Teacher Appreciation Starts at the Ballot Box

I think Teacher Appreciation Day is really in November.

I know technically today is Teacher Appreciation Day, it's Teacher Appreciation Week, great, but I think ultimately the way we appreciate teachers needs to come out at the ballot box.

We need to vote for the respect that our teachers deserve.

So don't just make today Teacher Appreciation Day.

Make whatever day in November or whenever it appears on the ballot in your local area, make that your Teacher Appreciation Day.

Because ultimately, what teachers want more than anything else is respect and the ability to succeed at their jobs.

And if you think about all of the terrible, crappy teacher appreciation gifts that have been circulating online.

I don't know why people are still doing stuff like this.

It really blows my mind.

I saw one, somebody shared with me on Twitter today.

There was a memo about no pay raises this year, but you'll find something special in your mailbox, and it was a Payday candy bar.

And, like, why are we still doing stuff like that knowing what an insult it is, knowing how disrespectful it is to teachers and their professionalism?

Like, the gallows humor, the puns, the, like, less than $1...

quote-unquote gift accompanied by a pun like it's still a crummy present even if you put a pun with it and sometimes like the pun just makes it like even feel more dystopian and crummy or like we gave you office supplies here's binder we've been out of binder clips for two years and now here's some binder clips for teacher appreciation like that stuff feels doubly bad it feels worse than doing nothing at all and by the way i think it's okay to do nothing at all i mean like i didn't do anything as a teacher i taught in a low-income school there's no teacher appreciation anything maybe what i think my principal probably did if i can rack my brain for accurate memories from this long ago i think what my principal probably did is catering and i think if you can't do anything else if there's no pta if there's no money coming into your school and you can spend a little bit of your own money, or if you have a principal slush fund for this, catering is good.

But make sure that everybody can access it, like if they're in a far away building, or if they're part-time.

Just think about how to make it so that everybody can actually enjoy what you're providing.

I think there are, some good ways to show appreciation.

We can show appreciation for free with a nice note non-verbally.

The reason so many of these things feel so dystopian and crummy is because they reveal the level of disrespect that society has for teachers and in a lot of cases that districts have for teachers.

So it's back to the ballot box.

I think so much of teacher appreciation happens at the ballot box.

But let me know what you think.

Let me know what some of your favorite teacher appreciation gifts have been.

And if they have been non-monetary, I would especially like to hear what made them meaningful to you.