show your
appreciation BY ERICA RIMLINGER
Teachers Had to Rethink Everything This Year.

Let’s Rethink How We Thank Them.

28 Washington FAMILY MAY 2021
energy they were asked to bring to the
classroom every day.

The Big Class Gesture
The first graders in Martha Edwards’ class
rose to this challenge in February when
they planted her front yard with handmade
yard signs, each of them sticking out of the
snow with colorful well wishes for Edwards’
50th birthday.

The 17 signs that dotted the yard were
all decorated on both sides. One student’s
sign read “Happy Blue Birthday!” because
they knew that “blue was my favorite color,”
Edwards says with a laugh.

A first-grade parent, Kerry Vayda,
arranged the surprise. “She wasn’t a room
mom,” says Edwards. “I didn’t have the
heart to ask anyone to be a room mom this
year. She lived in my neighborhood and
organized the whole thing.” Vayda even
conspired with Edwards’ husband to time
the late-night sign delivery after Edwards
went to bed.

“I’m not a crier,” says Edwards, “but that
made me weepy.”
How did parents know about Edwards’
birthday? Well, online school has at least
one benefit.

“This year the parents really know me,”
CSA IMAGES/VETTA/GETTY IMAGES
2020-2021: EDUCATION WAS
TOUGH FOR PARENTS,
STUDENTS AND
TEACHERS ALIKE.

THE 2020-2021 SCHOOL YEAR WILL BE
long remembered — without nostalgia.

Whether your child’s school was held online
or followed a hybrid schedule, education
was tough for parents, students and
teachers alike.

Early childhood educators were asked
to teach kids they’d never met in person.

Kindergarten teachers had to capture and
hold the attention of an age group with
notoriously short attention spans — from
a screen. Some teachers lost data and
school days to hackers and ransomware,
while others had their Social Security
numbers shared on the dark web. And many
were teaching while their own children
were learning virtually from another
room at home.

But somehow teachers got it done,
persevering through a sudden process
overhaul, endless technology glitches
and the seemingly insurmountable
hurdle of connecting with students
through a computer.

While a coffee shop gift card may have
seemed expressive enough in past years,
teachers who survived this challenging
school year perhaps merit a bigger thank
you, or at least one that employs even
a fraction of the creativity and positive