“As a parent, these are all of the things I need to say thank you to teachers for today.”

Hey there adviser, educator, instructor, coach, tutor, guide, mentor, trainer, teacher; whichever you identify with, I just wanted to say a big thank you!

Today is World Teacher’s Day and it is a day that we need to not just say thank you but we need to SHOUT it! We need to SHOUT it because the fact is, teachers out there are truly the unsung heroes of society.

Why?

Because they are a group of professionals who work tirelessly and dedicatedly and who are rarely thanked adequately or really given the recognition they deserve through conditions, salary, value or respect. Because they work day in and day out with the next generation of our society, the people we value, love and respect the most, our children.

What else is more important than that?

For hours each day they are actively engaging with often up to 25 children at a time. All of whom are often from a wide range of backgrounds, cultures, personalities, needs, abilities and moods. And in addition to this, who are going through the biggest emotional, intellectual, physical and hormonal changes that they will ever experience.

Now not only do teachers somehow get an entire class of these ever changing/growing/developing/different children or teenagers to follow instructions but they also teach them skills, knowledge and lessons that will shape their future and prepare them for the world.

Unlike most jobs, teaching isn’t 9am to 5pm. It is all day (and often nights), even on the weekend and even on school holidays. Yep, sorry to ruin that perception of teacher’s relaxing at the beach enjoying a cocktail every ten weeks, it just doesn’t happen.

Teaching doesn’t just miraculously appear when the bell rings; it takes preparation, research, thought and passion. It involves developing lessons that will ensure those 25 sets of eyes are watching and the 25 pairs of ears are listening. Teacher’s spend hours of their time making sure their content is relatable, creative, imaginative, authentic, informative, accurate and fun. It isn’t “turn to chapter three in your textbook”, it is thorough and personalised activities and tasks developed specifically for the children they teach.

Then once they have taught their classes and the hours of work preparing for Monday’s class is over, they do it all again. And in between those times they will check their student’s work, not only do they give grades and scores, but to provide comments and suggestions of how to fix problems or how to improve. They offer positive feedback about what has been done well and they will record this to observe how the student is developing and learning.

In between classes they will pop on attractive fluro vests and wander the war zones that are the school yard. They break up fights, try and segregate displays of ‘true love’, they dodge basketballs and footballs or whatever else is flying their way. They follow the scent of cigarette smoke into toilets or in the back corners of the school grounds and hope that by the time they have arrived that the source has disappeared.

They do all of this in rain, hail or shine, often multiple times per week.

Teachers often become inadvertent social workers and psychologists who can be the only solid role model that some children have in their life. Teachers build trusted and strong relationships with their students, often for years of the most influential period of their life. They will hear about family breakdowns, tragedy and struggles, friendship squabbles and boyfriend/girlfriend dramas. They listen as their students share their dreams and aspirations and actively help them achieve them.

They are surrogate parents to our children when we are not there. They console them when they’re upset and look after them when they have hurt themselves or are sick. They can be the first adult they come into contact with in their day or the last before they go to bed.

Teachers are event planners, travel agents, tour guides, book keepers, sports coaches and first aid givers. The list goes on and on.

This is why we need to SHOUT thank you, this is why we need to SHOUT it as loud as possibly can. THANK YOU TEACHERS AND HAPPY WORLD TEACHER'S DAY!

Do you have a teacher to thank this World Teacher's Day? Tell us about them in the comments section below.