To tie a bow on Teacher Appreciation Week, I got to thinking about a question we put to teachers on The Mailbox Facebook page. We asked whether there was a particular student-given gift a teacher remembered better than others. There were some great replies, everything from homemade spring rolls to a waffle iron to a pet rock.
By the time I entered my third year of teaching, my students knew the way to my heart: cashews and bookstore gift cards. Cashews were my snack of choice back then, and the gift cards served to satisfy my hunger for good reading and supplemental teaching resources. I never left a bookstore without a new novel and the latest issue of The Mailbox, the #1 teacher’s idea magazine (a full decade before I landed here as web projects editor).
While I was quick to mention my latest good read to my students, I never told them that the skill-building worksheet or the glut of new writing prompts they were working on came from The Mailbox books (Super Simple Independent Practice: Language Arts and 730 Journal Prompts) I’d also picked up thanks to their thoughtful gift.
How about you? What’s the most memorable gift you’ve received during Teacher Appreciation Week?