By Clay Shumate
Teacher Appreciation Week 2027 runs Monday, May 3 through Friday, May 7, 2027, and National Teacher Day falls on Tuesday, May 4. Many schools call it Educator Appreciation Week so the thanks reaches aides, counselors, coaches, bus drivers and front-office staff too. It is the same week either way, and the best ideas for it cost very little.
This guide sorts ideas by who is doing the appreciating, because a student, a parent and a principal have very different tools. It also covers what teachers say they actually want, using real surveys rather than gift-guide guesses, and it includes a free thank-you note template students can fill in during class.
Key Takeaways
- The 2027 dates: Teacher Appreciation Week is May 3–7, 2027. National Teacher Day is Tuesday, May 4.
- Educator appreciation week is the same week. The name just widens the circle to every adult who keeps a school running.
- Specific beats expensive. A note that names a real moment does more than a generic gift card with no message.
- Gift cards are popular for a reason. In one 2023 survey, 75% of teachers said gift cards and wish-list items were the appreciation they wanted most.
- Administrators hold the most valuable gift: time. In a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 84% of teachers said they do not have enough time in the regular workday for grading, planning and paperwork.
What is Teacher Appreciation Week?
Teacher Appreciation Week is a national observance held during the first full week of May, when students, families and communities thank the people who teach them. The National Education Association describes it simply: “For decades, the first full week of May has been National Teacher Appreciation Week” (NEA, 2020). National PTA runs its own version on the same calendar and says it “has designated the first week of May as PTA Teacher Appreciation Week since 1984” (National PTA).
The Tuesday of that week is National Teacher Day. In 2026, for example, the NEA listed the week as May 4–8 and National Teacher Appreciation Day as Tuesday, May 5 (NEA).
When is Teacher Appreciation Week 2027?
Teacher Appreciation Week 2027 runs from Monday, May 3 to Friday, May 7, and National Teacher Day is Tuesday, May 4, 2027. May 1, 2027 falls on a Saturday, so the first full Monday-to-Friday week of the month starts on May 3. That is the rule both the NEA and National PTA follow.
One honest caveat: as of October 2026, neither organization had posted its 2027 materials yet. The dates above come from applying their published rule to the 2027 calendar. They line up with how the week has been scheduled in recent years. Still, check your school calendar before you plan. Some schools move their celebrations to avoid state testing windows or AP exams, which also land in early May.
Educator Appreciation Week: same week, bigger circle
Educator appreciation week is not a separate event. It is the name many districts use for Teacher Appreciation Week so the thanks reaches every adult in the building. That means paraprofessionals, special education aides, counselors, librarians, nurses, coaches, custodians, cafeteria staff, bus drivers and the front office.
This matters more in middle and high school than people think. A ninth grader may see six or seven teachers a day, but the adult who notices that student every single morning is often the bus driver or the person at the front desk. If you are planning the week for a whole school, put those names on the list from the start rather than adding them as an afterthought on Friday.
Teacher appreciation ideas from students
The best thing a student can give a teacher is specific, written evidence that something worked. Teenagers often think a thank-you has to be big to count. It doesn’t. It has to be specific.
- A note that names a real moment. “Thanks for everything” gets read once. “Thanks for staying after class when I didn’t get the essay” gets kept. The free template below walks students through this.
- A class letter. One sheet, every student adds one sentence about something they learned or remember. Fifteen minutes of homeroom.
- A note to a teacher from a past year. High school students writing to their sixth-grade teacher is one of the most powerful versions of this week, and it costs nothing but a stamp or a walk across the parking lot.
- Do the thing the teacher keeps asking for. Turn in the late assignment. Come to class with a pencil all week. Teachers notice, and they laugh about it in the best way.
- A student-made video or slideshow. Short clips of students saying one sentence each. A student club or class officers can run it.
- Thank the adults nobody thanks. Students can write notes to the custodian, cafeteria workers or bus drivers. This is educator appreciation week at its best.
Free download: Teacher Appreciation Week thank-you note template
Two pages. Page 1 is a guided student note with five prompts: who it is for, one specific moment, what changed, something the adult might not know, and a closing line. Page 2 has two cut-apart thank-you cards to copy the final note onto. Works for any teacher or staff member.
Free. No email address required. Built for grades 6–12.
Teacher appreciation ideas from parents and families
Parents have two things students don’t: money and the ability to tell the principal. Both are useful, and the second one is underused.
- Email the principal, copy the teacher. Two or three specific sentences about what the teacher did for your child. This can end up in an evaluation file, and it costs nothing.
