A letter for Teacher Appreciation Week

Thank you to every single teacher in the universe for showing up for your kids, but today as Teacher Appreciation Week comes to a close I mostly want to thank my teachers for showing up for me.

Every teacher has probably had moments in their career that they have no memory of, but that moment meant the world to a child. They will likely never know. My sixth grade English teacher gave me one of those moments.

I was a small child. Though I'm now above average height, my pediatrician didn't expect me to clear 5 feet, and at 11 years old I was built like a sapling and weighed less than a large dog. I stood out in a crowd thanks to my thick red hair, but only if the crowd was full of people as small as me.

The moment in question was the day after a class trip to Ocean City. My English teacher expressed a bit more enthusiasm than usual when I came in the room. "I'm so glad you're okay," she said. I waited, confused, as I wasn’t particularly worried about myself at the moment. "I saw you get on the bus yesterday," she continued, miming peering out the window, "and I thought to myself, 'Kate is so tiny, I hope somebody is watching out for her today so she doesn't get lost!'"

Watching out for me. I repeated her words in my head over and over. I may have been tiny, but I was also the oldest daughter, which means I wasn't used to being watched out for. I was the one doing the watching. The idea that watching out for me was on anyone's mind was something that felt like a miracle. I never forgot that moment that couldn’t have been more than 30 seconds, but it changed the way I saw myself, and it made me feel valuable.

So on this final day of Teacher Appreciation Week, thank you to every teacher who has watched out for me, and every teacher who has watched out for any child. Thank you for keeping an eye on kids, because they deserve as many people as possible paying extra close attention to them.

I received two lovely notes from students this week that made my year, so if you have a teacher to thank, it’s never too late to brighten their day and let them know that they are seen and appreciated and loved!