Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up May 8-12, 2023! What is your brand doing to celebrate? In a year when teachers are feeling particularly undervalued and they have gone above and beyond to teach their students, I urge you to be incredibly thoughtful this week. Many teachers are extremely burnt out from teaching virtually, hybrid, and in-person (often at the same time!) and the last thing they want is a company or organization thanking them just within the mandated week. Take some time to think about what teachers really need right now— talking to teachers themselves whenever possible— then plan your Teacher Appreciation Week campaigns accordingly.
Sometimes when planning campaigns, I find it helpful to backwards plan in a way that incorporates what you should not do. If you identify the things you’d never want to do, it’ll not only ensure you never do them, but you can flip those “never” ideas into things you actually want to do. With all of this said, here are three things any brand should never do when appreciating educators during Teacher Appreciation Week.
1. Celebrate teachers… for the first time in a year
As a former teacher, I will always be in favor of celebrating teachers, but it doesn’t do any good to appreciate teachers for just a week, then go back to your normal business. Teacher appreciation should be a core tenet of every education brand’s (heck, everybody’s!) day-to-day life. It’s wonderful to use this week to highlight the amazing work that teachers do, but don’t forget about this work the rest of the year. Elevate it, celebrate it, and fight for teachers to have the rights, salaries, and appreciation that they deserve every single day. Standing up for teachers consistently is the greatest way to show your appreciation.
2. Offer a discount on your own products
We all know that teachers need to have higher salaries. Right?! On top of being underpaid, every single teacher I know pays out of pocket for all sorts of products and services for their classrooms. They even have to spend their own money on supplies, which has been estimated at at least $750 per year. Your brand is likely amazing, but offering any discount to financially-strapped teachers is not going to make a big difference in their lives. Teachers can see through a sales campaign posing as appreciation. What’s even worse is when brands offer smaller discounts than they normally offer and attempt to sugar coat it as a “special teacher-appreciation” discount. Instead, find a way to give your product or other helpful products or services away for FREE. If you must provide a discount, only provide heavy discounts (i.e. something you truly have never offered to anyone else and is special for educators just during this week). And remember -- the last thing that makes people feel appreciated is asking them to take out their wallets, especially educators.
3. Oversimplify what it means to be a teacher
Teaching is not cute or precious. Please don’t oversimplify or trivialize it! A great teacher is something that transforms lives and has not only advanced degrees but thousands of hours of sweat, tears, creativity, and collaboration. When you think about celebrating teachers, please consider the spectrum of work that teachers do and how hard they work at perfecting their craft, especially this year. Teachers have been working through a global pandemic, figuring out new modes of teaching with little or no notice, all the while trying to keep it together during times of extreme stress. They often act as therapists, nurses, administrative assistants, advocates, fundraisers, and spokespeople. The best types of appreciation show teachers that you see who they really are and the wide spectrum of challenging work that they do every single day.
These are just a few things we suggest you never do for teacher appreciation. There are many more. Just go ahead and ask an educator and they can give you countless examples of teacher appreciation from brands gone incredibly wrong. Please don't be that brand. That said, it’s never a bad idea to give gifts! If you’re looking for thoughtful gift ideas for educators, our gift guide has tons of great ideas. Above everything else be thoughtful...and incorporate teacher appreciation all year long.
Note: This blog post was originally published on April 15, 2021. Last updated on April 13, 2023.
