I am writing appreciation letters in spirit of teacher appreciation day. Mr T!

I’ll say something people don’t want to admit. You are one of the best science teachers in our school. Your assignments are always fun and you’ve opened my eyes and opened so many doors in science for me. I used to hate science but ever since you came around and became my teacher everything changed. I love science now because of you and your take on learning that is actually interesting like sketching and noticing the small things in stuff rather than just reading off random textbooks.

Thank you for being you!

I'm not sharing this email to brag about how I am loved so much as I want to reflect on what it means to actually appreciate a teacher.

I like getting pizza, cookies and ice cream and whatever other swag people want to throw my way during Teacher Appreciation Week.

But these trinkets don't hold a candle to the gesture of an email like the one above. I will remember this message for the rest of my life.

The last line is what will stay with me:

"thank you for being you."

Work is a funny thing; we get hired for our perceived strengths but then are mostly evaluated on our perceived weaknesses.

That's just the nature of systems - they try and standardize, set pacing schedules, post syllabi, all in the name of efficiency and transparency.

But no student has ever written a note to a teacher that said "I really appreciated how you managed to stick to your pacing calendar all year and kept your LMS on point."

This is broadly true but it seems to play out most strikingly in schools:

Systems try to limit variability but humans value idiosyncrasy.

I will always remember how:

  • Mr. Schwartz said things like "you bet your bippy sir" when a student got something right. It was such a weird phrase and I wanted to hear him say it, which made me work harder at translating Latin.
  • Eric required us to write down questions on a note card about the human body for sex ed. He would read the serious questions out loud (while skipping the joke questions) and answer them as a class so we could all learn what we needed to know without feeling embarrassed (a technique I shamelessly stole for my biology class).
  • Mrs. Torres lined us up by the coat closet to practice for mini spelling bees -whittling us down until we had a class champion. I never studied harder for a spelling test than I did for her.

    The humor, the excitement, the passion, the unique gifts are what are most valued but they are the hardest to measure.
Another Beautiful Message I Received

I recall reading that 50% of teachers leave the profession within the first five years of teaching. I understand why. The job can be very difficult and workloads and pressures can be tremendous.

I suspect a big part of the retention challenge comes from the feeling that we are all interchangeable. There is a growing feeling that we are just vessels for assisting in the efficient retrieval of information.

Learning is a messy process but there is absolutely a part of learning that occurs because of the emotional connection young people develop with a teacher. This is the part that can't be quantified and so it is the part that is mostly ignored whenever we talk about challenges in education.

It seems to me like schools would benefit from trying to view their teachers the way our students see us. That would go a long way towards making us feel genuinely appreciated.

The classes were all ups for me kiddo!


The students who wrote these notes specifically mention sketching, noticing small things, and changing their relationship with science.

Honestly, that’s part of why I wrote Sketching for Science in the first place - to help transform how we approach science as a subject.

Not to teach students how to draw beautifully, but to help them slow down, observe carefully, and experience science as something creative, joyful and personal.

If you’re interested in those ideas, you can learn more here:
https://www.sketchingforscience.com/book

PS if you're lucky enough to still have contact with a former teacher who had an impact on your life, let them know how much of an impact they made on you. It matters to much to each of us.