ATLANTA — 11Alive is honoring educators for Teacher Appreciation Week. Teachers have been to support their students throughout the pandemic and have been working all school year to help them bounce back from learning loss.
Michelle Donovan has been teaching longer than any other educator in Fulton County, according to the school district.
"People ask me that all the time. 'Why don't you retire?' And I said, 'When I walk in and I don't want to do it anymore, I'll walk out,'" Donovan said. "And that hasn't happened yet."
Donovan teaches kids with special needs at Mimosa Elementary in Roswell. She said, sometimes, she has to change her student's catheters.
"The last two years have been some the hardest, to get them back in sync," Donovan said.
That was the reality for teachers when the pandemic forced students to go virtual for several months. A student from the National Human Behavior shows students lost about 35 percent of their normal learning, during that time.
Wanda Wood has been teaching for 46 years. She's currently teaching math to multiple grade levels at Salem Middle School in Lithonia. And she agrees that the post-pandemic, education recovery has been difficult.
"We're still playing the catch-up game," Wanda said. "It was scary. Emotions ran high. It's just a lot of things going on not only with the students but with the teachers because we went home thinking we would be there only for a minute. And then, next thing you know, you're not going back."
Adding to the challenge, hiring teachers is getting harder. Data from The Learning Policy Institute shows more than 80 percent of states are facing math, special needs, and science teacher shortages.
Woods said educating is not a profession where you can cut corners.
"If you don't have the passion and patience to work with them, then let somebody else do it," Woods said. "And I know we're (in) a shortage of teachers, but we just don't need bodies in the classroom. We need dedicated people."
Donovan's daughter is now teaching by her side. During Teacher Appreciation Week, she said it's the little things that mean the most.
"I got an email from an old student's parent that is in high school now and that are moving. And they said, 'Can we get together and go out to dinner? We just want to go out with you before we up and leave.' That does it for me," Donovan said. "It's to know that I made a difference in their life."
If you want to support an educator this week, Donovan said you can give them a handwritten card or ask them what supplies they need, as teachers often pay for those out of their own pockets.