Last summer I joined the PTA for Tyler's school and was excited to be involved. When no one else volunteered to head up Teacher Appreciation week, I thought, "Sure, I can organize one potluck meal sometime during the week of teacher appreciation." So I volunteered to be in charge, only to find out that Teacher Appreciation entailed a whole heck of a lot more than "one potluck meal."
As a teacher I remember having our doors decorated for Teacher Appreciation week (I loved it), and we'd occasionally get some treats, and I think one year we had a potluck lunch brought it. So imagine my surprise when other moms who had been in charge of Teacher Appreciation at their old schools started sharing with me what they had done. (And the fact that they didn't sign up to do Teacher Appreciation again should have been a sign!) They talked about going out and getting donations from all kinds of businesses and then having a drawing at the end of TA week for wonderful gift certificates, baskets of prizes, hotel stays, etc. They also mentioned feeding the teachers not just for one potluck, but meals 3-4 times during the week.
So with no one else volunteering to help me out, needless to say, I was VERY stressed out. In January I started going to businesses to ask for all of these wonderful donations. Well, it turns out not that many places actually give out donations. Some would tell me to come back later and they'd see if maybe they'd have something another time. After several rejections, I decided right then that I was NOT going drag my kids all over town trying to get 24 donations for the teacher drawings at the end of TA week. I decided to give each of the teachers a gift from the PTA that would be practical and would be "equal" for each teacher. That was definitely a good decision that lowered my stress level a few degrees. (I did get some gift card/cash donations from Costco, Target, and Reams that helped pay for treats, utensils, bottles of water, etc.)
The theme I chose for Teacher Appreciation week was "Armstrong Teachers are Out of This World." I had little treats for each day for all 54 teachers and staff. (These would have been way cuter if I was a graphic designer like my cousin Mandy, but I did what I could with my limited knowledge of Word.)
This one was filled with Starbursts and said, "We thank our lucky stars that you are at NAA. Thank you for all you do for our kids."
This little bag of Hershey's kisses and Milky Way bar said, "We think you are out of this world and we could just kiss the ground you walk on." (The tag showed footprints on the moon--for Neil Armstrong.)
A little bottle of Sunny D that said, "Thanks for being the SUN to our kids' SHINE! We are d-lighted you are at NAA."
Extra Gum with E.T "Thank you for being E.T. (Extra Terrific). We appreciate all the EXTRA things you do for our students."
Moon pies "We are over the moon that you are at Neil Armstrong Academy. We love you to the moon and back."
I ended up providing food for all 54 teachers/staff for four days. On Monday (Cinco de Mayo) they had chips and salsa and veggie trays. I took in breakfast items from Great Harvest Bakery on Tuesday morning. Chick-fil-A donated 2 huge platters of chicken nuggets and salad on Wednesday, and I got sub sandwiches and Sun Chips from WalMart on Thursday. On Friday we had pulled pork and rolls and a salad from Texas Roadhouse for just the teachers.
I had volunteers help decorate the walls outside of the classrooms. There were no "room parents" this year, so all I had was an e-mail list of possible volunteers to help out. About half of them responded. So thanks to the volunteers and several PTA board members who decorated more than one door, we had every teacher, janitor, aide, etc. covered. I "only" had to do 2 doors.
Here is one of them...Mrs. Dillon, the social worker.
The other one turned out great. It is the office staff--the principal, assistant principal and secretaries as the Incredibles.
I think the only thing that didn't really work out during Teacher Appreciation was the massages. I had contacted a massage place that was supposed to send two massage therapists to give the teachers each 10 minute sit-down massages. (I guess they need to have so many volunteer hours for their licensing or something like that.) I had parent volunteers come in to help cover the classes while the teacher was gone and have the students write thank you notes to their teachers. Well, the ONE and only massage therapist showed up late. So we had 2 teachers at a time waiting for massages, and they got backed up, and it didn't turn out like it was supposed to, but what can you do?
These are the messenger bags that I ended up getting for each of the teachers. Darrell helped me fill them up with some of the most requested items on the teacher wish lists (that I sent home the week before so students could get their teachers something they, the teachers, really need--not that another teacher mug isn't needed, but....)
I gave the teachers their bags at the luncheon on Friday and they really liked them.
Overall, Teacher Appreciation went really well. The principal commented a few times that this was the best TA week he'd seen in his 11 years in education. Many of the teachers were also very appreciative. I am relieved to be done. Two other people have volunteered to help next year, so with their help, and the things I've learned from doing things this year, next year won't be too bad. (Fingers crossed!)
This is the last picture I will include for TA week. The kids wanted me to take this picture of them on the day we went around the school and took pictures of all of the decorated walls. The kids, especially the girls, were such good troopers as we were at the school A LOT!
