May 6, 2009
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Appreciation Season
It’s National Teacher Appreciation Week. You know what that means? Lots of extra stuff for a mom to remember from Monday to Friday!! Two different schools with two slightly different ways of celebrating the occasion. Which day do we bring fruit to add to the class fruit basket? And which school is doing that again? It would be weird to show up with a whole pineapple in the wrong location and try to shove it into that teacher’s class flower vase.
Our children do have wonderful teachers and we absolutely appreciate them, every single day. But as part of the Hallmarkization of America, we are encouraged to “do it up” for this one week of the year. And so we will make chocolate-covered treats, tote prickly pineapples in backpacks, clutch wilted flowers in little hands and make a stack of homemade cards for the many teachers the kids encounter in the course of a week.
It is sweet and I really don’t mind….but it would be so much easier to do one big thing on a given day of the week, and not have to remember all these little things each and every day. On the one day that is really gift day, we are not allowed to call it that. Instead, we are to call it “Small Token of Appreciation Day,” so as not to imply that students must bring in a purchased gift, but simply anything that they feel shows their appreciation in some smallish way. Have you ever heard something that so demanded the use of air quotes??? (In fact, our daughter did use the air quotes in relaying the information about this day to her dad. Hee hee!)
Oh, and it’s also “National School Nurse Day” or something like that, and we’re also encouraged to remember the administrative staff and anyone else in the school who might feel left out of being a teacher during such a festive week. Sigh. Lucky for me, this weekend is Mother’s Day and that’s really all about appreciation, too, right? Or as the lispy kid in Adam Sandler’s Bedtime Stories says, “demeciation.” (That’s right folks, I’m quoting an Adam Sandler movie. Sorry if this is getting a little too high brow for you.
)In conclusion…..be a sport. Hug a teacher this week. But don’t do it while the janitor is looking because she might feel “underdemiciated,” and we wouldn’t want that. There must be a Hallmark card here somewhere that says something about hurting the custodian’s feelings, though….right?
Comments (4)
This is a funny blog! I love it that your daughter is using air quotes appropriately…that’s really cute. They pick up things so fast. Hope you make it through the week ok
Oh and I love a good Sandler quote now and then. “Are you too good for your home?”
All the special recognitions just wear me out!
Where am I? (to answer your pulse post) Kind of busy catching up from teaching. We gave our final on Tuesday and I have been cleaning as much as I can (with the hurt back and all) because while it is great my BIL watches my kids so they are sick all the time from going to daycare, he DOESN’T CLEAN AT ALL. It accumulates.
So, when I homeschool my kids, can I declare a teacher appreciation week? That sounds like a good plan to me!
I will go hug a teacher though – you think I should tell them why first or just surprise them? (-:
One of the benefits of homeschooling is that I don’t have to worry about coming up with this stuff…hopefully the husband will remember to have the “students” show some appreciation for the teacher…
And in the advent that you do wind up with a pineapple for the class flower vase, well, whip out your trusty butcher knife (you know, the one you keep in your back pocket, along with supplies for the project due today that your child just informed you of), hack off the top, hollow it out, and you’ve got a vase for the flowers and a snack for the class.