- Gift cards, if you are giving a gift. See the survey section below. Small amounts are fine. A coffee shop, bookstore or office-supply card is a safe choice.
- Fund the wish list. Many teachers keep an online classroom wish list. Ask for the link, or ask the PTA to collect them.
- Restock the room. Tissues, dry-erase markers, pencils, sanitizing wipes and printer paper are spent constantly in grades 6–12 and rarely replaced fast enough.
- Volunteer an hour. Making copies, organizing a supply closet or covering a duty, if the school allows it.
- Check the rules on gifts. Some districts and states set limits on gifts to public employees. A quick check with the front office avoids an awkward moment for the teacher.
If your family is new to communicating with secondary teachers, our guide to effective parent-teacher communication covers what actually lands with a teacher who sees several class periods of students every day.
Ideas for administrators and PTA
School leaders control the one thing teachers say they are shortest on: time. In a Pew Research Center survey of 2,531 public K–12 teachers, 84% said there is not enough time during regular work hours for tasks like grading, lesson planning and paperwork, and 77% said their job is frequently stressful (Pew Research Center, 2024). A catered lunch is nice. Giving back a planning period is better.
- Cover a duty. Administrators and central office staff take hall, lunch or bus duty for a day.
- Cancel a meeting. Announce that the May faculty meeting is now an email and the hour belongs to teachers.
- Protect planning time. No pull-out meetings, no surprise trainings during appreciation week.
- Feed people well, once. One real meal beats five days of store-bought donuts. Include the night custodians and the bus drivers.
- Write specific notes. A principal who names one thing they saw in a teacher’s room during an observation is giving the kind of thanks teachers remember.
- Set up a student note station. A table in the library or cafeteria with the printable template, pens and a drop box sorted by teacher name.
- Remember the whole staff. Make it educator appreciation week on purpose, with a list that includes every adult in the building.
These gestures matter, but they are not a substitute for the structural changes that keep teachers in the profession. Our guide to what administrators can actually change about teacher burnout goes further on that, and collective teacher efficacy explains why a staff that trusts each other gets better results with students.
Free and low-cost teacher appreciation ideas
Almost every idea that teachers remember for years costs under five dollars. Here is a short list for any budget.
| Idea | Cost | Who can do it | Time needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Specific handwritten note | Free | Students, parents, staff | 10 minutes |
| Email to the principal, teacher copied | Free | Parents | 5 minutes |
| Class letter with one line per student | Free | Students, class officers | 15 minutes |
| Covering a duty or a class | Free | Administrators | One period |
| Note to a former teacher | Free or a stamp | High school students | 15 minutes |
| Classroom supply restock | $5–$20 | Parents, PTA | One store trip |
| Small gift card | $5–$25 | Parents | 5 minutes |
| Staff lunch | Varies | PTA, administrators | One day |
What teachers actually want for Teacher Appreciation Week
The honest answer, from the surveys that exist, is useful gifts, specific thanks and more time. There is less good data on this than gift guides suggest, so here is what each source really says.
Gift cards and wish lists. In April 2023, Teachers of Tomorrow, an alternative teacher-certification company, surveyed teachers in nine states through SurveyMonkey. It reported that “75% of teachers want to be appreciated through gift cards and having items on their Amazon wish lists purchased” (Teachers of Tomorrow, 2023). That is a clear result, but keep the source in mind. A company ran it, it was not a random sample, and the release gives two different response counts (“over 1,000” and about 1,400).
Notes. An informal poll of Houston-area teachers by the Houston Chronicle found personalized thank-you notes were the top pick at 36%, just ahead of gift cards at 31% (Houston Chronicle). This was a newsroom poll, not a scientific survey, so treat it as a signal and not a statistic. It does match what teachers say again and again: the notes get kept.
Time and pay. The strongest data is not about gifts at all. In the Pew survey, only 15% of teachers were extremely or very satisfied with their pay, and 51% were not too or not at all satisfied. The same survey found 84% saying the workday does not have enough time for the work (Pew Research Center, 2024). A week of appreciation cannot fix either problem. But it is a good reminder of why time-giving ideas from administrators land so well.
Colleagues. One bright spot from Pew: 71% of teachers said they are extremely or very satisfied with their relationships with other teachers at their school. Teacher-to-teacher notes during the week are worth encouraging.
Put together, the most reliable plan is simple. Write something specific. If you give a gift, make it useful. If you lead a school, give back time. For the bigger picture behind the stress numbers, see our guide to teacher burnout and where the teacher burnout statistics actually come from.
How to plan Teacher Appreciation Week in a middle or high school
Secondary schools need a different plan than elementary schools, because one student has many teachers and no single classroom party covers them. A simple week plan for grades 6–12:
- Monday: Announce the week and the note station. Homeroom or advisory writes notes with the template.
