To our children’s elementary school teachers and staff:
During Teacher Appreciation Week, we encourage our kids to honor you with drawings, notes and flowers, but as we count down the last month of our decade as a Mann family, we wanted to express our thanks and let you know how much you’ve meant not only to our kids, but to our whole family.
Looking back, especially with the added perspective we now have as middle-school and high-school parents, it’s amazing how quickly those 10 years passed. Ten years of freezing cold and scorching heat on the blacktop. Ten years of Olympic Days, read-ins, birthday books, variety shows, fundraisers, fun fairs, science fairs, crazy hair days, art projects, and PTO meetings. Ten years of clapping wildly at band, orchestra and chorus concerts. Ten years of dreading calls from the school nurse. Ten years of parent-teacher conferences and curriculum nights. Ten years of our children’s weekday hours spent as much with you as with us.
Thank you for teaching them by example how to be kind, patient, and curious.
Thank you for taking the time to truly known them as people.
Thank you for tying their shoes, reminding them to put on hats and coats during recess and helping them keep track of belongings (mostly).
Thank you for the lessons on poetry, presidents, punctuation, math facts, the Constitution, geography, cultural perspectives, and civil rights that shaped them into who they are and who they’ll become.
Thank you for comforting our children when they were upset, and complimenting them when they’ve earned it. Thank you also for pushing them harder when you knew they could do better.
Thank you for helping us to handle the occasional classmate drama — for knowing when to step in and when to hang back and let them figure it out.
Thank you for keeping stress to a minimum during standardized testing and the Common Core transition.
Thank you for embracing technology to reach them and for helping us stay current too. (I still don’t tweet though.)
Thank you for balancing your work with your own families and studies and keeping an outwardly positive attitude despite the many D97 challenges and changes that have come your way.
Thank you for making learning a lifelong habit.
People who work with children usually do it because they want to make a difference in a child’s life. We just want you to know that you have. You deserve all the respect and benefits that go along with the valuable work you do:
Michael Arensdorff, Kelly Baird, Katarina Beck, Nurse Cam (Niederman), Rosemarie Dagostino, Claudia Deia, Beth Diviacchi, Margaret Garcia, Vincent Greco, Jim Hayward, Aaron Jerkatis, Anna Kinnan, Nimisha Kumar, Allison Lamb, Sam LeDeaux, Michelle Lottie, Wendy Musselman, Rosa Ordaz, Colin Reynolds, Nicole Pryor, Richard Rollo, Nurse Rhonda, Kathy Rolfes, Deborah Sarno, Joshua Schmidt, Brian Shannon, Nancy Tomb, Cristen Vincent and Susan Winston.
We are grateful for you and we’ll miss you.
Carrie & Steve Bankes
Oak Park