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By James Gardner

Clark County Public Library

There is a strange energy in the air. Not extra sunshine from longer days or the feeling of pollen saturating every part of your sinuses, this energy is quite familiar to teachers. It has been building throughout the school year and now, as schools are getting ready to close for the summer, it feels so combustible.

Many times this energy is sheer excitement. The excitement as students realize that a whole school-free (perhaps even agenda-free) summer awaits them is as palpable as the smell of rain before a summer downpour. However, this energy isn’t just the unbridled excitement of summer’s possibilities. There’s still some school left. That means students will have a few more weeks of tests, readings, grades, and social situations that could create a boiling cauldron of anxiety, which only adds to students’ emotional volatility.

These are reasons why teachers are so necessary and why a holiday like National Teacher Appreciation Week is essential.

Teaching can sometimes feel like a thankless job as teachers endure stress from students, parents, and everything else. Teachers say they do it for the love of teaching, for the students that will be our next doctors, lawyers, and philosophers. These heady yet beneficial goals can sometimes get lost when a teacher is trying to get students who know what’s coming to do calculus or discuss who Harriet Tubman is.

The library appreciates teachers. Sometimes, resources for teachers can be hard to come by, but the library has books and movies that help kids learn, as well as media that helps teachers and students relax after a hard day in the education mines. And when school empties out for the summer, there’s the Summer Reading Program for kids and adults with plenty of fun activities.

This week, people can show their appreciation to teachers, who teach without the expectation of getting rich, but teachers also deserve our gratitude all year round. For those looking for ideas to thank teachers, the National Education Association (https://www.nea.org/TAW) has ways to let your appreciation of teachers be known. There’s still time for parents to thank teachers personally, even if it’s approaching the school year’s end. Students, teachers, and parents, the school year is indeed ending, perhaps as a bang of school doors being thrown open or as a sigh of relief within an empty school. The end will be here before you know it. Teacher, student or parent, it’s okay to take a breath, and it will get better. Summer is, after all, a season of beginnings, not endings and new experiences are waiting, just like these at the library.

This week’s Kentucky Picture Show, showing on Wednesday, May 10, at 2 p.m., is a trip to the late 1920s, a time when movies transitioned from silent to sound. Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont, two silent movie stars, are starring in a musical, but a chorus girl is brought in to dub Lina’s speaking and singing. Don is on top of the world until Lina finds out. Witness the singing and shenanigans this Wednesday. Refreshments will be provided.

On Saturday, May 13, from 10 a.m. to noon, the library invites patrons to the Patron Plant Swap, a meet-and-greet with other gardeners and plant enthusiasts. Bring in a vegetable or flower seedling & swap it for a new plant to add to your collection (bring a plant in a pot you are willing to part with if you want to take a plant). This is a perfect opportunity to share tips with other gardeners and learn something new.