Teacher Appreciation Week

After Jen Hatmaker's term 'Maycember'

Hello Poets,

Does anyone wonder at the number of celebrations in May? If you follow Jen Hatmaker on IG, you’ll find a humorous diatribe of events a person (usually a mother) keeps up with in May. She calls it Maycember—far more packed than the winter holidays with:

end of school year parties
graduations
field days
Mother’s Day
Children’s Book Week
Teacher Appreciation Week
Mental Health month (serious subject but also…in May? hahahahahaha)

Good glory, if there are birthdays or anniversaries threaded amidst all these celebrations, you’ve got even more fun to juggle!

Teacher Appreciation Week is coming to a close. I’m grateful for the life this profession has provided me, as well as the appreciation I’ve received at school. I’m lucky to teach from a library, where I learn with and from literature written for young people.

My OLW this year is child. I’ve discovered some beautiful art that portrays children. Below are paintings that also portray teaching.

La Maestrina, by Ettore Tito

Teacher Appreciation

If this poem were about gratitude
it would be you feeling what I feel, 
as I wiggle each word
in these lines into their right spot.
It would include you not minding
when I erase, delete, scratch out, 
or re-write--
You understand
that neither ideas nor appreciation line up
                                                              straight.
If this were a poem about gratitude,
it would be you knowing the letters
that spell t-h-a-n-k y-o-u
aren't wide enough or tall enough
to hold its depth--
                          its breadth.
No matter what I do, 
or don’t
No matter what you say, 
or don’t, if this poem is about gratitude
it will find you feeling all
that I feel
about you
right now.

Linda Mitchell 5/8/26

The Terrible Miss Dove, by Haddon Sundblom

Thank you, Cathy, for hosting our round-up this weekend. I have so enjoyed your color poems!