With May being Teacher Appreciation Month, hopefully you’ll receive some much-deserved love from students, parents, and administration. Additionally, get inspired to thank your fellow teachers this month with these simple suggestions.
- Give them a break
Teachers quickly realize that bathroom breaks can be few and far between during the school day. As a simple way to show your appreciation, every so often, visit your colleagues’ rooms during your planning period to see if they need a quick respite.
- Send notes of thanks from students
As a warm-up activity for class, ask students to write a short note to one of their other teachers to show their gratitude. Encourage them to be specific about why they chose that teacher to receive their thank-you note. It could be the teacher’s sense of humor, an interesting lesson they planned, or simply how they make their students feel in class.
- Organize a secret gift-giving game
Participating in Secret Santa is popular around the holidays, but you can arrange a similar activity for Teacher Appreciation Month. Send out a sign-up for those you want to join in the festivities and set a price point. Participants can secretly deliver their gift anytime during the month. You can even arrange a get-together where everyone learns the identity of their mystery gift-giver.
- Give them a shout-out
Create a bulletin board specifically for staff shout-outs. Encourage your colleagues to pin up notes of gratitude or compliments. Be sure to have pens, paper, and push pins available by the board to make it as easy as possible for everyone to shout out their praise.
- Spruce up the teacher’s lounge
In comedies about teaching, the teacher’s lounge is often depicted as a depressing room with terrible coffee and worn-out furniture. Help assure this isn’t true to life by giving your teacher’s lounge some love. It doesn’t take a ton of time to do a few renovations. Don’t feel like you must spend a lot of money, either. Add some green with a few house plants, clear away some of the clutter, or bring in cute décor you no longer use at home.
By Kelli Drummer-Avendano
