Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up quickly! As I’m writing this in 2024, this year’s dates are Monday, May 6 to Friday, May 10. Teacher Appreciation Week is usually the first full week in May.
Many districts have internal appreciation events and initiatives – but as a school PR professional or social media manager, you get to celebrate teachers on a larger scale.
Social media is the perfect place to share the love for teachers. You get to…
- Show teachers how much students, families, and their colleagues appreciate the work that they do.
- Shine a spotlight on all the positive moments happening within your classrooms.
- Show prospective employees what it’s like to work (and be appreciated) at your district.
- Involve the wider community in thanking teachers, since social media is SOCIAL!
Let’s explore some fresh ideas for celebrating your teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week on social media – plus a few bonus ideas for offline appreciation, too!
Never miss a social media idea by subscribing to the #SocialSchool4EDU newsletter! Every other week, we provide post ideas AND links to new blogs, videos, and podcasts created specifically for school social media managers.
Teacher Appreciation Week Content Calendar
Now before we get too far into this, it’s important to know that Teacher Appreciation Week does not need to take over your entire social media presence for an entire week. You can still continue to post your typical content across your channels, with a few special posts for teachers sprinkled in.
Besides, May is BUSY in schools!! You have tons of sports and extracurriculars wrapping up their seasons, not to mention prom, recognition for graduating seniors, and graduation. In fact, this year, Teacher Appreciation Week overlaps with other school “holidays” such as Bike to School Day, School Nurse Day, and School Communicators Day.
So take a breath, think about what you can realistically handle, and then read through these ideas and pick a few that will work at your school!
4 Simple Post Ideas
Many times on social media, the simplest post ideas are the most engaging.
Pose a Question
Ask a question – but not just any question! Using one of Facebook’s colored background presets, write “Who was your favorite teacher?” and let the comments roll in!! We’ve seen posts generate hundreds of comments from people who name their favorite teachers and share stories about what makes them so special.
This blog walks through how to create these Facebook-background questions, and why you should go this route instead of creating a graphic, in case you haven’t tried this out before.
Virtual Applause Parade
Create a simple graphic, perhaps including a photo of a group of teachers in the background or just using your school branding, and invite people to give teachers a “round of applause” in the comments, using emojis. Take a look at the example below for a great way to phrase your caption.
We’ve seen this recreated across many school districts, and it always generates great engagement! Asking people to comment with an emoji is a very easy “ask.”
Piggyback on Existing Events
Chances are, there are Teacher Appreciation events happening within your district’s buildings already. PTOs, student clubs, and admin teams may already be planning special events to recognize teachers. Ask around to find out when and where these events are taking place, then show up with your phone (or delegate this to someone else, such as a student!) to snap some photos.
Write a celebratory caption to go with the photos, briefly describing the event and inviting your followers to thank teachers for all their hard work. Easy peasy!
“This Person Appreciates…”
Fill your community’s feed with your school colors! Create a graphic similar to the one below, which cleverly uses arrows to say, “This person appreciates [school name] teachers,” pointing to the author, and “so do these people,” pointing to those who react to the post.
(By the way, everyone inside my membership program has access to this graphic in Canva, to easily customize to their school branding!)
6 Post Ideas That Require Planning
If you have some more time, these post ideas are a little more involved but could have a big payoff if you try them out.
Throwback Thursday
Schools have been doing Throwback Thursday posts for years and years – and that’s because they WORK! People love seeing a blast from the past, especially when it involves old yearbook photos.
For Teacher Appreciation Week, one of these ideas would make an excellent #TBT post:
- Do you have teachers who have been at your school for a long time? 10-15-20+ years? Find their first yearbook photo and share it (probably with their permission) on social media, perhaps alongside a current photo.
- Do you have teachers who also graduated from your district? Same idea as above – find an old yearbook photo and do a “then and now” comparison. You might even be able to find photos of teachers who were friends then and are still friends, now! Or married!
- Gather childhood photos from your teachers and post them all together, inviting people to “guess who” in the comments.
Day in the Life of a Teacher Video
So much goes into a single day of teaching. Why not give your followers a peek behind the scenes? I recently created this step-by-step guide for creating a “Day in the Life of a Teacher” video, which would be perfect to start NOW and release during Teacher Appreciation Week.
Teacher Trivia
This idea might work better at a smaller school or district, where families are more likely to know most of the teachers. Gather some trivia from your teachers, then sprinkle it across a couple of social media posts throughout the week. You could create a graphic or pose the question with Facebook’s preset colors.
Here are some ideas that my Crew came up with:
- How many combined years of service does our teaching staff have?
- Guess which teacher has a Master’s Degree in ____!
- Guess which teacher once taught in Malaysia.
- Which of our teachers has been teaching the longest?
- How many of our teachers are also alumni?
Create a Collage
This post caption can be pretty simple, but putting together the graphic could take a little legwork. If you have hundreds of staff members, you don’t have to show them all in the graphic. Grab staff photos of all your teachers and create a fun collage, like this example:
“I Love My Teacher Because…”
Walk the hallways and get a diverse selection of students on-camera, saying: “I love my teacher [name] because…” It’s a super simple prompt that works for preschoolers to high schoolers!
Then, use a video editing program to edit those clips together, perhaps adding some nice background music to give the video some cohesion. Here’s an example:
Capture Real Voices on Video
The above example is something you can create with just your phone and a simple editing program, but if you have the time, talents, and/or budget to hire a professional team, why not take it to the next level?Get your tissues ready for this one! My friends at Captivate Media + Consulting put together one of my all-time favorite teacher appreciation videos. The teachers were told they were being interviewed for a recruiting video – but the real purpose was so much more.
This video takes the opposite approach, asking teachers to name a student who inspires them to come to work every day. What amazing sentiments!
Another tear-jerker! Jefferson County Public Schools asked graduating seniors to write letters to the teachers who had the biggest impact on them during their K-12 careers, and surprised their teachers with their letters on video.
Teacher Appreciation Ideas Outside of Social Media
Because your responsibilities at your school probably extend beyond social media, here are some additional ideas that my Crew contributed:
- Create digital thank you card(s) that people can download and share with teachers via email. Here’s another great example!
- Alert your local news stations about Teacher Appreciation Week and invite them to an event.
- Reach out to area businesses for donations and support for Teacher Appreciation Week. They could post a “Thank You (school name) Teachers” on their digital signage, donate money for a staff appreciation lunch, or simply help you share your social media content that week.
- Host lunches and/or snacks for teachers throughout the week.
- Create a Google form for parents and community members to leave a shout-out for a staff member. These could be shared privately or posted on social media.
Looking for Even MORE Ideas?
If you’re looking for even more Teacher Appreciation Week post ideas, check out this blog I wrote a few years ago. I also created this list of ideas for celebrating your school staff all year ‘round. All of these would work well for Teacher Appreciation Week, too.
Remember to have fun with it – and be sure to share your successful posts with me!
