What’s Right With Our Schools: Heritage High Teacher Appreciation

Ringgold, GA (WDEF) – Heritage High School has turned teacher appreciation into an art form. The many ways students show their gratitude is a great example of “What’s Right With Our Schools.”

Michelle Pettyes is an SGA sponsor at Heritage.

She explains, ” SGA does a lot of work for teachers during teacher appreciation week, and we do, we write thank you cards to our teachers. We serve ice cream to our teachers. We feed them at breakfast. We just spend the whole week doing different things to recognize them. Every year, the teachers say that this is the one thing that out of everything that we do for them the candy, the food, the treats, all that kind of stuff, it’s the thank you cards that mean the most to them.”

Jennifer Hamilton is the Chorus and Music Theatre Teacher at Heritage.

She says, “This week at Heritage High School is just one of my favorite weeks of the whole year. You know you work hard. You get in the routines of the everyday school day and then, you go to your mailbox and have a stack of notes from your students, and to me I would rather have notes from my students that say the things that they like about class, and the things that they appreciate about what what I do; more than anything else that they could do.”

Erin Lin is a Senior at Heritage.

She says, “A lot of the teachers, they don’t like realize how much of an impact they made in our lives,  and it’s nice like writing all these thank you notes, because we get to like really relive those memories that we’ve had with them.”

Paker Taylor is also a Senior at Heritage.

He says, “The teachers here, like firstly they are just great teachers. I think most importantly they’re very friendly here, and they’re very encouraging. Everybody here always feels like it’s a safe place, we’re at home where we can develop not only our like education but also our passion.”

Michelle Pettyes adds, “It gives us a little bit of affirmation for this is why I come in every single morning.  This is why I’m a teacher. This is why I do what I do, and they, they some of the cards and some of the letters that they fill out are very personal and very touching. And it’s a great,  every year the teachers say, ‘Thank you so much for doing this. I love getting the cards. They bring a tear to my eye. They, you know they made me feel so happy.’ And sometimes you don’t even realize you’re,  you get a card from a kid that you’re like wow like I never even knew that I was touching the kid in that way. And so it’s just something that the teachers love.”

Jeniffer Hamilton adds, “I appreciate these kids and the SGA and Mrs. Petteys. They work hard and and do a whole lot to really show that we’re important to them.”

Parker chips in, “Thank you. You’ve been more than just educators. I would say most of you guys have been friends.”

Erin concludes, “Thank you for all that you do. And we really appreciate you know, the close relationships we have.”