Say “Thank You” to a Teacher!

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1. Paula says:

   May 6, 2019 at 8:50 am

   Thank you to all my teachers. I know I was a hand full at every juncture but you handled me, gave me a curiosity for learning and were a role model for me that lead to my career in education. To the most essential part of education, teachers. Love you all!

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2. Yvonne says:

   May 6, 2019 at 9:25 am

   Thank you to all my teachers.

   To my teachers, “Thank you for letting me fly under the radar and not pushing me to be noticed. I would have melted.”

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3. Yvonne says:

   May 6, 2019 at 9:26 am

   And THANK YOU, Dr. Ravitch.

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4. Bob Shepherd says:

   May 6, 2019 at 10:40 am

   Thank you, Diane!

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5. Bob Shepherd says:

   May 6, 2019 at 10:50 am

   And OMG, my other teachers? Give me a month. Or two. Just to name them. They were freaking amazing. So many brilliant, dedicated, learned, passionate, compassionate men and women!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you all. From Mr. Schimezzi in 5th grade–that great sage on the stage–to Don Gray in college–that model of the inquisitive, amused, skeptical, informed life-long learner. Thank you. No day goes by in which I do not think of you or use something you taught me, no day in which I fail to explore, further, some part that you first pointed out to me of the great garden of human achievement and experience or of the wilds beyond. Yes, there are Jabberwockies in those woods, but you have armed me well.

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   • LeftCoastTeacher says:

     May 6, 2019 at 8:03 pm

     “My other teachers,” exactly. I had great teachers growing up — I thank them posthumously — but my best teacher authors this blog. If it weren’t for Diane, I would probably be doing scripted online Common Core test prep instead of discussing meaningful short stories, poems, and novels. Thank you, Diane.

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     • dianeravitch says:

       May 6, 2019 at 10:20 pm

       You are welcome. You had it in you to love great literature.

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     • LeftCoastTeacher says:

       May 7, 2019 at 8:36 pm

       Nothing better than a great teacher with an avid reader for a student. This summer, I look forward to finishing or coming close to finishing the thirty-one Harvard Classics on the Five Foot Shelf I didn’t get to last summer.

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6. Bob Shepherd says:

   May 6, 2019 at 10:58 am

   And here’s the thing: it was never this or that, in particular, that they taught, though often, those things were quite memorable. It was always their personalities and passions–their particular ways of grappling with a subject. They were always, always, first and foremost, MOSTLY, models of what an engaged, intrinsically motivated learner looks like. We got the windfall of their passions, and we wanted to be like them.

   You won’t find THAT in a piece of depersonalized education software.

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   • Bob Shepherd says:

     May 6, 2019 at 10:59 am

     In the long run, kids don’t do what we tell them. They do what we do.

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     • Duane E Swacker says:

       May 6, 2019 at 4:53 pm

       Correction:

       “In the long run, kids don’t do what we tell them. They do what they choose to do. . .

       . . . for themselves. . .

       and rightly so!”

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     • Bob Shepherd says:

       May 6, 2019 at 6:30 pm

       Wondering, Duane, if you thought about the point I was making. Teenagers are individuating, and so they don’t, typically, consciously model themselves on adults around them. But later on, those models become their ideas about what a husband, wife, father, authority figure, etc., looks and acts like. OMG, they say to themselves at 27, I sounded just like Mr. Swacker when I said that.

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     • Duane E Swacker says:

       May 6, 2019 at 6:43 pm

       Interesting, the other week I spoke with a former student who now teaches Spanish and he remarked that he said things now that he heard me say when he was in class, things that he related to. (By the way he was transferred into my class mid-year from another class where he had supposedly clashed with the teacher-I never had a problem at all with him.)

       You are correct in that many, if not most students don’t consciously realize those influences.

       My point was mainly that even if the teacher is the most exceptional teacher in the world students will still do what they believe is best for themselves-sometimes in concert with what the teacher wants and other times not. I never felt a need to attempt to control that aspect of the teaching and learning process. I thought it best for the student to figure things out for him/herself, although at times I would attempt to help them clarify their own thinking and how their actions may not be helping their own desired being. Also remember that I taught high school students.

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     • Bob Shepherd says:

       May 6, 2019 at 6:56 pm

       Me, too. But high-school students are still toddlers in older bodies. I wouldn’t say that to them, but it’s true.

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7. Susan Lee Schwartz says:

   May 6, 2019 at 11:45 am

   Posted a link to this blog, https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Say-Thank-You-to-a-Teach-in-Life_Arts-Education_Educators–Teachers-190506-948.html
   and quoted Bob Shepherd in the intro:
   ‘
   Today is the start of Teacher Appreciation Week.Say thank you to a teacher you admire. Say thank you to a teacher who changed your life.Say thank you to America’s teachers.’ Comment by Bob Shepherd at this site: ‘And here’s the thing: it was never this or that, in particular, that they taught, though often, those things were quite memorable. It was always their personalities and passions–their particular ways of grappling with a subject. They were always, always, first and foremost, MOSTLY, models of what an engaged, intrinsically motivated learner looks like. We got the windfall of their passions, and we wanted to be like them.You won’t find THAT in a piece of depersonalized education software.’

   my comments there are
   What thrills me, are the many facebook and Linked-In comment that I get when a student ‘finds’ me, and often asks: R U MY Mrs. Schwartz?” Now in their thirties and forties, they remember me as the one who offered them something special.

   In the past, many students who graduated as honor students in high school, nominated me for WHO’S WHO AMONG AMERICA’S TEACHERS. But, it is social media where they find me, now.
   comment 2
   it is the reward for all the hard work, but is sad in the face of what happened to me, even when i was the was one of the most successful teachers of reading in NYS, and awarded the NYS English Council (NYSEC) “Educator of Excellence” award in 1998…
   http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html

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