Break out the confetti and cupcakes—Teacher Appreciation Week is here! This blog is dedicated to honoring the incredible teachers who expand the minds and futures of students every day.
We would say you work “tirelessly,” but we know you do get tired. The thing is, you also get back up and do it all again, year after year. We hope to show our appreciation not only by seeing and honoring all you do, but also by doing everything we can to make your jobs easier.
Here are just a few of the contributions you make to student learning, five (or more!) days a week:
Building a foundation of literacy
Literacy is at the heart of education. As teachers, you’re the gatekeepers of this essential skill—you teach students the magic of letters, sounds, and words, while also guiding them to engage with the facts, ideas, connections, and new worlds literacy connects them to. In doing this, you create magical literary environments that inspire students to grow and thrive.
Using the science of teaching reading
It’s not just that you teach reading—it’s how you teach it. You use evidence-based practices to help students become confident and capable readers. You may have even worked hard to shift your classroom, school, or district toward instruction based on the Science of Reading. The Science of Reading changes lives, and so do you.
Bringing science and literacy together
Scientists can’t do their jobs without reading, writing, listening, and communicating. You excel at your job by helping students learn like scientists, using literacy skills to obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the natural world.
Bridging the knowledge gap
You work to make sure that all students are exposed to high-quality instructional materials and rigorous content. That way, they’re not just learning skills, but building knowledge—which in turn builds even more. You expand and add to the knowledge all kids bring into the classroom.
Meeting the needs of all students today
Equity in education comes in many forms, but it starts with recognizing the strengths and potential of every student—such as the power of multilingual learners to learn and excel in more than one language at once.
We appreciate you every day, and so do your students. We bet that after they graduate, when someone asks them to describe a teacher they still appreciate, it’ll be you!
More to explore
Learn with and from other top-notch educators like you through our family of podcasts.
Listen to Science of Reading: The Podcast now
