Minnesota Teacher of the Year

The most moving aspect of receiving the Teacher of the Year award has been the emails and letters that I’ve received from former students. For two weeks, letters and emails have been coming in from everywhere. I’ve gotten calls from Japan, emails from New Zealand, and letters from all over the United States. Many of them go beyond simple congratulations to tell a story of gratitude that makes me feel like the luckiest teacher on earth. If I ever get frustrated with a bad day now, I have a stack of letters I can read to pick me up, to keep me going. To all of you who have gotten in touch: thank you.

I wish, however, that more teachers could experience this, that it didn’t take a reason for former students to get in touch with their teachers. A teacher generally comes into the profession wanting to make a difference, and a letter from a former student telling a teacher that they did make a difference in a student’s life is incredibly uplifting. I am no less guilty of not writing to former teachers than anyone else is. I have three teachers that I have always wanted to say thank you to but for some reason I never have. I’ve resolved to write them in the next few weeks.

So I encourage you, if you’ve got a teacher that made a difference in your life, let him or her know. Get in touch. Most teacher email addresses can be gotten from a little poking around on school websites. It doesn’t have to be a formal letter, an email is fine. It doesn’t have to be long, just a short thank you with a reason does fine. The teacher’s level doesn’t matter: teachers at all levels would love to get such a letter. It doesn’t matter if you think the teacher doesn’t remember you. You’d be surprised how often they do remember, and the fact that they may have forgotten you doesn’t lessen the impact they had on your life. So make some time to say thank you to a teacher that helped you. Make a teacher’s month.