Appreciating Teachers – INC Giving Project

Teacher Appreciation Everyday

Name your favorite teacher. Can you picture them in your mind? Why are they your favorite?

Here are little-known facts about teachers:

Teachers spend $1.5 billion annually on school supplies
67% of teachers buy snacks for their students to help with basic nutrition
29% of teachers buy bathroom products for students like toilet paper and toothbrushes

Teachers are extraordinary beings! They spend their lives raising, guiding and molding dozens of individuals each year so that they can be successful in their own lives. And though there’s a whole month set aside to thank them, they really do deserve a thank you everyday.

Join us in recognizing your teachers by sharing why you’re thankful and using #INCGiving on your posts in social media. And even though Teacher Appreciation Month is over, let’s keep celebrating them all summer long by helping them prepare for a new school year!

Here are 3 easy ways you can help teachers:

Support A Teacher Buying Pencils And Markers For Her Class [or tissues, sanitizing wipes, hand sanitizer those are always needed!]
Sponsor a School Supply Drive – Get your friends and coworkers in on the action. Contact a local school and find out what they need for the school year and get the word out.
Visit https://www.donorschoose.org/, an organization that helps make it easy for anyone to help local schools and teachers with a variety of projects including purchasing bilingual books for the classrooms, building classroom libraries and collecting art supplies for future projects.

Contributed By: INCGiving Project Team

Thank You To My Teachers

As soon as I arrived at my school, I told all my invited teachers not to forget that it was Teachers Appreciation Day! After school, I got dressed in a clean uniform and I felt excited that I would be able to perform in front of my teachers. I went to the house of worship, where the event would be held, and I was surprised that Ms Gillooly, Ms. Balendran, Ms. Mac and Mrs. Cox were already there.

I went straight to them and warmly greeted my teachers. I saw people at the chapel gallery, while some were busy preparing the refreshments. Overall, it was a great place to be – everyone was smiling and teachers were entertained by the students. Finally, it was time to settle down because the program was about to start. I felt nervous and waited patiently with the other kids.

For the opening number, we sang the song ‘Never Turn Away’. I saw my teachers’ facial expressions, and they seemed happy and impressed with our performance. That gave me a feeling of relief and joy because we sang with all our hearts!

There were a few more songs performed by the older children. All were meaningful songs because they were taken from our Church music albums. I think it also helped that the lyrics were shown on the TV monitor because I could see teachers reading them at the same time. When we were not performing, we would either clap or dance along to the music. It was fun!

Another great part of the event was playing a game where we would guess some Filipino words that made it the Oxford Dictionary. The teachers watched a short video about these words that were flashed up along with their meanings. Whoever answered the correct Filipino terms would win an INCGiving bag! I was impressed by how attentive the teachers were during the game, kind of how we must look when they are teaching us!

“When Jordan invited me to Teacher Appreciation Day I was both humbled and honored. The confidence and dedication shown by the children as they performed was inspiring. It’s moments like these that remind me why I chose to go into teaching in the first place. Having an impact and making a difference in the lives of young people is what teaching is all about, and these children really did make me feel appreciated. What a special and worthwhile event! I can’t wait for next year!” – from Georgina, Teacher

For our finale number, we danced with excitement to the tune of ‘All Around The World’. Then, it was time to hand-out certificates to our teachers for helping us with our education. Before receiving the certificate, each student got to meet their teacher at the front and give them their very own ‘No.1 Teacher’ badge as a souvenir. Then, we had our pictures taken, and I think we all felt very proud that day! When the event was over, I was happy with myself that I was able to give something back to my teachers in my own special way.

Thanks to the Church and INCGiving for making it happen!

Contributed by: Jordan Sison, UK

A Token of Gratitude

Saturday April 23, 2016 was Teacher’s Appreciation Day. Members of my locale of San Gabriel Valley, including myself, came early to help set up tables and food, and also to help out with registration tables, decor, and sound checks.

Some of us, Binhi, were rehearsing our performance since we were the first group. Our performance was to be in sign language.

Soon Brother Ruben De La Cruz, Sr. led the opening prayer for the program. Afterwards, Brother Feodor Fermin and Sis. Neszille Manuel made a brief introduction and then they called us Binhi to start our performance.

We performed the song called “You Have Made A Difference.” It was to show our teachers that we appreciated everything they did, the sacrifices they had to make, to make a difference in our lives. The fun part of the performance was that we performed in sign language as mentioned before. It was quite interesting, considering that it was the first time for some of us to use sign language.

