Teachers are tasked with the most critical job on the planet — teaching our children. It’s a job no one has to do, but passionate teachers step up to do every day anyway. And it’s worth celebrating. May 2 through May 6 is Teacher Appreciation Week 2022 in the US. And while celebrating and appreciating teachers should happen every day, this week is an especially good time to make sure we do it. It’s also a good time to think of ways we can tell teachers how important they are — this week and all year long.
So, without further ado, here are 7 great ways to tell a teacher you know how much they matter to our lives.
Share your own ideas with us on the YouScience social media channels.
7 Teacher Appreciation Week Ideas
- Organize an in-class surprise
- Post a shoutout on social media
- Record a thank you video or write a personal thank you card
- Give them an apple or, better, a teacher appreciation gift card
- Buy supplies for their classroom
- Volunteer in the classroom
- Nominate them for teacher of the year in your state
1. Organize an in-class surprise
What better way to tell a teacher how much you appreciate them than right in the classroom? Whether you send a bouquet, have the entire class sing a song, or simply go around the room to say, “thank you,” there’s no end to the number of ways you can show you recognize your teacher’s efforts.
Ideas to consider:
- Give your teacher a potted plant with “thank you” painted on the pot. The class can work together. Someone probably even has a pot in their garage that you can clean up and reuse.
- Have each student bring a single flower for the teacher and give the flowers to them all at once.
- Have the whole class write and sing a song for your teacher. It doesn’t have to be complicated to matter. See this example.
- Do a round-robin where every class member shares one thing they appreciate about the teacher.
- Have each class member bring the teacher a piece of candy and leave it on their desk.
Get creative and come up with your own ideas. Whether you’re a student, a fellow teacher, or the principal or an administrator, there are plenty of quick, simple ways to show you recognize a teacher’s contribution during teacher appreciation week.
2. Post a shoutout on social media
Is your teacher on Facebook or Instagram? Post a thank you on your own page and @ mention your teacher. Your thank you can be a note, a picture, or even a video.
Take it up a notch and have everyone in the class and their parents post a thank you for your teacher.
3. Record a thank you video or write a personal thank you card
Another simple, but very meaningful way, to show appreciation is a simple thank note or video. You can give your teacher the note in person by yourself. You can also organize the entire class to participate and give them to your teacher in class or drop them on their desk as you enter or leave class.
If you go the video route, you can play the video for your teacher during class or post it on social media as mentioned above.
You could even get the whole class together to create a group video or get someone to splice all the video clips into one big appreciation reel.
4. Give them an apple or, better, a gift card
Spoiler alert, teachers probably don’t really love getting apples. Although, if it’s with a sincere thank you, they would.
Go one better than the traditional apple and offer your teacher a simple gift card. It can be for a cup of coffee, a meal, or a movie ticket. Or the whole class could go in together and get your teacher a gift card for a free massage — a great gift for a busy, passionate educator.
5. Buy supplies for their classroom
Now that teachers and students are primarily back in class after the pandemic, supplies are back in focus. In 2021, an AdoptAClassroom.org survey found that 30% of teachers spent $1,000 of their own money on classroom supplies.
So, what better way to show your appreciation than to take away some of that burden by buying supplies. This one is a great option for parents who can join forces to buy needed supplies or fund a gift card the teacher can use to buy supplies without spending their own dollars.
6. Volunteer in the classroom
The job of a teacher never ends— from grading papers at home to staying after school to work on class curriculum, teachers do a lot. And they put in a lot of hours.
Volunteering to help is a great way for older students and parents to show appreciation. It also shows that you recognize teachers’ heroic efforts and hours.
7. Nominate them for teacher of the year in your school or state
Lastly, but not necessarily least, nominate your teacher for teacher of the year. Individual schools often have their own programs as do individual states. And the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) hosts a national program to nominate a teacher of the year in each state and US territory.
A National Teacher of the Year (NTOY) is chosen for the selected State Teachers of the Year. The NTOY is picked by a national committee representative of the major national education organizations.
And even if your teacher doesn’t win, you can make your own award and let them know that to you, they are the teacher of the year.
To Teachers Everywhere — We Appreciate You
From everyone at YouScience please know that we appreciate teachers and educators everywhere. We recognize your hard work, your challenges, and the phenomenal effort you put in to give America’s children a better future.
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