Highlights: Teacher Appreciation Month 2024

At Educators for Excellence (E4E), we strive to recognize and uplift educators all year long, but May is an especially exciting month for us. To coincide with the nationally celebrated Teacher Appreciation Day on May 7, we go beyond that with Teacher Appreciation Month–because one day of celebration is not enough!

Whether we brought schools a complimentary lunch, hosted a special event, or sent a personal note, it’s our goal to show educators how important they are to our communities and students! We invite you to take a look back at some of the highlights of our Teacher Appreciation Month celebrations across the nation.

E4E-Chicago celebrated at Chalmers Elementary and Plamondon Stem, co-hosting the school visits with educators and building leadership teams. The chapter also traveled to Springfield twice to lobby for elected school board compensation and organized its third Teacher Leadership Training!

E4E-Connecticut hosted its Teacher Appreciation Month event at Parkville Market in Hartford. The team celebrated alongside 74 educators with delicious food and drinks and meaningful conversation.

In Los Angeles, we visited 10 schools and engaged with a total of 264 teachers! The teachers were excited to be more involved in the chapter’s work to increase teacher prep time, with 230 teachers signing a petition and 113 completing a survey.

In Massachusetts, we spent an afternoon with more than 200 educators at Brockton High School and the enthusiasm to learn more about our work was infectious. During our visit, nearly 30 educators took the time to thank a colleague or former teacher who made an impact on their lives.

E4E-Minnesota visited five schools within MPS and SPPS, expressing gratitude to more than 350 teachers with complimentary lunches, sparking activism as several signed petitions–in May, nearly 200 MN educators successfully petitioned for more funding for the READ Act. The chapter also hosted happy hours and volunteered at schools, strengthening our ties with the educational community.

E4E-New York celebrated Teacher Appreciation Month at nearly 15 schools! Educators thanked their colleagues who made this school year possible while taking action around ongoing professional learning, high-quality math, and accessible union voting practices.

• On Teacher Appreciation Day, E4E-New York unveiled a set of teacher-developed policy recommendations that urge the City’s leadership to tackle the math achievement crisis by narrowing middle school curriculum choices to those that are both high-quality and culturally relevant. Their advocacy was amplified through a feature story by CBS New York.

Take Action!

Despite teachers’ best efforts, we recognize that obstacles can prevent classroom success–from a lack of funding and resources to limited professional development and social-emotional support. Our 2024 Voices from the Classroom National Teacher Survey tells us that now is the time to reimagine the teaching profession.

Although celebration is the focus of Teacher Appreciation Month, we know we must continue to make our voices heard to drive meaningful change. That’s why we’re calling on federal legislators to invest in education research that is equitable, accessible, and ultimately used to inform policies that impact the profession.

We hope you enjoyed celebrating Teacher Appreciation Month with us. Our educators’ unwavering commitment to student success is unparalleled, and we can’t thank them enough for all that they do!