“A lot of people think that teaching stops at 3:26 and it absolutely does not. I take not just work, but the emotions and the feelings and the stress of my students home with me. It’s hard to disconnect yourself at 3:26. It just doesn’t happen. A lot of people think your day is done and it just isn’t. [Teaching] bleeds into your evening and into your weekends,” said Jennifer Fischer, special education teacher.

Fischer has been teaching for 17 years and was recently the recipient of the district-wide Teachers Make a Difference award on April 18.

“I was completely shocked and overwhelmed and just overtaken with emotion,” Fischer said. “A student and parent wrote a letter into the district to nominate me. It was a student that I taught at Middle School North, where I taught before moving up to the high school, and then I taught him again here at the high school.”

However, this Teacher Appreciation Week, which ends today, teachers still enjoy the little things students do to let them know they are appreciated, according to Fischer.

“Not a lot can compete with being the recipient of the Teachers Make a Difference award. But it’s those little emails and those little, ‘hey, remember when we did this’ type things and how graduating seniors come back and tell us that we’ll always mean a lot. It’s the little things that matter to us,” Fischer said.

Not only do students try to thank their teachers during this week, the administration has as well, says Fischer.

“Our administration does a great job showing their appreciation. We had breakfast [on May 2] from Bear Boosters, we have ten minute chair massages two days this week, a gift from the administration. I think they really go out of their way to show us that they appreciate us for all that we do,” Fischer said. “A lot of my students have been coming up to me and thanking me. I got an email and picture from one of my other students, thanking me for helping her the last four years. I feel overall that we really do feel appreciated.”

Like Fischers thankful students, Greta Lilly, sophomore, baked cookies for her teachers on May 3.

“I feel like teachers aren’t valued as much as they should be, especially by our entitled generation,” Lilly said. “Teachers help mold our future and without them we wouldn’t know what to do with our lives. They deserve to be recognized.”