by California State PTA Leadership Services Commission
It’s that time of year – time to show appreciation to teachers and other school staff. They are working harder than ever and are worthy of recognition. Luckily, scheduled event days or weeks make such recognition easy to include on your PTA calendar. Here’s the rundown:
- April 26, 2023, is Administrative Professionals Day.
- May 10, 2023, is California Day of the Teacher, which coincides with National Teacher Appreciation Week, May 8-12, 2023.
- May 21-27 is Classified School Employee Week.
Many schools plan a single Staff Appreciation Week to celebrate the teachers, aides, administrators, librarians, secretaries, custodians, and all the other staff!
Check out these favorite ideas for celebrating teachers or all staff members, and start planning today. This includes activities that working families can engage with, too.
For Teachers
- National PTA has an entire emoji-themed Teacher Appreciation Week toolkit that is free to download.
- Take your week of themes digital! Email a note to your child’s teacher. Make a virtual bouquet where students take a photo of a flower or greenery on their daily walk and collage them into a “bouquet” that gets posted to Google Classroom.
- This is a great time to creatively use social media, too– share photos of the daily themes to post on Facebook or Instagram.
- Students can wear the teacher’s favorite color all week long to show them how much they care.
- Decorate classroom doors or wash their cars.
- Ask all of the families in your school to change their social media profile picture this week to a homemade sign thanking teachers. It will not only make the teachers at your school feel amazing, but it will also reach out to any of your online friends who also happen to be teachers — it’s a win-win!
For All Staff
- Some schools ask students to submit videos thanking staff and then edit them into a single presentation.
- Place small items in staff mailboxes, with office staff permission, of course!
- Create a banner to post on the school fence thanking the staff for their hard work or create a yard sign for teacher appreciation. (If you are going to have a banner made by a printer, remember to get this expense approved by your association.)
- If a staff luncheon is part of your tradition (and included in your hospitality budget), create an electronic sign-up form for volunteer contributions, with suggested entrees. Don’t forget to send a reminder the day before!
- Ask families to donate beverages for the staff refrigerator or coffee for the coffee maker.
Remember that PTA funds shouldn’t be used to purchase personal gifts or gift cards.