May 7th is Teacher Appreciation Day.
Kathy Vetter, President of the Wyoming Education Association, taught elementary through high school students in Wheatland during her 30 years in the classroom. She says that teachers’ responsibilities have changed as students’ own roles have changed. “When I started teaching,” says Vetter, “going to school was the student’s job. Now, that’s only one of many jobs students have, that they have to divide their time amongst—and so there’s more pressure on the teachers and the students.”
Standardized tests, larger class sizes, and new technologies are now major components of the teaching profession. But, says Vetter, none of these things diminish the joy of seeing a student’s understanding grow.
