Last week was National Teacher Appreciation Week! As a Catholic School teacher, I usually am unaware of this week, as we quite often celebrate a Teacher Appreciation Day during Catholic Schools Week in January. This year I had to take notice.
Last fall I began a new teaching job with the St. Joseph Catholic School in Martinsburg, Missouri. This is a small, rural, conservative community, supporting a school for Pre-K through eighth grade and an early learning center. The campus is quite large, hosting a huge church, nice sized school, and house converted for the Early Learning Center (my guess is the house was probably the convent in years past), and a large rectory. The students enjoy a nice playground area within sight of the rest of this rural town. The train rumbles by, a block and a half away, several times a day, and you can smell the grain dust from the elevator two blocks away. Literally it is small town America! Heaven!
As the school year progressed, I found myself enjoying the art of teaching again, and have truly enjoyed my year as the new kid on staff. Christmas brought very generous gifts and lovely cards. The Home and School Association is very generous with their support, and not just financially. Parent teacher conferences are productive and, for the most part, uplifting for all involved. The staff in very relaxed and easy to work with, working hard to raise the bar and teach the students to excel.
The 40 minutes drive to and from has been a blessing. Beautiful country, lovely sunrises, and time for me to gear up for the day or decompress before reaching home. I know where to watch for deer, which roadways freeze more quickly than others, what time to watch for the school bus in the morning, and what fences tend to let the cattle free range graze along the road. Again, heaven.
So as the school year is coming to a close and things get hectic, I was not paying attention to Teacher Appreciation Week. Then the celebration began! A hot homemade breakfast was delivered to the school office for all teachers to enjoy on Monday. Each day afterwards a new culinary delight was presented for lunch! Students and parents arrived with gift baskets of goodies and gift bags filled with items to show appreciation for me being a teacher in their school. I felt so blessed each and every day. Friday was topped off with the Home and School Association delivering hanging flower baskets, the largest I have ever seen, for each staff member. It truly was like Christmas in May.
In response to the generosity I experienced, I was feeling very appreciative of this small community I found by happenstance last spring. It was a week like I have never experienced. Thank you, St. Joseph School families.
No comments:
Post a Comment