Don’t wait until Teacher Appreciation Week to thank your school’s teachers and staff for all they do to better your children’s school.
Most Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) Staff Appreciation Chairs make sure to plan events for Teacher Appreciation Week, which happens every year during the first full week of May.
And that’s great, but there are plenty of ways to acknowledge the teachers and staff throughout the entire school year.
Spreading out the love is a great way to ensure the staff and teachers know that you see them and their efforts.
Being an educator or education support staff member is one of the hardest jobs and they deserve support all year long.
This post highlights twelve unique and easy ideas for sprinkling appreciation during the school year to support teachers and staff.
Write a Note
A simple gesture of appreciation is to write notes of support for each member of the school’s staff.
You can make the notes the same or similar for all or craft personalized little notes of support.
No need to mail the notes- just pop them in everybody’s mailbox.
Fancy stationary isn’t required either.
The picture above shows word art cards that I simply printed on textured card stock, trimmed and with plenty of room for a note on the back in addition to the simple PTA signature.
Bring in Breakfast
Back-to-school time is a great time to do something like a welcome back breakfast.
When I was first Staff Appreciation Chair for my elementary PTA, it was overwhelming to figure out exactly how to get on a staff breakfast and get my kids out the door at the same time.
I’ve had a great deal of practice and picked up many tips and tricks along the way, so I know anyone can also pull this sort of event off.
If you need help envisioning and planning the breakfast event, check out this post.
Provide Testing Treats
If you have mandated testing, that is super stressful time for teachers.
It’s also a great time to drop a lollipop, small bag of candy (like the one shown above topped off with the rainbow tag), or another little treat in staff mailboxes.
Use these ideas to make the inexpensive gift look more expensive and have a cute presentation!
The point is making them feel seen.
Not on spending a ton of time or a small fortune.
Offer Vocal Support
On conference nights, teachers are talking so, so, so, so, so, so much.
How about putting out a big bowl of cough drops in the teachers’ lounge so that they can soothe their sore throats and get a little bit of relief from all of the workout that their throat has been getting?
Simple and effective and meeting a big need.
Provide Birthday Blessings
Acknowledge birthdays with a balloon!
Now, this does not work for everybody because, certain religions do not observe birthdays, so you’ll need to look for an alternative in those situations (like a picking a random day and giving them a “Happy Monday” balloon or “Happy January”).
But for the vast majority of your staff, it’s a fun way to make the staff member feel special on their special day.
What to do for summer birthdays?
No problem, bring in a balloon on their half birthday instead.
Lend a Hand
The next way to support teachers outside of Teacher Appreciation Week is to just ask them what they need help with.
There are small classroom tasks that you can help out with, even at the high school level.
Just ask the teachers what they need help with; you won’t know until you ask.
Fill in Lunch Duty
For teachers that have assigned lunch duty to supervise the students at lunch, volunteer to take their place.
Your PTO can recruit a group of volunteers to give teachers the day or week off from this task.
Take on Car Line Duty
Similarly, do the same thing with the carline.
Most teachers don’t like this task, so you’d not only be giving them a bit of free time, but also eliminating a troublesome task.
And you’ll probably walk away feeling even more gratitude for the teachers now that you’ve experienced this chore first hand.
Step Up as Room Parent
In elementary schools, if you have a classroom room parent program, sign up to be a room parent and go beyond just running or organizing the class parties.
Normally there are Halloween parties or just the seasonal celebrations.
Take the job and expand it so that you’re really not just a class party planner but that you are helping the teacher with volunteer opportunities in their classroom so that you are filling that what may be an unspoken need.
You don’t have to do the tasks yourself.
Help recruit other parents as classroom volunteers.
The time that it takes to organize and coordinate classroom helpers can be onerous.
Get the tasks and time slots from the teacher and then fill in the blanks with the willing volunteers.
This may seem like an inconsequential thing, but it’s really not.
It’s taking a load off of the teacher’s plate, and they’re really going to be thankful for your efforts.
Recognize Milestones
Another opportunity to recognize teachers is to mark any milestones that they are reaching in life.
Maybe they’re getting married, having a baby, or celebrating retirement.
Maybe they earned their doctorate or their master’s or their principal’s administrative license.
You can acknowledge those events and highlight them to others to spread the word and shower them with an extra bit of love.
Fund Teacher Grants
A big opportunity for teacher and staff support comes way of teacher grants.
My PTO calls them mini-grants, in part to set the expectation that we’re looking to fund small projects.
This post has a step by step guide to establishing a PTO grant program if you’re ready to add this into your teacher appreciation bag of tricks.
Note that staff members can submit grant requests too!
No good idea should be refused.
Run a Supply Drive
And the last idea for teacher support outside of Teacher Appreciation Week is to gather donations of school and classroom supplies.
So much of what goes into classrooms outside of the student and teacher desks and curriculum materials is teacher funded.
Help defray costs that teachers bear to make the school environment better by collecting donations of supplies or money for the supplies.
If you’re not sure what sorts of items to be collecting, survey your teaches and staff and compile a list.
Watch This!
Prefer to watch a video with all of these fabulous year-round teacher appreciation ideas?
You’re in luck!
Give this video a watch:
Over To You
Teachers and school staff should be celebrated and acknowledged throughout the school year for their contributions to your school.
Luckily, it’s not hard to do this!
I hope these ideas give you lots of inspiration for doing the same in your building or using them as a jumping off point.
Of course you can use any of these ideas for actual Teacher Appreciation Week too!
It’s best to spread out the love throughout the entire year as opposed to limiting the celebration to one week.
But know that no matter what you and your PTO do or when you do it, the teachers and staff will love it all the same!
For more fantastic teacher appreciation ideas, check out this round up post.
