Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

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National Teacher Appreciation Week celebrates and honors the remarkable educators who work tirelessly to ensure that every one of their students grows and thrives. Teacher Appreciation Day falls on Tuesday of Teacher Appreciation Week, which is the first full week of May.

So how do you thank a teacher during Teacher Appreciation Week? Group videos offer an opportunity to share heartfelt, personalized messages of gratitude for all that teachers do and make wonderful gifts for National Teacher Appreciation Week. 

Let’s take a look at the different ways to use group videos to thank the educators in your life.  

1. Favorite Traits & Activities

Parents can work together to have their children record video clips that let their teacher know what they love or appreciate most about them. Is it a fun song they sing every morning? Is it their enthusiasm? Their patience? Their smile?

Get creative and come up with a “Top 10” type of list where each student can contribute one much-loved trait or activity complete with their own drum roll! 

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2. Lessons Learned

Students can share the most important thing they’ve learned from their teacher, whether it was a fun academic project or a meaningful life lesson.

Have students explain why this lesson was so important. Did it make them curious? More dedicated to learning? Did it open their eyes, change their perspective, or make them believe in themselves?

Whatever the lesson was, teachers will love to hear exactly how they impacted a student’s life. 

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3. Parental Gratitude

Teachers are often thought of as “parents at school” and rightly so! They’re entrusted with caring for and helping shape our children.

For this reason, parents should take the opportunity to express their gratitude by recording a video clip that offers their unique perspective of how a teacher has made a difference in their child’s life.

Parents can record their clip with their child or do it separately. Either way, teachers will appreciate the messages of thanks from their students and families!

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4. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week Quotes 

Students might have a difficult time finding the right words to express how they feel about their teacher. Luckily, there are plenty of authors, famous people, etc. who have eloquently summed up just how important educators are. Students can draw inspiration from these Teacher Week quotes for their video clips:

• "The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards." - Anatole France
• "Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers." - Josef Albers
• "The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery." - Mark Van Doren
• "Wherever you find something extraordinary, you’ll find the fingerprints of a great teacher." –Arne Duncan
• "Teachers, I believe, are the most responsible and important members of society because their professional efforts affect the fate of the Earth." - Helen Caldicott
• "There's no word in the language I revere more than teacher. My heart sings when a kid refers to me as his teacher, and it always has. I've honored myself and the entire family of man by becoming a teacher." - Pat Conroy
• “Great teachers empathize with kids, respect them, and believe that each one has something special that can be built upon.”- Ann Liberman
• “A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom in the pupils.”- Ever Garrison
• “One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings.” - Carl Jung
• “Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system.” - Sidney Hook
• “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” - William Arthur Ward

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Teachers deserve our gratitude and praise year round, so if you missed the boat on National Teacher Appreciation Week, don’t worry! There’s always World Teachers Day on October 5, the holidays, or the end of the school year. Just remember: any day is a good day to thank a teacher!

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