They inspire curiosity and a lifelong love of learning. They’re experts at boosting confidence through the right mix of motivation and instruction. They serve alternately as student-squabble mediator, supportive listener, and all-around problem fixer. And in the past year, they persevered despite the challenges thrown their way amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
National Teacher Appreciation Week is a chance to thank educators for all they do to ensure that students succeed in school and in life.
When Is Teacher Appreciation Week in 2021?
Teacher Appreciation Week 2021 starts on Monday, May 3, and ends on Friday, May 7.
The week-long celebration is the culmination of a 40-year push to establish a National Teacher Day. According to the National Education Association (NEA), a Wisconsin teacher named Ryan Krug began writing to political leaders around 1944 about the need for a national day to recognize teachers for their hard work and dedication to students. Arkansas teacher Mattie Whyte Woodridge took up the cause. She wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, who in 1953 convinced Congress to proclaim a National Teachers Day.
“I have always felt that we did not give an honorable enough place in our communities to the teachers,” Roosevelt wrote in her newspaper column, “My Day,” after Congress designated the first Tuesday of March as National Teachers Day. “Next to parents they are the most important people in our communities.”
In 1985, the National PTA established Teacher Appreciation Week. The NEA then voted to mark National Teachers Day on the Tuesday that begins Appreciation Week.
Check out our ideas for celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week during the COVID-19 crisis.
Virtual Teacher Appreciation Ideas During COVID-19
Below you'll find ideas on how administrators, parents, students, and even teachers can show their appreciation for educators—this week and all year long. But first, take a moment to reflect on teacher greatness. Third-grade teacher Mike Bertram from South Plainfield, New Jersey, perfectly captures in a poem just how powerfully teachers across the country tackled all the pandemic challenges that came their way.
Take a listen to him reciting his ode to teachers in the video below, then share it far and wide as you honor the educators in your life.
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