To honor teachers and educators, members of the National Honor Society (NHS) put together cards and goodie bags for teachers to celebrate National Teacher Appreciation Day on May 5.
Teacher Appreciation Week took place May 4-8, and National Teacher Appreciation Day occurred on May 5.
This day was initiated in 1953 by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who persuaded Congress to create a day to honor teachers, and is celebrated on the Tuesday of the first full week of May, as sponsored by the National Education Association.
According to NHS co-advisor Angela Wahl, the organization wanted to create personalized cards and gift bags for teachers to show appreciation for the hard work they put in every day.
“Having a memento, especially with the card where students are handwriting thoughtful messages, is really meaningful,” Wahl said.
For NHS president Riya Patel, she feels that the work that teachers put in often gets overlooked, and that taking a moment to appreciate teachers is essential.
“Teachers are the individuals who shape us and teach us everything we need to know to be successful in our future endeavors,” Patel said. “They’re the people who really shape us in figuring out what we want to do in our future.”
According to Wahl, the day doesn’t just celebrate teachers, but all staff who help within the school.
“We end up celebrating all of the administrative assistance, learning support, guidance, security and maintenance, all of the people that really make the school building what it is,” Wahl said.
For Wahl, she believes that the personalized cards are more genuine and sincere.
“There’s a lot of intention behind handwritten cards,” Wahl said. “I think that when you’re spending time to actually give something personalized to someone, and you’re taking the time to find a pencil [and] a paper and you’re decorating a card and putting forth a lot of intentional meaning behind what you’re writing, I think that that’s really impactful.”
For NHS co-advisor Carrie Harris, she likes that the students can “give back” to their teachers as they make the cards.
“It’s a really nice way of saying thank you to teachers and also just in general, to those who are helping you learn,” Harris said.
For Patel, she hopes the cards help teachers stay motivated.
“We don’t always go to our teacher and say, ‘Thank you for teaching us.’ We kind of just assume they know it,” Patel said. “When we write these handwritten notes, I hope it really reinforces their passion to teach others.”
As for students, freshman Catherine Shindele says that teachers really “make or break” a classroom environment.
“I feel like if [teachers] didn’t get any appreciation, it would definitely make the class less fun, especially in some of my favorite classes,” Shindele said.
According to sophomore Logan Boyd, he says that students don’t take as much time as they should to reflect on how much teachers do for students.
“Teachers’ work is overlooked sometimes because I feel we don’t ever take the time to truly appreciate our teachers, even though they do a lot for us,” Boyd said.