Jill Halligan is the principal at Cora Thomas Elementary School in Rosenberg, Texas. She, like many of us, has gone through a lot during this year.
So have the teachers who work at her school. She finally went to Facebook to express her thoughts and gratitude. It turns out that she wasn’t alone. A lot of people understood where she was coming from, and her one simple Facebook post immediately went viral.
Going viral for all the right reasons
The principal’s post now has 23 thousand likes, and more than 43 thousand shares on Facebook.
It’s a simple photo of a teacher hard at work, along with some text. It starts like this:
“What I saw brought me to tears…
This is MY teacher. 💕 I have 66 more just like her.”
Jill then goes on to explain that the end result that students and parents see is only a small fraction of what teachers are doing to keep their classes going throughout the pandemic:
“What YOU see is a teacher working on a screen with a class full of students on the other side of the screen.”
Beginning to see the whole picture
It turns out that her teachers are actually doing a lot more than just that (as if keeping the attention of a class via a computer wasn’t hard enough!).
The principal continues her post:
It takes a lot of effort to get all of the materials together, present them, view student work, respond to questions, and give instructions and guidance. It’s hard enough when all of the kids are together in one room. With them staying at their homes all over town, the challenge only grows.
These teachers have been ready to accept that challenge. The important thing to them is reaching out to and connecting with every student.
And the dedication and care
Jill ecstatically explains just how happy she is with this teacher (and all of the other ones). She talks about the dedication, enthusiasm, and the skill that it takes to keep an entire class engaged when they are learning at a distance:
“They are consistently saying her name wrong, and she smiles and responds with delight.
You can FEEL her love for them in her voice and you can witness her patience as she teaches a lesson on similes, metaphors and onomonopeia. Her content is ON POINT and she delivers it seamlessly.”
The principal goes on to describe a class full of students who are all engaged despite having to do the lesson through Zoom. That really is an accomplishment. All the teachers out there know just how much of a struggle it can be to keep students focused when they’re at home with so many potential distractions.
And the workload
Sitting at the computer all day may seem easy in theory. A lot of people have recently learned that may not actually be the case. Using the internet to teach classes can actually take a whole lot more preparation, time, and effort. It also takes a whole set of skills that aren’t necessarily taught to future teachers in college.
And our appreciation
Teachers deserve our appreciation, even when there isn’t a pandemic. They work all day tirelessly, they have full classes to teach, and they need to reach each student to help them discover their potential.
That’s a lot even without the added complications of doing it all online.
The principal sums it all up perfectly:
“They are bearing a HUGE weight in all of this that most of you will never comprehend, much less understand.
If you know a teacher- continue to fill their buckets… every dang day… they need it every dang day.
If you are one of my teachers- I could not be more proud of each of you! You make my heart sing and I SEE YOU. ❤️”
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