Educators deserve appreciation year-round and not just during Teacher Appreciation Week in May or during the holidays in November/December. Although there is never a bad time to appreciate educators, there are so many opportunities to integrate appreciation into a brand’s everyday interactions with educators. This post provides some easy ways to thank educators year-round by highlighting relevant holidays and even including some creative marketing ideas. But before we get started, if you’re looking for educator gifts, make sure to check out our newly updated Educator Gift Guide (free download).
There is always an opportunity to weave in appreciation within any event you choose to market. For example, if you have a math product, you may decide to send pizza to all of your ambassadors to thank them for continuing to spread the word about your product on Pi day (March 14th of course!). 🍕
Although you can identify many more dates by going through EdTech Marketer’s Planner, which highlights many of the key events that may be relevant in an educator’s life, we’ve outlined key events that edtech brands can use to appreciate educators. Bonus: We’ve also included some fun ideas for each event!
Jan 1: New Year
Celebrate the new year by celebrating educators in a new, exciting way. Better yet, make a resolution to do whatever you can as a brand to consistently support and appreciate educators.
Feb 14: Valentine’s Day
Show your love for educators in a way that makes sense for your brand.
Feb 17: Random Acts of Kindness Day
Do something kind for the educators in your life and yes..make it random.
Feb 21: International World Languages Day
Spell out in all of the language you can the things you love about educators
March 1: World Compliment Day
Gather your best compliments for the educators in your life.
March 8: International Women’s Day
Show your appreciation for the incredible women that are also teachers
March 20: International Day of Happiness
Make some educators happy by recognizing and/or appreciating them with gifts or actions.
April 5-9: Assistant Principals Week + May 1: National School Principal Day
Go out of your way to appreciate principals and assistant principals with gifts and/or just some heartfelt thanks.
April 28: National Superhero Day
Highlight the superheroes educators can be in a lighthearted way but be sensitive to not perpetuate the myth that all educators need to be superheroes to succeed.
April 29: International Dance Day
Bust a move in honor of your educators or better yet, get them and their students to join in!
May 2: Laughter Day (or try International Joke Day on July 1 or Tell a Joke Day 8/16)
Simply appreciate all of the educators who constantly inject laughter into learning or get your CEO to try their greatest standup routine out. You can even highlight your favorite teacher jokes!
May 9: Mother's Day, June 20: Fathers Day, and July 25: Parents’ Day
Honor the educators that are parents by thoughtfully acknowledging all of the roles they play every day.
July 30: International Day of Friendship
If you’re building community, you are also lucky to have many educators as friends. Celebrate your friendship.
September 21: World Gratitude Day
Express your sincere gratitude for the teachers in your life. You can do this in so many ways!
October 1: World Smile Day (Share a Smile Day is March 1)
Create some educator smiles by sending gifts, thanks, or just doing something funny.
October 5: World Teachers’ Day
Celebrate teachers on their special day.
October 31: Halloween
Trick or treat but potentially think of just providing treats for educators!
November 13: World Kindness Day
Show kindness by celebrating and appreciating teachers with a kind gesture of your choosing.
November 25: Thanksgiving
Give thanks to teachers for all that they do
Food-related days are what we call the easy jump shot. Celebrate the educators in your life with the specific food the days celebrate. Bonus if you include their students!
Jan 15: Bagel Day
Jan 19: Popcorn Day
Jan 31: Hot Chocolate Day
Feb 9: Pizza Day
April 2: Peanut Butter and Jelly Day
April 21: Tea Day
March 14: “Pi” Day
May 15: Chocolate Chip Day
May 21: Pizza Party Day
June 4: Donut Day
July 7: World Chocolate Day
July 18: Ice Cream Day
Aug 4: Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
Sep 29: Coffee Day
Nov 4: Candy Day
Nov 26: Cake Day
Dec 4: Cookie Day
Dec 15: Cupcake Day
Dec 26: Candy Cane Day
Dec 30: Bacon Day
And don’t forget topic-specific days that are most directly related to your brand and the specific educators in your audience or community.
Math/Physics/Science/STEM:
Jan 25: Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day
Jan 21-27: National Engineers Week
Feb 7: National Periodic Table Day
Feb 11: Inventor’s Day
Feb 11: International Day of Women and Girls in Science
Feb 12: Darwin Day
March 14: Pi Day (International Day of Mathematics)
Oct 13: Ada Lovelace Day
Nov 8: STEM day
Dec 7-13: Computer Science Education Week
Dec 22: Mathematics Day
English:
January 4: World Braille Day
January 23: Handwriting Day
March 4: Grammar Day
March 30: Pencil Day
Sept 8: International Literacy Day
Sept 24: National Punctuation Day
Oct 16: Dictionary Day
Oct 20: National Day on Writing
Grade-Level Specific Days:
Jan 10: Fourth Graders Day
Feb 15: Seventh Graders Day
March 11: Preschooler’s Day
March 21: National Teenager Day
April 21: Kindergarten Day
Types of Educators:
Feb 1-5: National School Counselor Week
April 5-9: National Assistant Principal Week
April 16: National Librarian Day
April 25: Admin Professionals Day
May 1: School Principals Day
May 12: National School Nurse Day
October 2: National Custodian Day
October 6: National Coaches Day
Note: All of these dates are for 2021. If you are looking at this post at a later year, the dates may shift slightly.
