Teacher Appreciation & Graduation Season: Recognizing (and Valuing) Education and Educators

Teacher Hero! Powered by student memories . . . and coffee. Here's to the heroes shaping lives.

It’s May. Here in New England, the apple trees are in full blossom, we're unpacking our warm-weather wardrobes, and two powerful seasons are in swing:

✅ Graduation

✅ Teacher Appreciation Week

It's beautiful, really. For a glimmer of time every spring, we remember to value education and educators. We celebrate our children's accomplishments and the professionals who lit their way.

I wonder.

Is that in fact how you see it? Do you view teachers as skilled, knowledgeable, highly trained professionals? If so, I hope you'll agree that valuing educator expertise is essential if we're going to rebuild strong schools when the cultural pendulum inevitably moves.

Valuing Teachers - My Strongest Lessons

Over the course of a decade, I had the privilege of teaching at a small public charter school where it was my honor to see my middle schoolers grow into high-school students and eventually graduates.

In its best moments, this mighty little charter was a place that trusted teachers as professionals - and that made all the difference for me because it gave me room to create and grow.

Because of that trust, I was:

• Provided opportunities to plan and collaborate with colleagues,

• Encouraged to try new things,

• Mentored in the delivery of exemplary student centered learning.

  
  

And from that environment, I learned and changed and improved as an educator. I crafted classroom experiences with lasting impact. Among those experiences, the one that former students mention to me most often is my unit on "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe.

Two Free Gifts

For Educators 🎁

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, I'm giving away my full Raven unit - designed with Universal Accommodations and scaffolded to reach every learner. The best way to ensure you get your copy, and don't miss a single resource, is to subscribe to my Garden Party for updates. Alternately, look right here at the Tongue of Fire blog on Friday morning because my unit is scheduled to drop on Thursday. It will include:

This feathered reader dives deep into tales of flight and feeling.

• Flexible scaffolding

• Multiple learning styles

• A final Socratic Seminar that empowers student voice

5/8/25 - ✨UPDATE! ✨

Sorry, friends. The bird is still cooking. Standby for your feathered freebie to drop next week!

In that seminar, students discuss and debate one haunting question: “Who - or what - is the Raven, and why is it there?”

My kiddos' ideas over the years used to set my mind on fire! So many AMAZING claims SUPPORTABLE by the text! Honestly, some of the ringers still live in my head rent-free.

Which leads me to the second gift.

For Graduates - Especially My Former Charter Students 🎁

Seminar is about students diving deep into a text based peer-discussion. For that reason, I never revealed my answer to the prompt du jour. But the middle-schoolers would invariably ask me, "Miss, what do you think the Raven is?"

For those who asked what I think: The Raven is the embodiment of a grief that lingers.

And my response would always be the same: "I'll be glad to tell you. After you graduate."

In recent years, a few students did approach me - after their graduation - and asked me what I thought. (Talk about teacher appreciation! Talk about warming my learning-nerd heart!❤️ )

Since the youngest kids who participated in that seminar with me are graduating from high-school this year, my gift to students is this:

My Answer, At Last.

I believe the Raven is the embodiment of the speaker's despair. 

Not just sadness, but a grief so real and profound it took physical shape. A sadness that won’t leave. That interrupts reason and refuses to be silenced.

Whether Lenore died, left the relationship, or was only imagined. Whether there is a physical Raven in the room or not - the speaker is pinned firmly under the weight of its torment. He says, "My soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor \ Shall be lifted, Nevermore."

Happy Graduation? 🎓🤔

Yeah, I know It’s a somber gift. But stay with me - I'm setting up for a counterpoint next week that is timely, relevant, and full of hope!

Not Free, But Well-Priced! & Still Really Cool

First-gen? On your own timeline? On your own terms? The Smuggled Sparks Class of 2025 Collection is here with deeply earned pride.

All of this talk about graduation and gift giving brought me back to the design table, recently. The result is a new limited collection for the Smuggled Sparks Store: Graduation 2025.

This collection honors effort and resilience with mildly-rebellious gift designs that give: it was hard, but it was so worth it.

Oh, and I still have a few of those RULEOF20 discount slots available, so be sure to use the promo code if you decide to shop!

Back to the Beginning: Please Trust Teachers

I couldn’t have built my Raven unit such as it became outside of a professional community that trusted teachers, that gave us room to collaborate and learn, that believed in our voice and vision. That recognized and valued teachers as professionals.

If we as a culture want our young adults to graduate with critical thinking and creativity intact, we MUST trust the people who guide them there.

That's why this week I celebrate:

• My students - past and present

• The teachers who shape the world

• And the sapling systems that allow both to grow

I'm well aware that these are dark times. Schools and teachers are under attack, and we know why. An uneducated population is easier to control and manipulate!

However, I hope we resist the urge to yield to that glossy corvid with a microcabulary - we don't have time for despair!

I say: hope is on the way.

Spoiler alert: we are the hope. Me and you.

Stay with me over the upcoming weeks, and I'll show you what I mean.

If you're interested, consider subscribing, so you don't miss a heartbeat.

Final Thought

If you’ve ever wondered what the Raven was really about, now you know what I think.

But the text supports a variety of answers, and I really want to know what you think?

💬 Comment below.

🎓 Share this with a grad.

🍎 Tag a teacher who changed your life.