The world has learned a lot during 2020.  We’ve virtually all learned to Zoom, and most of us have learned to wear masks.  We have learned about the challenging social dynamics of a pandemic, as well as the fascinating world of toilet paper supply chains.  During this challenging year, the world has also learned how much it depends on teachers and schools.  As we close out 2020, it is not difficult to share a genuine thank you for our educational professionals.  

This Wednesday would normally mark our annual Teacher Appreciation luncheon, sponsored by our school governing board.  With distance learning and social distancing still in full swing, we’re foregoing the in-person tradition with the delivery of a gift to each of our teachers and other educational staff.  Our leadership team spread out all around San Jose on Friday afternoon to deliver thank-you baskets and a little dessert.  It was a small but heartfelt expression of our appreciation.

I am thankful for our teachers, who back in March made an overnight shift to teaching online.  Many have pointed out that this quick adjustment was not really distance learning, but rather was crisis teaching.  While that may have been the case initial, our teachers – and teachers around the world – quickly set about building their digital skills and capacity in order to design increasingly student-responsive learning environments online.  They taught each day while simultaneously mastering a new suite of online tools and software platforms.  

I am thankful for our teachers, who throughout the physical school closure have made extra efforts to make themselves accessible and available to students and parents who were either struggling with the content, or struggling with the technology to access that content.  Whether it was impromptu phone calls, one-on-one teleconferences, or small group help sessions or chat exchanges, our teachers made themselves available.   

I am thankful for our teachers, whose typical summer break was a somewhat more anxious retooling of their curriculum and instruction in anticipation of an undetermined extension of distance learning.  Crisis teaching in the early months of the pandemic were transformed into legitimate distance learning, as our staff deepened their familiarity with and confidence using digital tools to create increasingly student-centered and student-accessible content and learning environments.  

I am thankful for our teachers, who have been both digitally and emotionally present for students as our young people navigate their own anxieties, grief, and mental and emotional challenges associated with a worldwide pandemic.  When parents lost employment, when loved ones and family members passed away, or when the uncertainty of it all closed in around them, our teachers, counselors, and support staff were there to support and to love our students.  

When I listen to my mom or sisters talk about the challenges of teaching in-person and distance learning students simultaneously, or watch our Lincoln teachers huddled over their laptops teaching class while also passing out learning materials to parents in the pick-up drive-thru, I can’t help but feel a sense of appreciation.  It’s an appreciation for the sense of professional commitment to the educational well-being of young people.  Indeed, of all of the things that we have learned during 2020, one of the most important and most poignantly felt has been the powerful commitment our teachers have towards serving their students, regardless of the obstacles.