By: Alex Durante

Do you appreciate your teachers? Teacher Appreciation Week takes place in the month of May each year. In this issue of the Squire, we will be talking about the significance of this week and how Eisenhower is participating in it this year.

According to Nationaldaycalendar.com, the first full week in May is Teacher Appreciation Week, and the Tuesday of that week is National Teacher Day, in the USA, at least. The National Education Association says that National Teacher Day is supposed to be a time to honor our teachers and their lifelong impacts. They say this day first started around 1944. That year, a teacher from the state of Wisconsin, Ryan Krug, started talking to political and educational figures about there being a day to honor teachers.

In 1953, Eleanor Roosevelt, the former First Lady got the 81^st Congress to make an official national teachers’ day. By 1980, Congress decided that March 7^th (at least that year) would be National Teacher Day. It was observed on the first Tuesday of March until 1985, when the National PTA started the whole idea of the first week of May, which still continues today.

     The Squire talked to Michelle Kingsley, a sophomore member of Student Council and we asked her all about Teacher Appreciation Week and what the club is doing this year and have done for it in the past. This year, the event takes place from May 7^th – 12^th, and each grade in Student Council is given a different task for the day of the week they are assigned. “For example, freshmen have Monday,” says Michelle, and “sophomores have Tuesday.” On Wednesday of the week (May 9), there will be an annual breakfast for the teachers, cooked by Student Council. When asked what Student Council has done in the past, Michelle said, “We have given teachers hand sanitizer and tissues with cute little notes.” This year, they’re doing even more. They plan to give teachers gum, markers, tissues, and notes, along with holding the breakfast.

If you aren’t in Student Council, but still want to do something to show your teachers that you appreciate them, some ideas from PTOtoday.com include stocking the faculty bathrooms with fancy toilet paper (none of that 1-ply stuff), new soap, and hand lotion, putting out some food for the teachers, and having a hallway parade for them. These obviously aren’t the only options, though. You can easily come up with many, many more ideas by consulting other websites, like Pinterest, or just using your own creativity.

If you just want to get a gift for your teacher, whether it’s this week or not, agirlandagluegun.com says that the top things teachers enjoy receiving from their students are personalized items, supplies, gift cards, thank you notes, and chocolate. As stated earlier, these aren’t the only options; you can easily come up with something to get for your teacher just based on who they are and what they like. On the other hand, themeasuredmom.com says some gifts to avoid are coffee mugs, scented lotion, candles, bath gel, baked goods, stuffed animals, coffee, tea, ‘teacher-themed’ objects, and ‘clutter,’ such as picture frames and figurines.

Picture source: http://www.coolpreschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/