Teacher Appreciation Week

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week, and I want to begin with the simplest thing: thank you.

Thank you to the teachers across Osseo Area Schools who show up every day for our students. Thank you for the lessons you plan, the patience you bring, the encouragement you offer, and the ways you help young people see they are capable of more than they realized.

So much of a teacher’s work happens in moments that may seem small at the time. A comment on a paper. A few minutes after class. A little extra help with a concept that has not quite clicked yet. A reminder that a student belongs, that they matter, and that someone is paying attention.

Those moments can stay with a person for a lifetime. I know because they stayed with me.

I think about my 8th grade honors language arts teacher, who challenged me to think more deeply and helped me understand the power of words. I think about my chemistry teacher, who made a difficult subject feel possible and showed me how much confidence a good teacher can build. I think about my high school choir director, who helped me find my voice, not just musically, but personally. And I think about my college English teacher, who pushed me as a writer and helped me keep growing long after high school.

These educators did more than teach a class. They helped shape the person I became.

One of the great gifts of my life is that I am still in touch with all of them today. That says something about the kind of impact teachers can have. Their influence does not end when the semester ends, when the final paper is turned in, or when a student walks across a graduation stage. A great teacher can become part of the foundation a person carries forward.

That is why I believe supporting educators has to be more than a nice thing we say during Teacher Appreciation Week.

If we value teachers, we have to show it in practical ways. We have to listen to them. We have to respect their professional judgment. We have to make sure they have the time, resources, and support they need to do the work they came here to do. And we have to take seriously the pressures that make it harder for talented people to stay in the classroom.

In practical terms, that means doing the work to recruit and retain strong educators, support fair and sustainable compensation, reduce unnecessary administrative burden, and make sure teachers have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect their classrooms.

But it also starts with something more basic: remembering that teachers are human beings doing deeply human work. They are helping students learn, yes. But they are also helping them grow in confidence, curiosity, resilience, and a sense of possibility.

This week, I am grateful for the teachers who changed my life and for the educators serving Osseo Area Schools today. I am committed to supporting them not only with words of appreciation, but with the respect, care, and thoughtful leadership their work deserves.

Great teachers change lives.

I know that because they changed mine.

— Max Maher