Send Last Year's Teacher A Note

This is my new beginning of the year tradition, and I recommend it to you.

Send a note to the teacher who taught your child last year.

As a teacher, you are really heartened by words of appreciation. Like many teachers, I had a file of notes from parents and students. Thank yous, appreciations, positive memories-- they meant a lot to me. That they were written down so that I could get them out now and then and just look through them was important-- you can't really get the same thing from a file of saved e-mails or texts. 

It's common to get these on a teacher appreciation occasion, or at the end of the school year, and they really provide a boost.

It's nice to end the year on a high note. But it would also be nice to get an extra boost as the new year begins.

In that launch of the new year, you feel anticipation and anxiety. What will this year's crop be like? What new hurdles will you face at school? If your previous year was not you very best work, you may wonder whether that was just a flukey result of specific issues of that year, or part of a trend that means you are starting to lose your edge. And if you have spent the summer hearing about how your kind are a bunch of selfish commie groomers who are ruining America--well, that's a lot of dust to shake off your shoes before you head back. 

What an excellent time to get a note telling you that you did good, that a student really benefited from the work you did last year, that you really have a handle on this whole teaching thing. What a good time to have something that can pump you up and remember that you can, indeed, take on the world. And what a nice reminder that a student who was, just a year ago, a stranger, is now someone who is glad they were in your classroom. And the extra beauty of this-- the teacher doesn't have to wonder if you are just trying to grease a path for your kid or not. 

So that's my suggestion. Send a note to the teacher(s) who made your child's last year a good one. It doesn't have to be long and involved, deep and profound. Tell them how your child is now better for having been in their classroom. Tell them that you appreciate their help in your child's journey to the person they are becoming.

Write it by hand. Stick it in an envelope and mail it to the school. If your district has already gotten under way, that's okay. The beauty of this is that as a teacher, there is never a bad time to get a personal note of appreciation from a former parent or student. Yes, there are other things to do support education, but this one is quick and simple and easy and will, I swear, make someone's world a slightly better place.