Pretty soon students across the county will head back to school for another year of learning. Families may have a few more weeks to squeeze in last-minute beach trips or special outings, but for many teachers, the work has already begun.

This week I had the chance to attend the Surry County School District Technology Conference for teachers, and I’m sure other school systems also are holding different types of training events. At the conference, I was amazed by the number of teachers who volunteered their time to learn about how to improve their teaching skills through the use of technology.

I am in awe of teachers. They work long hours for low pay. Theirs is no 9-to-5 job, or 7-to-3 job, as some would suppose. One of my good friends, Jessica Petree, is getting ready to begin her second year as a full-time teacher at an elementary school in a neighboring county. I get to hear her stories about long days at school, long nights planning lessons. She tells me about her failures and successes as a new teacher.

I love the description she has posted on her Facebook page. It says: “I’ve learned that being a teacher isn’t an occupation. It’s a lifelong decision to treat other people’s children like they are your own, set a good example, start each day from scratch, and be flexible for constant change and issues.”

In our society, teachers may be appreciated, but not enough. When our athletes make millions of dollars a year for scoring goals but the people responsible for shaping young minds can often barely pay the bills, something’s wrong. You can go on all day about how sports brings in revenue, simple economics you might say. I still say that priorities are wrong in a country where athletes can have the newest equipment but teachers have to wait for years to get technologies that have been around for a decade.

Having never been a public or private school teacher, I can’t possibly understand what it’s like to be in a teacher’s shoes. My mother was a high school English teacher when I was young, and she tells me about how much work it was. But then she gets a soft gleam in her eye as she talks about her students. She can remember most of them by name, can recall details about some of the moving short stories or papers they wrote.

Now my mom is on Facebook, and she is friends with many of her former students. She has had student after student tell her how much she meant to them, how much she taught them.

Next time you meet one of your children’s teachers, or even when you meet a teacher who will never encounter your child in a school setting, I encourage you to thank them for all they do. Many of us will never know what it’s like to be in their shoes.

Meghann Evans is a staff reporter with The Mount Airy News. She can be reached at mevans@mtairynews.com or at 719-1952.