I was wondering about how much some of your PTO's spend on Teacher Apprecation Day. Our PTO spends about $1,500. We have a catered brunch and buy gifts for the whole school staff,(teachers, janitors,aides,etc.) Some of us feel this is too much.
Some things that we do for teacher appreciation week are...
a) a cookie walk--parents donate cookies and we put them out in a spare classroom for the teachers to come down on their lunch to get a box of cookies.
b) flower sales--one day during Teacher Appreciation week we allow the students to deliver carnations to their teachers that they had pre-ordered the week before. The children LOVE this, as do the teachers, and it is actually a way that we help fund our week, because it is profit maker.
c)we have also given the teachers tote bags embroidered with the school mascot and personalized with their names. I have a great source--e-mail me.
Just a couple of the wonderful things we do!
[This message has been edited by momof 5boys (edited 01-25-2001).]
Every year we celebrate teacher appreciation week every day of that week. Last year we made a t-shirt for every teacher that had a fabric apple on it with a cute saying painted around the apple. On another day we had a breakfast. The third day we gave them all a handmade teacher pin ( a ruler with their name on it).The most special thing we did was during each class' special period (art or music), we had each child write a note to their teacher telling them how special they are. we rolled each one up and tied it with ribbon and put them in a basket with a bow. The younger children (Pre-k -Kinder.) colored pictures for them. At the end of the week we hand delivered these baskets to the teachers. the kids did a great job at keeping it all a secret. Not one teacher knew what we did. They dropped off their class at music and we took it from there. We are hoping to out do ourselves this year. Any great ideas?
For Teacher Appreciation week, we usually hold a luncheon for the teachers and the parents donate the food. Then we usually pick out a special gift for all of the teachers and then have each child sign their name on the gift to their individual teacher. Last year we had the children sign umbrellas and this year we bought large pots to put plants in and we will have the children sign those. The teachers just love it and it's from the children too.
We did alot of the the things already mentioned here. We also had A Sundae stand set up inside the cafeteria on that Friday and we served For the entire school staff. (Secretary, custodians, etc.) The teachers and everyone else loved it.
My PTA usually does something everyday of the week during teacher appreciation week also. A few years ago, one of the things we did was make coupon books for the teachers. We put things in it like "good for one volunteer to read a story to your class", good for a volunteer to run copies for you", good for a volunteer to work one on one with a student", etc. We had a bunch more but you get the idea, use your imagination. The teachers loved them! We had one parent in charge of coordinating the volunteers, so all the teachers had to do was call her when they wanted to redeem one and give her the day and time, and she would set it up. We also have trouble drawing the line between the aides and the teachers, particularly since the aides never want to buy a membership, come to any meetings, or help out at any of the functions. They basically don't get involved in anything at the school outside of their job and yet they always want to cash in on the free meals, goodies and gifts. We've tried everything to reach out to them but for some reason they don't get involved like our teachers do. Usually they just get included in the meals since it's hard to put on a luncheon in the staff lounge and tell them "sorry you can't eat". I too,agree that they have an important role in our school , but they certainly don't put in the time or the effort that the teachers do. I've been in this school for 8 years and nothing we've done entices them to be more involved so I don't even try with aides anymore.
