Appreciation Is The Best Gift To Teachers This Christmas

Lea J. Aguilar

Stress isn't new to us teachers. We’ve learned how to manage it day by day in the past. But with the COVID-19 pandemic, the stress comes with feelings of uncertainty and pressure.

As an outcome of the outbreak, the education sector’s routines and practices that were in place for decades have been changed overnight, overturned, updated, and dismissed. These changes have brought a very difficult task for us and affected our way of teaching.

Even after months of being thrusted into the frontline, we are still valiantly struggling. As a teacher, I know that many of my fellow educators are working well beyond the usual, even spending weekends refining instructional delivery and reviewing the next day’s online lessons. Many teachers sacrifice time with their own families to do this.

So, if you know a teacher or if you’re student or a parent, it would mean the world to us to simply appreciate our hardwork. No material gift will equal a heartfelt “Thank you” note or call as a gesture of gratitude this Christmas season.

With the gift of appreciation, we will be more empowered to navigate difficult emotions so that we can approach students, families, and communities with a greater sense of peace, purpose, and passion.

To my fellow teachers, I would like to thank you for being an inspiration. Thank you for being one of the special educators who will live on forever in the minds and hearts of the students whose lives you have touched. Let us keep on molding young learners into the best citizen they can be so they may all have a brighter future.

The author is Teacher

--oOo-

III at Bacolor Elementary School Proper