September 2020.

Teacher’s Day!

If you are a Western teacher, I bet you have never heard of Teacher’s Day. It is a special day where teachers are praised by their administration as well as their students. You don’t believe this can even be possible? So listen…

• So now imagine a day when arriving at school at 7:30 in the morning, you are welcomed by students in procession who clap and great you with a special handmade “happy Teacher’s Day” pendant, that they wrap around your neck as a welcome gift.
• Imagine a day when getting in your classroom, a student comes and serves you a special breakfast plate with fresh pancakes and gives you a “teacher’s certificate” in your name stating you are “an angel that keeps calm in any situation and shows your students the light” (and of course the message is personalized for each teacher).
• Imagine a day when your desk is filled with gifts from your students: tea mugs, cookies, candies, flowers, notebooks, silk purses, fans… some with personalized messages.
• Imagine a day when you are shown a video that was made by the students with special ‘thank you’ messages.
• Imagine a day when you are ushered to the assembly hall where the students have prepared a special meal they serve you at a table, while entertaining you with songs and music they perform.
• Imagine a day when you are shown a surprise video that features your family members sending personal messages to you. All of the foreign teachers had not been able to go home for more than a year with the covid lockdown. Luckily, they had not reached out to my family, as I am new to this school. I would have cried my head off! However, they recorded a student’s personal message stating how they loved the French class!
• Imagine a day when the students entertain you with games, contests, dancing, singing and you just need to relax and enjoy.

  No, this is not a dream, this happened to me at my school in Laos. Don’t be jealous. This is all part of the emotional roller-coaster a teacher has to go through.