By: Jason Odom, Director of Instruction, FlexPoint Virtual School

We know teachers make magic happen every day and play a pivotal role in shaping students’ future. With Teacher Appreciation Week approaching on May 6-10,  and our more than 20 years of experience teaching students online, we wanted to provide school and district leaders with tips and inspiration on how to celebrate your incredible virtual teachers during this important week. Here are 10 meaningful ways to celebrate your teachers in the online environment.   

1) Virtual recognition ceremonies

Host virtual award ceremonies or appreciation events to recognize outstanding online teachers. You can also include testimonials and presentations (via video) highlighting their accomplishments and impact on students’ lives. At FlexPoint Virtual School, we offer a virtual teacher appreciation event, so all of our teachers can share in the celebration. This includes fun icebreakers and games. 

2) Personalized thank-you messages

Encourage students, parents, and advocates of your online school to express their gratitude through personalized thank-you messages, videos, or digital cards. 

FlexPointer: Level up thank-you messages by compiling them into a virtual scrapbook or video montage to share with your teachers. At FlexPoint Virtual School, we create a presentation filled with parent and student kudos collected prior to Teacher Appreciation Week. Our teachers love reading real testimonials about the impact they have made on their students. 

3) Virtual gift cards

To show appreciation for their hard work and dedication, send virtual gift cards or care packages filled with digital gifts, such as e-books or other online subscription services. 

FlexPointer: For online teachers who live in different geographic areas, plan a regional in-person meet-up during Teacher Appreciation Week. Breakfast meet-ups have been a huge success with our virtual teachers. 

4) Virtual wellness activities

Organize virtual wellness activities such as yoga sessions, meditation workshops, or virtual coffee chats to promote self-care and stress relief among your teachers. Providing opportunities for relaxation and rejuvenation is essential for maintaining teachers’ well-being. These opportunities also allow your staff to mingle and collaborate with each other in a non-working environment, fostering team unity. For example, we provide monthly virtual high intensity interval training (HIIT) classes for teachers and staff, which allows them to support and motivate each other. 

5) Professional development opportunities

Show your teachers you care about their professional growth and development. Offer virtual workshops, webinars, or training sessions focused on enhancing their teaching skills in the online environment to ensure they know you support their professional growth and development. In addition to providing virtual opportunities, if your organization allows for it, establish in-person opportunities as well. Our organization brings our school leaders together four times a year for professional development events. Not only does this allow our leaders to collaborate and discuss best practices, but their team cohesiveness improves as well. Additionally, once a year our entire organization meets for a three-day conference with sessions to enhance school improvement, data-driven decision-making, innovation, latest trends, and best practices for online education. 

6) Social media recognition

Launch a social media campaign to celebrate online teachers, using dedicated hashtags to amplify their achievements and contributions. #ThankATeacher is a common national hashtag, so feel free to individualize it for your school or district.

FlexPointer: Encourage students, parents, and the community to share their stories and expressions of gratitude. By utilizing a user-generated content (UGC) contest to encourage students to post stories of their favorite or most impactful teachers, you can repurpose these quotes and stories throughout the year. 

7) Virtual classroom decorations

Create virtual classroom decorations, digital bulletin boards, online banners, email signature images, and video conferencing backgrounds to show your leadership team’s and families’ appreciation for their teachers. For a more impactful effect, ensure the same design is used across all messaging platforms. 

8) Virtual peer recognition

Coordinate a virtual peer recognition program where online teachers can nominate and recognize their colleagues for their outstanding contributions, leadership, and support. Highlight the list of accomplishments in your newsletters, website, and other forms of communication, both internally and externally. 

FlexPointer: Our organization has a webpage called “HiFive,” where employees can give each other a virtual high five. School leaders, support staff, and teachers can give a "HiFive" to congratulate someone on a project, celebrate a milestone, say thank you for going above and beyond, recognize innovative thinking, and more. Comments left on the page can then be used for an internal employee newsletter or on official social media channels. 

9) Virtual networking opportunities

Foster virtual networking opportunities for online teachers to connect, share best practices, and collaborate with their peers across different schools and districts. Building a supportive online community helps create lasting relationships and can enhance the shared trust of your teachers. Another idea is to provide in-person events at central locations for those virtual teachers who are spread throughout a large area. 

10) Video montage

Work with your senior leadership team to create a video that highlights their appreciation during Teacher Appreciation Week. We do this at our organization every year with heartfelt, authentic, and fun videos that allow our leadership team to connect with our teachers. 

This Teacher Appreciation Week, let’s come together virtually to express gratitude and appreciation for every teacher’s extraordinary contributions. Together, we can ensure that their efforts are recognized, valued, and celebrated. 

We hope these 10 tips for honoring your online teachers allow you to have an exciting and meaningful Teacher Appreciation Week. If you’re interested in additional resources to elevate or start an online school, visit our FlexPoint Resource Center. 

About the author: Jason Odom is the Director of Instruction for FlexPoint Virtual School, the national tuition-based online school. With more than 18 years of educational experience, he has a deep understanding of educational best practices and a commitment to student success, he is responsible for ensuring instructional programs align with organizational goals and objectives, evaluating and improving materials and methods, and providing instructional leadership and professional development opportunities to teaching staff.