate group of dozens of people at the exact same time. Teachers do that every single day. And Springboard teachers not only do that with children, they do that with families in the room at the exact same time. So what amazes me about teachers is the ability to have spinning plates on more fingers than they have on their hands, and to do so in a way that makes it look easy.”

The most important job in the world

Here’s Nicole Muller’s perspective on why teachers’ work is so crucial:

“They are framing the future of our society. I firmly believe that our students are the keys to the future, and teachers have the ability to empower them and unlock their social, emotional, and academic potential in limitless ways. When students have the ability to read and write independently, they have the power to change the world.”

A world without teachers?

What would the world be without teachers? Kara Martinez has a word for that unlikely state:

“Boring! Each teacher is unique. They have different styles of teaching, favorite activities for their class, and stories to tell. When children learn from so many different individuals over the course of their schooling, they are also interacting with different types of people, hearing different stories, trying different activities, and experiencing different personality types. Learning about and meeting different people through the lens of school is exciting and interesting!”

Teachers appreciate teachers

If you could send a message to the special teachers who inspired you as a young student yourself, or in your own teaching practice, what would you say? Keo Chea-Young offers us two moving examples:

“To Mr. Lee, my ESL kindergarten teacher, thank you for visiting my home and chatting with my parents and grandparents. Thank you for calling on me even though I never wanted to speak or never raised my hand. It forced me to start speaking and practicing English. Speaking — even when I didn’t want to — built my confidence.

“To Springboard teachers, I have walked through classrooms and witnessed the care, compassion, and brilliance you bring to your teaching. I also know that, outside of those walls, you put in many unseen hours preparing for the next day. Thank you for the commitment that you show to each child and family. Thank you for finding new ways to engage students and families despite continuing challenges. You have the power to change the lives of each of your students and to impact the trajectory of not only their lives, but the lives of families and whole communities.”

We’d like to end with this heartfelt, eloquent letter from Angie Leuchtmann, Senior Learning Designer:

“Dear Teachers,

“The job we do is rewarded in differences made throughout a lifetime. We don’t always get to visibly see the immediate positive impact we make because teachers have the distinct opportunity to change entire lives. Differences are made in the big things we do, like fully designing curriculum or participating in long hours of discussion to fight for what we know is right and true for kids; and in the small things we do, like showing kindness to a child whose grown-ups let him down. Teaching is a difficult job, much like juggling ten tennis balls while putting a sweater on a kitten, but it’s one that changes the world in ways we can’t even imagine when we walk into our classrooms, drop our three bags, and take a deep breath. My wish for you is that your teacher’s heart can assure you again and again that what you do is important and needed in this world. I hope that your heart remembers that, even though you may not see the difference you are making presently, you have likely planted a seed that can grow into a life better lived.

“Most sincerely,
Angie”

Teacher appreciation: far more than a week

At Springboard, we continue to be awestruck by and grateful for your passion and compassion, your hard work and creativity, and your ongoing strength to meet challenge after challenge. During Teacher Appreciation Week, we’d like to express our sincere thank you for EVERYTHING you do, and our appreciation doesn’t stop there. A single week out of the year just isn’t enough recognition for one of the most challenging and thankless professions in our society. We hope more people will join us in honoring and celebrating our teachers all year long.