The other day, as our flight safely touched down, the entire cabin of passengers clapped for the pilot. The gentleman behind me said, “Hey, I wish that people clapped for me at the end of my shift” and I started to think about how we demonstrate our appreciation for a job well done, in the field of education. Do our students clap for us at the end of an exciting engaging lesson? Do we receive a standing ovation when we enter our classrooms at the beginning of the day?

Often times, in my role as an administrator, I receive lots of emails and phone calls about concerns, but every once in a while, I’ll get a call from a parent saying, “Thanks”. I wonder if they know how important those words of appreciation are?

I often ask myself, am I demonstrating enough appreciation for our staff ~ Do I tell them often enough what a great job they are doing day in and day out?

I am truly blessed to work with a number of staff members who demonstrate their appreciation in a variety of ways ~ cards, notes, cups of hot chocolate, gift certificates and of course, chocolate treats surprising me on my desk…smile

As I begin a new week, I’m going to make a concerted effort to “figuratively” clap for those teachers who land their planes safely every day. We all have days where the turbulence is more noticeable than others ~ days where we joke about “buckling our seatbelts as we’re in for a bumpy ride”. But at the end of each day, we safely land those planes and send our students home, with more knowledge and more curiosity than what they arrived with that morning.