Usually it is the teachers who take care of the students. On this day, the young members of the Church wanted to show their gratitude and give back. A game of Family Feud was played with the teachers and church members. Each question was related to school work, supplies, etc. We also recognized the teachers and gave them supplies to help because there are often shortages. The final performance was rendered by the CWS and some Binhi members singing “You’ve Got A Friend In Me.”

To close the event, a spiritual and inspiring message was given by our Resident Worker Bro. Andrew Taaca. Like always, we open an activity with a prayer to guide us throughout and end it with a prayer to thank God for the success of our activity. – Contributing Writers: – Allysia Paige Fermin, 12 years old, 6th grade, CWS & Kirsten Gemeniano, 12 years old, 7th grade, CWS.

“My teacher, Mrs. Toran, came to the event. She is my History teacher, and she even was my brother’s English and History teacher a few years ago. I invited her because I truly appreciated her effort in teaching me, and because she is one of my favorite teachers.” – Kaleia Mei Gamiao, 12 years old, 7th grade, Binhi

“Teachers get a bad rap on television. For you guys to take time out of your day, we’d like to honor you, for what you do, because it means a lot, and I want to say Thank you, Mrs Nakano. I was very glad and happy that my 2nd grade teacher came. She is very nice, kind-hearted and most of all very patient. Not once that I’ve seen or heard her lose her cool. She goes above and beyond to help us.” – Allysia Paige Fermin, 12 years old, 6th grade, CWS

“It’s important to appreciate teachers because they work hard to teach children even those who don’t want to listen most of the time. They go through a lot of troubles in school and in their own lives. We think being a teacher is pretty self-explanatory. You teach kids to learn the way of life and how to do things in certain circumstances. I feel like more kids today aren’t really appreciating teachers enough other than the teachers who make class fun, although they should all be appreciated. But what about the teachers who try their best to teach kids who are always interrupting and noisy? Would they be counted as nice teachers? Or would they be counted as bad teachers because of the kids who don’t appreciate the teacher? The same goes to substitutes. I’ve been in a lot of classes where the substitute is trying to keep everything under control but the kids are just too noisy and the substitute has to raise their voice in class to keep everyone quiet and listening.

I chose to invite Mr. Silva because he’s one of those teachers. Mr. Silva is a funny teacher but he could get ticked off and yell at us because of some argument that’s going on. There are kids who I don’t think appreciate Mr. Silva for his comedy or the way he teaches. Well, maybe his comedy. But I really do appreciate Mr. Silva taking out his time in the day just to teach kids about science, engineering and robotics. Mr. Silva is a kind of teacher who appreciates his students telling him jokes or just telling him what they’ve learned in school or even maybe just having a casual conversation.

I recognized Mr. Silva at Teacher’s Appreciation Day because I wanted to show how much I appreciate him. I also treat him as a close friend that teaches me about science and engineering which he was once taught in his life. Mr. Silva is a teacher who makes class fun and interesting with the fun facts and the tips and tricks he has up his sleeve then reveals to us to make it easier on us. But it doesn’t make it easier for him. Mr. Silva gives us things to make it easier on us, We students should do the same thing since we don’t really give teachers back what they give to us. Teachers are always caring to their students, they do their best to give us what we need and use in the future.” – Cason Gemeniano, 14 years old, 8th grade, Binhi

“I had invited 2 teachers for this event; Ms. Chong, my science and homeroom teacher, and Ms. Canales, my math teacher. They are from Telesis Academy of Science and Math. I invited my teachers to this event because I feel they needed to be recognized as great teachers. They have made my school year the best so far and they make learning fun. They are teachers who I can reach out to anytime and they will always help me.

Once all the teachers and students were up in the front, I was introduced by Brother Feodor to come read the cards I made for the teachers I invited. My second short speech had some people laugh. My brother, Cason was then called to read his card to his teacher that he invited. I believe that his short but funny speech got more laughs than mine. The teachers were given the opportunity to speak. The teachers who spoke had said compliments about our event. They thanked us for having a day just for them.

Everyone was having so much fun that they still stuck around even after the closing prayer . So I decided to take pictures with my teachers along with my brother’s teacher.” – Kirsten Gemeniano, 12 years old, 7th grade, CWS

Contributors: Sister Donna Gemeniano, Sister Allysia Paige Fermin, Sister Kirsten Gemeniano, Sister Kaleia Mei Gamiao, Brother Cason Gemeniano, San Gabriel Valley, California