Teacher Appreciation Ideas

As the chairperson of the PTF (Parent Teacher Fellowship) at my children's school, I have been tasked with Teacher Appreciation each year. In years past, this was just a luncheon along with gift cards to show them how much we appreciate what they do. Seriously, the teachers don't get paid enough. It's a tough job and I am personally grateful to them all for what they do on a daily basis.

This year, I asked for volunteers to help me ramp it up a bit. A few folks came forward and we started the brainstorming. We ended up with theme days for each day of the week and the big lunch on Friday. This year instead of hosting lunch at a home, we are sending them out to a sweet local place called the Small Cafe.

Here were our theme ideas along with what I personally am doing with them.

Monday: "A rose is...": Have your child draw a flower, make a flower, or bring a live flower to their teacher.
I had seen this cute idea to make flower pens, so I thought I'd try it. The original craft I had seen involved wire cutters and strippers. The one I linked to was more like what I did, only instead of using a glue gun, my daughter and I decided to use double sided duct tape to stick the pen in the barrel. I think they turned out nicely. I found pots at Target in the dollar section and the river rocks at the dollar store. Ribbon came from AC Moore. I printed out a note saying, "Thank you for helping me grow this year." and attached with the ribbon. The ribbon kept slipping off the pot, so I used glue dots to hold it on place.

Tuesday: "Super Sweet": Have your child bring a sweet treat to their teacher.
For this one, I found glass jars at AC Moore, but they weren't what I was looking for, so I found others at Dollar General - only I figured out that I didn't have enough to give to the preschool teachers too. So for preschool I used the ones from Dollar General, and for the older kids, we went with mason jars. I filled them with a combo of regular M&Ms and peanut butter M&Ms. The note for this one says, "You are Marvelous and Magnificent". Using the same ribbon from Monday's project I attached it to the jar.

This project turned out to be more expensive than I anticipated because of how large the jars were. I had to use 10 bags of M&Ms to get them all filled, but the teachers are worth it.

Wednesday: "Write it down!": You and/or your child can write a note to your teacher telling them something that made this year special, or expressing a special wish for them.
This one is easy. Some blank note cards and thoughtfulness are all it took.

Thursday: "Fruit of the Spirit": Bring in some fruit for your teacher. We sent in grapes in a disposable container with the saying "We think you're grape" attached.

So I'm late posting this - by about 2 months! The appreciation event was a hit. Our teachers loved the ideas and basked in the daily surprises.

Like a kick to the gut

It comes out of left-field. You are plodding along in your life, when "BAM!" something comes along that leaves you feeling like you were just kicked in the gut.

Happened to me last night while I was looking at my Facebook updates. A fb friend posted an update about how she had 4 boys going to Chuck E. Cheese's for pizza and then back to her house for a sleepover. Pretty routine - unless you know what I know. That her son is a boy that my son considers a friend. He's wanted to have play dates with "Bob" for months, but I never got around to scheduling them.

"So he wasn't invited, what's the big deal?", you may ask. It's not this incident, it's the situation as a whole. Harry (who has Autism for those of you who don't know), longs to be included. He thinks the kids in his class are all his friends and he wants to hang out with them. The truth is, after a full school year, not one of the other 9 kids in his class has ever asked him to come over and play. He's only been invited to one party and that's because we were friends with that family before they started at the school.

Harry is just aware enough of social connections to long to be included and to feel the sting of not having all of these friendships. It just gets worse as he gets older. He doesn't think of himself as different, unique, {insert whatever word you want there to indicate he has Autism}. Harry just wants to be accepted, loved, and sought  out by other kids.

I'm left feeling guilty now. If I had encouraged a friendship with Bob, would this Facebook status had turned out differently? I don't know. It's hard for me to have his typical peers over, because I am afraid of their rejection of him. I know that I could work it out here in my home and try to foster love and acceptance, but just like it hurt me to be rejected by kids growing up, the pain in this case is multiplied by a factor of 10 because they are rejecting my special son who wants to much to be accepted.

I think now that I will need to suck it up. Plan those play dates when we go back to school. Try to foster these friendships and see what happens from there.