As an experienced teacher, it’s easy to be so wrapped up in your own lessons, students, and struggles that you overlook someone struggling nearby.

But I realized experienced teachers can offer their colleagues encouragement and assistance. Becoming a mentor to a younger teacher is one way to help, but there are many little things teachers can do that don’t require training or a long-term commitment.

My colleague Laura Daley was a brand-new, very enthusiastic and devoted Spanish teacher. Her classroom was fast-paced, full of active learning, and quickly became one of the places students congregated before and after school.

But even for a high-energy teacher, the first year of teaching is an emotional roller coaster ride. In the beginning, you experience anticipation, excitement and insecurity. But soon this changes to a feeling of commitment, mixed with fatigue and frustration. By winter, you experience sagging spirits and disillusionment.

Laura experienced all of this during her first year of teaching. By the middle of the year, she became ill more and more often, struggling to manage the hardships of her first year with family pressures.

She was trying so hard to excel, the challenges were affecting her physically and emotionally. Laura felt overwhelmed and began to question her career choice.

“Did I make the right choice?” she asked herself. “Am I really making any difference? Do I want to keep teaching?”

As an experienced teacher who had been through similar struggles and come out on the other side, I wanted to help.           

The next time Laura was absent from school, I went to her classroom with a scrapbook and a tray full of colored paper, scissors, markers, stickers and other crafting supplies. Her students voluntarily wrote notes, letters, and poems for her in English and Spanish and made her a scrapbook full of messages of encouragement and appreciation.

Thanks for being a good teacher.

It was fun learning about holidays in other countries.

I really like it when we learn songs in Spanish.

Feel better soon.

It took no more than twenty minutes. We left the scrapbook on her desk for when she returned.

What a difference those few minutes of effort made! When Laura walked into the class the next day and saw the scrapbook on her desk, she first looked puzzled. She opened it, and a smile lit up on her face as she turned the pages and saw the messages her students had written.

For the rest of the year, Laura kept the scrapbook on a shelf by her desk. Her health and attitude improved dramatically. I could tell she felt re-energized, and she was even planning for the next year with excitement.

We ALL need our own ‘scrapbook,’ – a book, a file folder, or electronic collection of positive comments, notes of praise or encouragement, and even our own special memories written down - to help us get through the rough spots during the school year. Even veteran teachers experience the same emotional highs and lows after many years of teaching.

We owe it to ourselves and our students to encourage each other and remind ourselves that we are doing a great job. Start a scrapbook for yourself or a colleague today!