Our team just got back from Boston and the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) Education Forum and Annual Meeting. What a whirlwind! Even though the Office Expo is only two days, they were both incredibly busy! 

If you’re reading this post, then most likely you’re an advocate of employee recognition.  If you’re a recognition advocate, then I’m sure at some point you’ve felt like a lone wolf.  Even though the link between genuine expressions of appreciation and improved performance is intuitive to us, it seems like “fluff” to many managers, supervisors and informal leaders. 

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine you are in location surrounded by like-minded people—colleagues in the science, application and advancement of employee recognition practices. 

Teacher Appreciation Week starts May 3, one week from today, and if you haven’t planned anything for your teachers yet, don’t worry. You still have plenty of time! I recently received lots of good ideas in my inbox from to Dr. Diane Hodges, a recognition champion and experienced educator. Diane has really creative ideas that are perfect for appreciating educators, and I wanted to share some of her ideas with you. For more of Dr. Hodge’s ideas for teacher and staff appreciation, visit her website or register for her newsletter. The ideas listed below are from Dr. Hodge's new book, Season it with Fun.  

Working Together is Paradise!
Set a festive, tropical theme for the week. Encourage staff members to wear tropical clothing that reflects the theme-flowered shirts and dresses, straw hats, etc. Decorate the staff lounge with palm trees, parrots, tiki lights, etc. Have daily drawings and award the winners with tropical items such as a pineapple, flamingo items, and other fun, inexpensive prizes. 

I’ve been engaging with a couple different teacher appreciation groups and pages on Facebook to find out what schools are doing for Teacher Appreciation Week this year. In one of those groups, a member shared an ebook by VolunteerSpot titled “The Greatest Gifts for Teachers.” Since recognition gifts are Baudville’s specialty, I had to check it out. 

The ebook had a lot of good ideas to help parents and students recognize teachers year-round, and focused on teacher appreciation ideas that relate to a specific holiday or time of the year. But I found the most interesting part of the book to be the Teacher Gift Survey Results. 

A thank you gift doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate to make an impact. We recently received this letter from Phyllis in Pennsylvania who used our recognition themes and milestone awards to give her volunteers and teachers some much deserved recognition!