Hello Friends,

Teacher Appreciation Week is quickly approaching, and as a former principal, I understand the challenges of finding teacher gifts within limited budgets. To help you navigate that obstacle, I have some creative ideas and strategies that can help you in obtaining items for your teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week.

1. Utilize your officer worker’s downtime to make calls to local businesses and request donations for Teacher Appreciation Week. Many businesses are willing to contribute gift cards or actual items. Even receiving one or two donations from each business can add up to a significant number of items to use as prizes or for random drawings during the week. Be sure to keep a list of who donated so you can write them thank you notes, and so you have a list of who to reach out to for next year.

2. Leverage your weekly email or newsletter to ask parents for donations. To generate better results, be specific about what you need. Here are a few examples to get you started:

• Coffee & Tea Pods: Request parents to donate pods that can be used for a coffee bar during Teacher Appreciation Week.
• Breakfast: Create an electronic sign-up for parents to bring breakfast items like pastries and breakfast burritos for a specific day during the week. Be sure to have parents include their email address when signing up. That will allow you to easily send out reminder emails.
  
• Ice Cream Bar: Create an electronic sign-up for parents to contribute items for a fun and delicious sundae bar. With ideas like this, the items can be donated before the actual day and stored.
  

By providing specific suggestions, parents will have a clearer understanding of what you are looking for and will be more likely to contribute. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the number of parents who genuinely want to help once they know your specific needs.

3. Explore special offers available to teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week, such as the free meal offer from McDonald’s. Contact your local McDonald’s and inquire if it is possible to redeem all the “free meals” at once. Create an order form for teachers to fill out and return the day before. Take the order forms to McDonald’s, and they can individually bag each order and attach the form to the outside of each bag. This streamlined process will make it easier for you to pick up the meals and distribute them to your teachers. If you decide to get drinks too, use paper boxes to help transport the drinks.

By implementing these strategies and thinking creatively, you can make Teacher Appreciation Week memorable and show your teachers how much you value their hard work and dedication.

My book, School Transformation Through Teacher Appreciation, is available on Amazon:

Bring me to your District!

I offer engaging, fun, and hands-on professional development for campus leaders designed to increase teacher retention. You can find more information about presentations and workshops on my webpage.

Bring me to your School!

If you would like me to help you create a detailed teacher appreciation plan for your campus, or you would like me to mentor and work with your administrative team on your campus contact me at Kathleen.Eckert@iCloud.com.

Newsletters

Sign up for and view all of my Newsletters about Teacher Appreciation on my webpage.

Thank you for loving teachers,

Kathleen Eckert

Follow me on Twitter @EckertKathleen