‘I’m only one person, what can I do?’ and she found an answer. Write letters of encouragement to the teachers.
“I’ve been so caught up in everything that’s going on in the district. I know there’s so much turmoil and unhappiness. I go to every school district meeting that I can. I talked with someone who used to be a teacher, and she said that she would send a thank you letter to her child’s teacher whenever he would make the honor roll. I woke up the next day and thought: what if everybody sent a note to their childs’ teacher, just a ‘Have a Nice Day’ or ‘Hope you have a good week’ or ‘Thank You’?”
Michelle then thought about how she would tell everyone about this idea, and she started posting the idea to her email list.
“I started going through my email list, and sent an email about this to everyone whose address I had.
“Even the people that don’t have kids in school, even thery know a teacher, so why not ask everyone to send a note to a teacher? she said.
The text of the email Michelle Holmes sent out was:
‘I have decided that in light of all the negativity in the School District of Fairfield County that we should all try to boost the spirits of our teachers. I would like for everyone to write a note of encouragement to a teacher. If every parent wrote a note to his child’s teacher - they would know they are appreciated by the community. If you don’t have a child in the district, I know everyone knows a teacher and EVERY teacher needs encouragement.
Please help me - forward this to everyone you know. Think how nice it would be for a teacher who doesn’t know from one day to the next what to expect to get an unexpected note of “thanks” or “have a nice day”.’
Her response has been positive. Several of her email correspondents wrote her back and said it was a great idea and they’ve already written to a teacher. Some of them said they didn’t know any teachers, so Michelle sent them the links to the school website, told them they could pull up the faculty lists, pick a teacher and just send a letter to that teacher care of the school address.
Holmes didn’t send the letter request to the teachers on her email list, because she didn’t want them to feel like they had to send letters, she wanted them to get letters from the community.
And email was not the preferred form of communication, she said.
“I personally think handwritten notes would be a lot more effective in showing our encouragement and support. A handwritten note is more personal,” she said.
And a handwritten note is more tangible evidence of support.
“Let’s say one of the teachers is having a horrible day, and then they get a small, handwritten note, and maybe, it would make their day a little better.
“We have 3,520 students in the district and 335 teachers in the district. If the parent of every stu8dent sent a teacher a note, they would really know how much we support them and they’d really feel loved,” she said.
“Those teachers have our kids for eight hours of the day. We can really let our teachers know how much we appreciate them.”
If you’d like to send a note to a teacher, visit the school district website at www.fairfield.k12.sc.us, click on the “Schools and Calendars” link, then pick a school, pick a teacher from that school, and send a note of encouragement.
What can one person do? It may not be much in the overall scheme of things, but it will mean much to a teacher.
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