Teaching Appreciation

It's coming up on teacher appreciation week. And it's true, I don't think I do enough to show my kids' teachers how amazing they are. Working on that.  Jen Hatmaker does a bang-up job of putting this in words. If you haven't read it, you should take a gander over there.

One of the things I value about S's teacher this year is that she's teaching the students to appreciate each other. I am especially thankful for this, as S was "the new kid" after Christmas break - our move caused her to switch elementary schools.  Here's how the program works:

S's Star of the Week poster

Every week, there is a "Star of the Week" in class. The poster comes home (BLANK) with the next week's star kid on Monday. The student fills it out (this is S's).  I'll put her responses in parentheses.  It contains stuff like how old you are (8), how you get to school (walking), who's in your family (mom, A, Whiskers & TicTac), what do you want to be when you grow up (art teacher).

It asks for your favorite color (purple), animal (cat), sport (baseball), school subject (math & music), food (chicken poppyseed).  Basic stuff.

Then it gets a little more fun / insightful.  How are you a star? (I help my friends when I can).  I show others I care by ____ (playing with them when they are alone).  And then you write 3 super-cool facts about yourself. (I was entertained listening to S debate for many hours which 3 facts to choose. We had a long list. Here are the winners:
1. I went to Tennessee by car.
2. In Australia there is a city named the same as me.
3.  I want to know more about King Tut.)

 Then you color it in, add a picture (or 4... ha ha) of whatever zings you.  Bring it back to school Friday morning.

  On Friday after lunch, you present your poster to the class.  And then for the Friday writing assignment, EACH student makes you a page to put in your "Star of the Week Book". They all write something they learned, or something they have in common with you, or something they appreciate about you. And they draw a picture. And the teacher assembles it into a little book (the star draws the cover for their book while the class is making the pages).  And your star gets to bring home a treasure of memories about what her classmates value about her.

Here are some of  my favorite things from some of S's pages (I left the spelling errors and excessive exclamation points in tact as that is part of the fun of 2nd grade)

* I love the Natinols too!!!
* I play baseball. You are cooooooooolll!
* I like purple too (this friend drew her a purple star with her name in it)
* I like the way you smile.
* You went to the Nationals first game that's awesome! (with a lovely drawing of S & A and 2 purple cats)
* Your a great friend
* WE DONE AWESOME ON ARE SHOW!!!  (reference to 2nd grade concert / assembly which was a couple of weeks ago)
* Did you find Nemo and Dory in Sydney?
* You are a very nice friend. I bet your a great big sister!
* You rock Sydney
* Your cats have good names

and my absolute favorite

*You have an amasing laugh

So, here's a huge shout out to S's 2nd grade teacher ... my superstar of the week this week ... who is taking the time to have her students learn to appreciate each other. We would all do well to take time to share with our friends, our colleagues, our community what it is about them we value or appreciate.