- Tuesday, National Teacher Day: Deliver notes. Student council reads short thank-yous over the announcements.
- Wednesday: Administrators cover duties. Families get a reminder email with ideas from this guide.
- Thursday: Staff lunch, scheduled so the cafeteria staff, custodians and drivers can eat too.
- Friday: Notes to former teachers, delivered across the district or by mail.
Keep the week light for the teachers being honored. An appreciation week that adds three extra tasks to a teacher’s calendar misses the point.
Sources
- National Education Association, “Teacher Appreciation Week,” accessed October 2026. Supports the 2026 dates (May 4–8) and National Teacher Appreciation Day on Tuesday, May 5, 2026. Caveat: the page did not yet list 2027 dates when checked; the 2027 dates in this article apply the same rule. https://www.nea.org/TAW
- National Education Association, “On Teacher Appreciation Day, Parents Are More Grateful Than Ever,” May 5, 2020. Supports the statement that the first full week of May has been National Teacher Appreciation Week for decades. https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/teacher-appreciation-day-parents-are-more-grateful-ever
- National PTA, “PTAs Nationwide to Honor Educators During Teacher Appreciation Week,” press release. Supports the statement that National PTA has designated the first week of May as PTA Teacher Appreciation Week since 1984. https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association/PTA-Newsroom/news-list/2016/11/15/PTAs-Nationwide-to-Honor-Educators-During-Teacher-Appreciation-Week
- Pew Research Center, “What’s It Like To Be a Teacher in America Today?”, April 4, 2024. Survey of 2,531 U.S. public K–12 teachers conducted Oct. 17–Nov. 14, 2023. Supports the figures on time (84%), stress (77%), pay satisfaction (15% and 51%) and relationships with colleagues (71%). https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/04/04/whats-it-like-to-be-a-teacher-in-america-today/
- Teachers of Tomorrow, “Teacher Appreciation Survey,” May 2023. Supports the 75% figure for gift cards and wish-list items. Caveat: conducted by a certification company through SurveyMonkey in nine states, not a random national sample; the release reports two different response totals. https://www.teachersoftomorrow.org/blog/insights/teachers-appreciation-survey-2023/
- Houston Chronicle, “What do teachers really want for Teacher Appreciation Week?” Supports the informal poll results for thank-you notes (36%) and gift cards (31%). Caveat: an informal newsroom poll with no reported sample size or method. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/neighborhood/article/Teacher-Appreciation-Week-best-gifts-17141918.php
Frequently Asked Questions
When is Teacher Appreciation Week 2027?
Teacher Appreciation Week 2027 runs Monday, May 3 through Friday, May 7, 2027. It is held during the first full week of May, and May 1, 2027 is a Saturday, so the week starts on May 3. National Teacher Day is the Tuesday of that week, May 4, 2027. Check your school calendar too, since some schools shift celebrations around testing.
Is Educator Appreciation Week different from Teacher Appreciation Week?
No. Educator Appreciation Week is the same week. Many districts use the name so the thanks includes every adult who works with students: paraprofessionals, counselors, librarians, nurses, coaches, custodians, cafeteria staff, bus drivers and front-office staff.
When is National Teacher Day 2027?
National Teacher Day 2027 is Tuesday, May 4. National Teacher Day falls on the Tuesday of Teacher Appreciation Week, which is the first full week of May.
What do teachers actually want for Teacher Appreciation Week?
The surveys point to three things. A 2023 survey by Teachers of Tomorrow found 75% of teachers wanted gift cards or items from their classroom wish lists. Informal polls put specific, handwritten thank-you notes at or near the top. And larger research, like a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, shows teachers are short on time, so administrators who give back planning time or cover duties are giving something teachers value.
What are good free Teacher Appreciation Week ideas?
A handwritten note that names a real moment, an email to the principal praising a teacher, a class letter with one sentence from every student, a note to a former teacher, and administrators covering a duty or canceling a meeting. All of these cost nothing and are often the gestures teachers remember longest.
How much should parents spend on a teacher gift?
There is no expected amount, and many teachers would rather have a specific note than an expensive gift. If you give a gift card, a small amount is fine. Some districts and states limit gifts to public employees, so it is worth checking with the school office before giving anything of larger value.
How can middle and high school students thank teachers?
Write a short note that names something specific, sign a class letter, write to a teacher from an earlier grade, or simply do the thing the teacher keeps asking for, like turning in late work. Students can also thank staff members who rarely hear it, like bus drivers, custodians and cafeteria workers.