There have been a few posts (blog & twitter) lately mentioning that teaching can be hard, mine included. It seemed a good time to re-acknowledge that it can be hard for our families too. When we put in long hours preparing, marking, reading inspirational blog posts and articles, searching for and creating resources, they sometimes miss out. Most of us are very lucky, despite this, our families are our staunchest supporters. They are the only ones who really know the lie of 12 weeks holiday a year and 6 hour work days. They speak up in our defense. Many are often amazing practical support too. I was reflecting on this, this morning as my husband captured another short video for me so that I could get around the you-tube blocking and internet issues that sometimes plague us at school. In theory I could do this myself, but it’s one thing my mac just isn’t fond of, whereas it’s 100% successful for him on his pc. So he just does it for me. Our daughter is also a teacher; he’s built head phone stands for her classroom, amongst other things. Last weekend was the school production dress rehearsal, and there was the husband of a colleague, not for the first time, fully involved with helping her source and create props. I know he has built models for her for Science classes, as my husband has for me. A few year’s ago another teacher’s dad helped her build an amazing Chinese dragon for a parade at the school I was teaching at the time. Some contributions are epic, many as simple as helping to cut up and bag laminated letters, numbers, words or symbols. They all make a difference for us and our students. So thanks, we appreciate it.