For the duration of virtual instruction, students have been dealing with a lot on their plate, struggling to persevere through misfortune in their education and lives. While there is a lot of attention given to the students in the virtual classroom, teachers have been dealing with many of the same things. Teachers also have had misfortune strike while trying to adjust their entire teaching style in order to give their students as proper of an education as they can give.
The stress of having to change their course of teaching at the will of sudden changes in mandates, curriculum and guidelines has to be intense, especially given the uncertainty lurking every step of the way. Teachers are looking at, oftentimes, a wall of circles with initials all day and struggling to get their pupils to participate. This makes their job even harder as feelings of isolation from their students take a toll. As students, we cannot fully understand their struggles, but we can let them know that they are highly valued.
Two students from the National English Honor Society have their written letters displayed below to show their appreciation for the work that Loy Norrix teachers have been doing to educate their students. The students from NEHS are sending grace, compassion, and great appreciation to all of the teachers and staff at Loy Norrix for their strength, perseverance, optimism and hard work.

Dear Mr. Ward,
Thank you Mr. Ward for being able to teach under these circumstances. I appreciate all you do for every student. Thank you for encouraging me to get out of my comfort zone and compete in the state Deca competition. Thank you for nominating me for the outstanding senior award. I am grateful to have been your student for 2 trimesters even though they were online. I still learned a lot and had a great time being in your class. Thank you for introducing me to the business world. I used to not know what I was going to do with my life after high school, but after taking your classes, I realized that I want to pursue a career in business, [I] don’t know what specifically. Thank you for inspiring me to follow my dreams and challenging me to try harder and never give up, even if it seems difficult.
From,
Senior Ashley Garcia

Hey Mr. Greeley,
For teacher appreciation month, I wanted to write you a letter to show how much you being a cool teacher means to me. There is a lot you do that makes you really freakin cool and amazing but it is too much to write out, so I’ll just say a few.

To start, it is really apparent through how you teach that you actually really care about how we are and our success. I know it is hard virtually to see if we are getting it, and it is hard not getting feedback from the whole class, but it is still greatly appreciated that you check in and ask (even though we don’t really answer lol). Along those same lines, I love that you make learning the topics easy. The notes you give us are really detailed without being overwhelmed, and you explain the topics really well. I also appreciate that the notes have enough questions to give us a good understanding without being too many questions and becoming too much and boring. Also, I appreciate that you don’t give too much homework and that when you do assign homework that it isn’t more than like 8 questions. I know there is more, but that is all I can think of as I am writing, so I’m going to move on to outside of your teaching.

I really love SEL with you and the regulars (Skylar, Colby, and Ann). First and second Tri, I had SEL and it was outrageously boring. It really just consisted of showing up, the teacher playing a mindfulness or meditation video, then doing a slideshow/jamboard/pear deck, then telling us to go. SOOOO having you make SEL this Tri a hell of a lot more fun and not soooo boring was/is refreshing. I love that I can show up and have a nice easy conversion about how our mornings are going or something that happens the day before. Then go into a pear deck that is engaging and not too long, so that we can have our weekly “Among Us” game!!!!! I really love playing “Among Us” with you and the others. I don’t get much social interaction with others my age since my friends have lives too, and we are still in a panorama/panera bread/pandemic/whatever you want to call it.

So yeah, all in all, you are as far as I can tell a pretty cool person who I can see and truly feel is making a pretty hefty positive impact on mine and other students’ lives. For years I have been saying that Ms. Hampton, my 6th grade English Teacher, is my fav teacher (and she still is) but I think now I’m going to say you because I don’t know how many times I can say it without being repetitive and sounding disingenuous. You are a pretty fridgen good human being and teacher!

~Sophomore Tara Dean-Hall