The Very Best Teacher Appreciation Week Gifts
Since 1984, the PTA has designated the first week in May as Teacher Appreciation Week. The week is marked by lots of discounts from various vendors, suggestions for pretty decorations, and even social media ideas. There's actually a theme: Teachers are out of this world. Pinterest is loaded with ideas. Some of it is pretty cheesy, and some of it is pretty ephemeral. If you really want to show appreciation to a teacher, what is your best option?
When I was in elementary school, I was an awkward mess of flailing limbs. But our gym teacher was great at crafting activities that helped build confidence and inclusiveness instead of sparking Darwinian playground struggles. I appreciated it, but maybe not as much as my parents did. They wrote him a lovely note, thanking him for helping me grow and become more confident. I know this, because decades later when I was back working with him as a teacher in the same district, he still had that letter. When he retired from public education and started teaching in a college teaching program and traveling as a motivational speaker, he still had the letter, saved in a file with other letters like it.
I have a file like that. So do many other teachers. You can give a teacher flowers, but they die. Food is great, but short-lived. Tchotchkes gather dust, though they do look cute on a desk. I taught CONTINUE READING: The Very Best Teacher Appreciation Week Gifts