As we look ahead to Spring, I am filled with gratitude for being part of such a loving and caring community here at Berkeley Hall.
I’m sure you were aware of our Fabulous February initiative this past month and like so many of our BHS parents, you probably found a way to express your love and gratitude for our teachers. This can be a difficult time for educators for a number of reasons and 2022 was no exception. In addition to the day-to-day demands of working with children, our BHS faculty along with teachers everywhere, faced COVID-related issues and increased student needs resulting from the pandemic.
With this in mind, our leadership team and I thought this would be a perfect time to invite our families to show appreciation for our teachers. Given the outpouring of love that we saw from all of you in the past few weeks, it seems you all agreed.
I especially want to thank our dedicated Berkeley Hall Parents Association and Room Parents, who turned February into a month of celebration. They created all kinds of opportunities for families to make our teachers feel special and shower them with love. There were flowers, treats, hand-written notes, and more in every classroom. Many grades held pizza parties or shared treats, and 8th graders even raised money for a tree planting in honor of their teachers. The generosity and thoughtfulness from our families was humbling, but not surprising. It was also well-deserved.
After all, we are awed by our courageous teachers, who manage their classrooms from nursery to 8th grade with so much empathy, kindness and grace. Every day, they motivate their students with endless optimism, flexibility and creativity, as they lay the foundations for lifelong success.
As an educator myself, and someone who has worked in a variety of schools I can say that the BHS faculty are some of the hardest-working teachers I have ever known. They not only show up fully, but always go beyond the requirements of their job.
I witness our teachers put countless extra hours of planning into their work, and dedicate weekends to community activities or admissions events. On a recent Saturday morning, our Middle School Science teacher and master gardener, Mr. Brown was on campus with parents and other staff members, spreading mulch around campus as part of a sustainability initiative. Others have spent many hours during this admissions season introducing their subjects to prospective parents.
Our teachers also never stop looking for ways to better themselves – many are currently pursuing masters’ degrees and some are even working on their PhDs. All of them put time into their professional development and growth.
But what I find most impressive and unique about our teachers is the way they practice and model our core values. They truly place the students at the center of the school experience, and approach them without limits or labels. They see every student as whole, complete, and inherently capable, and believe that they are already equipped with all they need to learn and grow. As educators, they are absolutely dedicated to facilitating and guiding the discovery and learning process for each child. And they do it all with lots and lots of love.
So thank you, fabulous teachers for making our school special. You deserve this show of appreciation and so much more. And of course, thank you, wonderful BHS families for always being willing to bring our community together, and for turning a simple idea into a “wow” moment.