Or at least it should be. When it comes to teacher appreciation, they can’t be appreciated enough. Teachers are like the red headed step child of the college educated population. Teachers, at a minimum have a 4 year Bachelor’s degree, just like many other professionals, but the earning capacity associated with that degree versus, say a BSN in nursing or business is far less. Add to that, teaching and education are publicly funded professions and the variance in pay is vast from place to place. Additionally, teachers are required to maintain certification, which must be renewed every few years.Rrenewal is based on professional development, taking additional coursework, and even attaining higher degrees.

The annual average salary of a person holding a Bachelor’s Degree is $67,860 per year (reference here) the average teacher salary is $61,730 nationwide. Some variables to this figure include years of experience; as we know less experienced teachers are placed at the bottom of the salary schedule. There is also a state by state variance as well; average teacher pay in Mississippi is $45,192 while it is $87,543 in New York State. (State by state rankings located here). We all know that teachers are not in the profession for the income…it is always about the outcomes! And this is why as administrators, we need to make working in the classroom more worthwhile by reminding teachers regularly that they are appreciated!

I have joked from time to time that working in education is like working in the complaint department. Public schools are blamed for everything that ails society from poverty to teen age pregnancy. Schools have been the answer to every problem that society faces, so not only do we have to educate the kids, we feed them…even on the weekends, provide social work and therapy services, make sure they have clothing and shoes, make sure they attend school, and get extra services when needed. In my school we have also helped families find employment, places to live, and people and resources to fix cars. We do all of this while implementing adopted curriculum, assessing students, tracking data, scheduling intervention, piloting new programs, planning for PD, managing student discipline, engaging families, implementing directives handed down from the district, and initiatives coming down from the state. An educator’s job is never done.

Finding time to make sure that teachers and staff are appreciated needs to be a priority, but it is often something that outside the first week of May gets shoved to the bottom of the ‘to do’ list. I often have spent many weekends and holidays planning for the next staff appreciation idea, but these last few years I have been slacking in that department. I say this tongue in cheek, because with COVID, a lot of extra tasks and assignments have been added to my platter. (I retired the plate, and switched to a platter) Planning for teacher appreciation activities often involves scouring Pinterest, making supply lists, shopping, and then assembling.

Pinterest only has so many ideas, and if you are like me, you don’t want to use the same tokens of appreciation year after year. Part of the joy of doing these kinds of things is the novelty!The other problem I have had with Pinterest is you click on a cute idea, it takes you to another website where you have to figure out where to locate the cute idea, pay for the downlaod….Mine are all here for you- FREE.

I have a stockpile of teacher appreciation tags and cards that I have used in the past that I am publishing for your use. Where I used to hand punch, stamp, and craft these kinds of things, I have now switched over to Canva which makes assembly of cute treats for large groups much less time consuming. I also have some tips and tricks for adding a little extra cuteness and keeping cutting simple.

Tools to Simplify Teacher Appreciation Treats

  1. Stock up on card stock. I keep a ton of white on hand, but I also try to keep some primary colors and a bunch of my school colors on hand as well. Card stock runs through the printer easily, and is more durable than printer paper.
  2. Treat bags make cutesifying treats much easier! I like these cellophane baggies because they are easy to fill and when adding ribbon, tulle, or a tag, make them extra cute. I like the 3 x 11 size because it accommodates a variety of sized packages and leaves room at the top to be bunchy and cute when tied off.
  3. I Love to use Tulle in place of ribbon for bows on bags. This bundle gives plenty of options to choose from, but each color only provides 25 feet- my rule of thumb is 12 inches for a cute bow on the 3 x 11 bags. Ribbon is also a cute option to tie off baggies as well.
  4. Decorative punches make cutting tags super easy! My preferred punches are the 2 inch circle, the 2 1/4 inch scallop and the top tag punch. If you have a circuit, you can also use that, but it is tricky on printed cardstock. (read pain in my butt and not worth the effort) The punches referenced work with the PDF versions of the Canva tags perfectly!

A Few of My Favorites

Bugs & Kisses – tag is available in the link to the drive, uses cardstock backing cut with Stampin’ Up top note die cut, but a 3 x 5 rectangle of card stock cut in half and folded over the top of the treat bag works just as well. Also used the two inch punch and the two and a quarter inch scalloped punch. Bag includes hershey kisses and spider rings.
This cute owl is made from the top note die cut, with the eyes made from 1/2 inch circle of black, 1 inch circle of white and a 1.5 inch scalloped circle in yellow. The Riesen message included in the google drive was on the back.
This was a super easy little tag to make! I used the top tag punch on a 2 inch by 4 inch piece of cardstock and secured it to the package of nuts using natural baker’s twine. This could be adapted for gold fish crackers with “It’s O-FISH-al…..” fill in your message, Mini packs of Gummy Bears with e ‘beary’ message, a box of raisins for “raisin” spirits, scores etc.
The three inch bags have pleated bottoms so you can fit a variety in when needed. Notice my little Tulle bow? it took me 45 minutes to print, cut bag and bow for a staff of 30.
Another super easy teacher treat with a fresh honeycrisp apple, a circle cut cardstock tag, and a little tulle. Increase the cute factor on this one by adding the scalloped back on the circle cut out with an accent color.
This one was so basic….printed the tag and stuck it to RX bars. This one could have been done in a bag with tulle, or double punched with the tag topper punch and a ribbon attachment. But….as I said, I was sort of slacking this year!
You can always count on me to capitalize on brand names to coordinate with the messages in my treats!

All of the ideas that are linked in my google drive are tried and true…and retired for the next few years or until everyone in my building has forgotten about them! If you check back over the course of the school year, more will be added! Once in the drive, be sure to check the folder as well- mostly word docs that you can change and modify- please make a copy first! Link to teacher appreciation drive here

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