For many of us who have children, the month of May has come to be known as the time to honor and appreciate our educators. While we often celebrate Teacher Appreciation Day or even Teacher Appreciation Week, it might be a good idea to spread our appreciation to include other school staff members such as counselors, janitors, cafeteria workers, administrative assistants and other employees who interact regularly with our students.

Six Ways Your Appreciation Benefits Your School

Letting your school staff members know that they are appreciated has many benefits that can spread throughout your school, or even your community. The following are just a few ways in which simple acts of appreciation can improve the overall atmosphere:

• Reduces staff absenteeism and turnover rates – cuts costs for training new staff members and keeps good, experienced staff in your school.
• Increases employee satisfaction – a happy employee is a productive employee.
• Creates a positive culture throughout your school – happiness is contagious and can pass from you to educators and staff and to students.
• Models positive behaviors for showing appreciation – shows students why it is important to thank those who help them.
• Encourages teamwork – staff members want to share their positive attitudes with others.
• Increases your school’s value – employees feel connected to the school and want to share how they feel about working there.

Finding ways to show appreciation for your school’s staff can provide many rewards. How you show your appreciation is limited only by your own creativity.

Using the #MyTeacherRocks Activity to Show Appreciation

This year, as part of Teacher Appreciation Day, we are honored to offer a simple, yet creative, activity for students that can be organized by the PTA, PTO or other parent organization at your school. Parent volunteers can come into student classrooms to lead this special activity. The #MyTeacherRocks campaign is a social media-based activity for children and leaders to spread the word about why their teachers and education staff rock. By using smooth, light-colored rocks, students can write or draw a symbol of what makes their staff member special to them. And for those schools who do not wish to use actual rocks, we have provided rock printouts along with a detailed activity guide on a printable PDF document. If you choose to have your child or school participate in this activity, we encourage you to share images of your student and/or staff member with their rocks on your own social media page with the hashtag #MyTeacherRocks.

For more resources to show appreciation for your school staff, visit www.boystowntraining.org/blog.html.