Parents and teachers have a special partnership to support and grow the students that parents send to school each day. One of the most touching forms of acknowledgement that teachers can get comes from the parents of the children they work with day in and day out.
SAY THANKS
Write thank-you notes to teachers to really express your gratitude for all they do.
GET ORGANIZED
Organize your child's class or the entire school to write thank-you notes to their teachers by distributing blank greeting cards with directions. This could also be a great PTA/PTO initiative. For individual classrooms or teachers, these can be bound into a book with photos taken throughout the year.
SHINE A LIGHT ON THE SUBJECT
Give the gift of a candle with a note about how teachers shed light on learning, light up education, or enlighten us all.
A LITTLE SOMETHING ...
During Teacher Appreciation Week, parents can put a little something in teachers' mailboxes every day.
TABLE IT
Set up a table during lunch where students can stop and write little thank-you notes to their favorite teachers.
A TREAT-A-DAY
Provide a daily treat for the teachers of your school. For example, Monday could be bagel day, Tuesday's offering could be lunchtime cookies, etc.
UP, UP, AND AWAY
Create or buy a balloon bouquet for a special teacher.
SPECIAL MEMENTO
Create a photo scrapbook for each teacher with a special note saying why that teacher is so special.
A LIVING TRIBUTE
Plant a tree on the school campus to honor all the teachers.
AFTER-SCHOOL SPECIAL
Plan an after-school ice cream social for all the teachers and the staff.
WRITE IT UP
Together with the other parents in your child's school, buy space in the local paper to celebrate teachers' everyday acts. List some of the wonderful things that are going on in the school and then thank the teachers by name.
PITCH IN
In August, hold a Pre-Labor Day party. Parents with hammers and buckets can pitch in to help teachers prepare their rooms or parents can decorate the Teachers' Lounge for the new school year.
MAKE IT LOUD AND CLEAR
Write letters to the superintendent and principal showing support for your child's teacher. Be specific.
PERSONALIZE IT
Receiving a personal letter about the impact a given teacher has had on your child is a powerful energizer. This would also make a great PTA/PTO letter/card writing campaign.
ADOPT-A-TEACHER DAY
Parents can adopt teachers for the week. Each teacher should be paired with a parent or a group of parents who then do something nice each day for their adopted teacher. Some ideas include: leaving teachers homemade cookies in their mailboxes, washing teachers' cars, writing a kind note, writing a poem in tribute and attaching it to a gift certificate.
RELAX
During Teacher Appreciation, week provide in-house massages during planning time.
RALLY 'ROUND THEM
Hold a pep rally for the teachers. Parents and students can perform songs and skits themed around honoring all the hard work teachers put in throughout the year.
MORE IDEAS
Have each teacher choose a favorite children's book. The PTA/PTO can purchase one book for each teacher with a nameplate inside (This is ________ favorite children's book) and possibly a story about a memory of the book. This is a way to preserve one small piece of history of each teacher in the building.
-- Marcy Vancil, Elementary Teacher
I had my students do this for a couple of years. We called it Roses and Rolls. I contacted local flower shops and asked for their discarded less-than-perfect roses. A student, just as way to say thank you, presented this flower along with a sweet roll from a local bakery with a card to a teacher.
--Jim Schulz, MS Sciences Teacher
What keeps me going is the impact of how I touch the future; and that happens when children return and let me know in some way that something that we did in the classroom has stayed with them. When I feel like packing it all up and leaving, the universe always sends someone back to say thank you and that keeps me in the classroom at least another day. Beyond the flowers, the discounts, the cards, the gifts, the recognition of many, that show of appreciation from one I have touched means the most.
--Geanora Bonner, Elementary Teacher
