Teacher Appreciation Blog

Do you have problems at home sometimes? Are you being bullied? Or are you a bully yourself? Do you feel alone and abandoned sometimes? Or do you have things on your mind that you can’t take anymore, but you don’t want to tell your parents? Well, you are probably not the only one; there are many other students who often feel like they are left alone in the cold.

Well, I am quite sure there is always one teacher in school that you probably really trust and like. My advice to you then is to bite the bullet and go to that one teacher to ask for help and advice. Teachers always seem to have a good point of view or solution for problems. Of course, they probably have had some experience with other students with issues or difficulties before or they might have had same kind of problems when they were younger themselves. I know they will appreciate your confidence in him/her. Try it! You will feel better after a while.

Did you ever bite the bullet and go to a teacher to ask for help? Tell your story and motivate the others to go too!

Like Christmas is being celebrated in December in the United States, Sinterklaas is being celebrated in the Netherlands and Belgium. The feast celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas on December 5th. This is also the night that Saint Nicholas brings presents to families with children.
Saint Nicholas sits on a white mare and his assistants are called Zwarte Pieten, meaning: Black Piet (a Dutch name). They are black because they seem to walk on top of the roofs of the houses and enter through the dirty chimneys in the houses to put the presents in the shoes (not socks as with Christmas). Children always leave some water and carrots for the horse and sometimes a little note or poem for Saint Nicholas.Families with children who do not believe in the existence of Sinterklaas anymore celebrate this feast by doing ˜Surprise’. Every member of the family buys a little present for the other and wraps it in a nice way. Popular ˜surprises’ are handicraft made from shoe boxes, cardboard, plastic, old newspapers, etcetera. Popular outsides look like computers, large pens or stuffed teddy bears. It all depends on your imagination! Many children like to tease the ˜lucky one’ by putting gel or beans in the creative wrap. A nice poem is crucial to complete the package.
Also in schools all children make ˜surprises’ for each other, mostly the teacher is involved too. December 5th is one of the biggest feasts for the Dutch children. No class is given and during this month the most popular cookie-like candy are pepernoten, sweet spicy nuts.
Making a ˜surprise’ might be a nice idea for you to wrap your present in for your teacher ¦ Write your ideas or ask for some to make your ˜surprise’ the most attractive!

I was looking on the internet to find some examples of how students celebrate Teacher’s Day. I saw that there are for example movie theathers offer free tickets to teachers. I would love to hear some specific examples like the previous one. I am from Belgium and we donÂ’t have TeacherÂ’s Day there. Examples of you could help me to understand it better. Thank you!

In the Netherlands no such thing as an appreciation day exists. Only on the teachers’ birthday, students bring presents. What is remarkable in the Netherlands is the so-called ADV-day. It means shortening the labour hours. Â

In many companies a fulltime labour week used to contain 40 hours, but this week is shortened to 35-38 hours per week to increase the number of jobs for the workless people. Think about it, when twenty people work less hours per week, it brings in a new full-time job. The collected over hours are changed into frequent days off. Therefore many people see this as holidays for the teachers; however this is not the case. For example you cannot collect the unused ADV-hours and take them to the next year as a holiday, in stead they expire.Students in high school do not really notice ADV-days off because their schedule already consists many free hours due to teacher illness but most of the time self study hours. But students in primary school are always very happy with the ADV-days off. Of course, then they have more time to play with their friends or do sports or other activities.Â

Do these days also exist in your school? What is it what you like to do on your day off? And how is teacher’s day celebrated in your country? I’m curious to find out!

Except to the world teachers’ day, a lot of countries have their own special date to show appreciation to their teachers.

Presidents’ birthday

In India, teachers’ day is celebrated on the 5th of September, the birthday of former president Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. Before becoming president, Dr. Radhakrishnan was respected teacher of philosophy, religion and ethics. When he became president in 1962, his students decided to honour him by celebrating teachers’ day on his birthday. Dr. Radhakrishnan replied that it would be a privilege for him to celebrate his birthday together with the national teachers’ day.

Celebration

People in India don’t have a day off on the 5th of September. Students and teachers go to school but the normal classes are replaced by special activities. One of those is students dressing up as their teachers and taking over the lectures. In this way, the teachers and students understand learn to understand and appreciate each other’s position a little bit better.

Teacher Appreciation Blog is presented by Internet Advantage.

Internet Advantage is specialised in internet marketing and web promotion for the education sector. With this blog we would like to pay tribute to the quality work of teachers around the world.

Contact us: education@internetadvantage.org

Here you will find interesting posts about Teacher Appreciation.
Be on alert for new entries.