In case you haven’t heard, it’s Teacher Appreciation Day, and this is Teacher Appreciation Week.

I don’t know about you, but I have a long, long list of teachers to thank, beginning with my kindergarten teacher, all the way up through my college professors and all the teachers and instructors I’ve met since getting my degree.

Long before that, in the days before I could read or spell, I became a writer – though my scribbles didn’t do much to prove it!  Eventually, with help from my mom and my grade-school teachers, I learned how to print and was able to write down all the stories floating around in my head.

But I first became a “published author” 🙂 thanks to my fourth-grade teacher.  She encouraged me to continue writing, told me I would be an author someday, and read one of my handwritten stories to our class.  Then she passed it – clipped into my hand-drawn cover, no less – to all the teachers to read to their classes, too.

I’ll always be grateful for my teacher because, along with the encouragement, she gave me the chance to believe in myself.

Not too long ago, I worked in a school district (in a non-teaching position) for seven years.  This put me directly into many classrooms and gave me an insider’s view into many teachers’ work days.  As a result, my hat now goes off to every single one of the men and women I met, as well as to all the teachers whose classes I’ve taken.

If you see a teacher this week, give her or him a smile, a “thank you,” and maybe even a hug.  They deserve the best of everything!  

All my best,

Barbara