Feeling Appreciated!

I arrived this morning to find this cool banner hanging outside my classroom! I was so excited that it was green because that's my favorite color...then I started to notice that the other teachers' banners were their favorite colors too. That's when I remembered one of my kiddos randomly asking me about two weeks ago what my favorite color was! 

Those sneaky PTO parents had really put some effort into making sure that every teacher got a banner that was special to them. 

I also found this vase of carnations with a pile of notes from my kids telling me that I'm an "awesome teacher" etc. It's amazing what a little felt and a few flowers can do for your disposition! 

The free tacos at lunch didn't hurt anyone's mood either! It was really nice to feel appreciated. It definitely served as a good reminder as to why we moved here. Teacher appreciation wasn't really a priority at other schools I've worked at. 

After working 8 years in a pretty disadvantaged area in a school system that was too big to support all of its schools, where portable classrooms were the norm and I had to commute 45 minutes both ways...I finally moved to PA with my wife. 

I've worked happily for my last 5 years in my small university town school district. It amazed me when my new colleagues complained about how there weren't enough books in the book closet (I couldn't believe they HAD a book closet!) I couldn't believe we didn't have copier limits, had people to make our copies and laminate for us, had paras in classrooms other than Kindergarten, could attain tenure(which you can't do in GA), most of my kids have parents who actually care, etc. 

Over the last 5 years I've definitely started to take some of those things for granted. So in the end...being appreciated at school has actually just made me appreciate everything I have in my school.

I hope everyone else out there feels appreciated too! Felt banners or not, I know that your students appreciate all you do!