Teachers LOVE Teachers

Dear Teachers,
You are AWESOME! There is nothing I could say that you don't already know about how amazing you are - about how you literally put your blood, sweat, tears, heart, and soul into your job. As a colleague I know the tough job you have and see your struggles and joys everyday. I love how teachers support teachers - because there often isn't anyone advocating for us. You are appreciated, everyday, but it is this week that we make sure to show our appreciation. From one teacher to another - Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

I wish I could raise your salary, decrease your class sizes, give you all a personal secretary, give you access to endless supplies, and provide an on-staff masseuse. Instead, I hope you are showered with love from your students, administration, PTO, and your loved ones. Make sure to pamper yourself a bit too - I treated myself to a 90 minute massage yesterday. 

Although I can't give you all you deserve I do have some pretty cool freebies (see the link at the top of the page). I also have a few secret Fan Freebies on my Facebook page. 

Also, Teachers Pay Teachers is hosting a 2-day sale tomorrow and Wednesday. Get up to 20% at many stores and an additional 10% off with code TPTXO. I'm excitedly filling up my cart!

Thanks Michelle from The 3am Teacher for the lovely sale graphic. (I'm saving my pennies for one of her custom blog designs!!!)

Gift of Appreciation ^cubed

It seems like I can never keep track of all of those days/weeks of appreciation...you know, Administrative Assistant's Day, Boss' Day, Monkey Trainer's Day, etc. The resource teacher emailed me earlier this week alerting me to the fact that this past week was School Counselor Appreciation Week. Our school counselor is full of awesome. She and I used to have rooms right next to each other when she taught resource, but last year she moved up to the office as our counselor. Now, I am still super lucky to have her come to my room 3 times a week for my math intervention class. On top of all this her and I share a love for TV shows ranging from Downton Abbey to American Horror Story. We try to meet once a week to dish on the latest episodes.

Anyhow, we needed to have our intervention kiddos make something to show their appreciation, and I wanted to make sure that I didn't lose instructional time. Well, it just so happens that we have been studying 3D shapes and volume and I had already copied off a cube net on pretty pink. The idea hit and I knew what to do. The kids wrote notes and drew pictures on each face and then cut and taped them together. One girl even rushed back to her classroom for a piece of jewelry to put inside of her cube! We brought our cubes to the floor and used them to make some rectangular prisms and found the volume of each. Then we took a walk over to the front office. I sent a few kids at a time into her office and they built a rectangular prism of appreciation right there on her desk.

Today's Formula . . . Learning x Fun x Gratitude = Gift of Appreciation^3

I'm linking up with Head Over Heels for Teaching's "Spark Student Motivation Saturdays"