We haven’t been able to go to school face-to-face with our teachers in over two months now. It seemed like every high schooler’s dream come true. You couldn’t count the number of times in March I said something like, “I don’t want to go to school today,” or “When will this day be over?” Now that we’ve been stuck away from school for so long, I’ve come to realize just how much I loved being there. While there were a lot of reasons why I loved being at school,  a major factor was all of the incredible teachers at Eagle Valley High School.

Our teachers have always gone above and beyond to create relationships with us, the students.They do so much every day to make the lessons as fun and engaging as possible. We take them for granted, but now we’ve been away from them for over nine weeks.

In those nine weeks, our teachers have done so much to keep us learning and our classes engaging. My biggest fear when we moved classes online was that we weren’t going to get to learn anymore because there would be too many challenges in switching everything around. I was afraid that I wouldn’t get to see my teachers or my classmates anymore. In reality, our teachers have made the exact opposite come true. They continue to make lessons where we can be engaged and learn everyday, and there is not one of my teachers who hasn’t hosted a class online so we could all see and talk to each other.

During this time, I have come to realize how important it is to recognize our teachers and all of the hard work they are doing. That is why with the help of National Honor Society , we have created the Devils’ Treasured Teacher Award and the Devils’ Stupendous Staff Member Award. These awards give my fellow classmates and myself an outlet to nominate our  teachers and write them appreciative messages for all of the hard work they do to keep our school running.

I hope that this award will be a way for all of our teachers to see that we all appreciate their work and I hope it is meaningful for the winner. This is an award created, nominated, and voted entirely by students. Hopefully, it will become a tradition here at Eagle Valley High School. To all of my teachers reading this, thank you.

Carter Josef is the President-elect of the National Honor Society and an Editor-in-Chief of The Devils’ Advocate.