There aren’t many things in this world that almost every human has in common, but one common denominator is that we have all had a teacher in our lives. Whether it was a traditional classroom teacher or a mentor who was like a teacher to you, everyone has learned valuable information from someone else and we’re thankful for it.
Knowledge and learning will never go out of style, and neither will teachers! There’s so much more to teachers than the stereotypes we watch in movies or the shiny red apples on the desk that we imagine from word association. So, in the spirit of learning, let’s learn more about Teacher Day and why it is both awesome and incredibly important.
In this article
World Teachers Day
World Teachers Day, also named International Teachers Day, was established in 1994 in tribute to a historical educator event. In 1966 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Labour Organization both signed a Recommendation that embodied the concerns, materials, training, and recruitment of teachers all over the world.
Since 1994 and in our present time World Teachers Day is a day to appreciate, celebrate, and lift up the teachers in your community and life. Can you imagine how many teachers are in your community alone?! They really are the backbone of our communities, so let’s dive deeper into making a teacher day a success, and how to celebrate it!
When is Teacher Day?
Teachers Day is held on October 5th every year, and how neat is it that Teachers Day is celebrated around the entire world!
Students everywhere will be cheering their teachers on and piling their desks up with thoughtful cards. And educators can lift up their fellow colleagues by recognizing each other’s hard work as well. Even college students can get in on the celebration by shooting their professor an email or giving them a small gift.
Stick around for gift ideas towards the end of this article!
What is Teacher Appreciation Week?
Of course teachers deserve more than just a day! Every year in the U.S. the first full week of May is dedicated to celebrating the dedication that teachers put into their work every single day.
Parents and students can coordinate all sorts of kind surprises and thoughtful gifts to present to the teachers in their lives. Such as organizing a different type of gift the students can bring in each day (Ex: Each student brings in a flower, creating a beautiful bouquet.), or hosting a little after school party that has a potluck and students, staff, and parents can give little toasts to the teachers who have touched them. You can really get creative with your appreciation!
2023’s Teacher Appreciation Week will be held from Monday, May 1 through Friday, May 5.
Student Quotes About Teachers
Want to write something inspiring and appreciative in your Teacher’s Day card? Take a look through these thoughtful quotes to teachers from students, and pick one out that you feel you can relate to! You can write the inspiring quote in your card and write above or below the quote what your teacher has done for you and how much you appreciate them.
- “Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.” -Colleen Wilcox
- “A teacher takes a hand, opens a mind, and touches a heart.” -Anonymous
- “What greater joy can a teacher feel than to witness a child’s success?” -Michelle L. Graham
- “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” -Malcolm Forbes
- “Students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” -Anonymous
- “What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.” -Joseph Addison
- “The test of a good teacher is not how many questions he can ask his pupils that they will answer readily, but how many questions he inspires them to ask which he finds it hard to answer.” -Alice Wellington Rollins
- “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” -Mark Van Doren
- “The most important function of education at any level is to develop the personality of the individual and the significance of his life to himself and to others. This is the basic architecture of a life; the rest is ornamentation and decoration of the structure.” -Grayson Kirk
- “It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts…it is to teach them to think, if that is possible, and always to think for themselves.” -Robert Hutchins
- “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” -William Arthur Ward
- “[Kids] don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.” -Jim Henson
- “Education is much more than a matter of imparting the knowledge and skills by which narrow goals are achieved. It is also about opening the child’s eyes to the needs and rights of others.” -Dalai Lama
- “The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth.” -Dan Rather
- “When the untapped potential of a student meets the liberating art of a teacher, a miracle unfolds.” -Mary Hatwood Futrell
- “What greater or better gift can we offer the republic than to teach and instruct our youth?” -Cicero
- “One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is a vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.” -Carl Jung
- “A great teacher can teach Calculus with a paper clip and literature in an empty field. Technology is just another tool, not a destination.” -Anonymous
- “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” -John Dewey
- “No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness, and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.” -Emma Goldman
- “Among the many purposes of schooling, four stand out to us as having special moral value: to love and care, to serve, to empower and, of course, to learn.” -Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan
- “The word ‘education’ comes from the root e from ex, out, and duco, I lead. It means a leading out. To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil’s soul.” -Muriel Spark
- “A teacher affects eternity; he [or she] can never tell where his influence stops.” -Henry B. Adams
- “The job of an educator is to teach students to see vitality in themselves.” -Joseph Campbell
- “Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.” -Japanese Proverb
Teachers are the Best Quotes
Looking for the perfect quote to write in an appreciation card for the best teacher? Try out these teachers are the best quotes! Each of these quotes embraces the celebration of teachers and how much they positively impact individual lives and the world.
- “Every child deserves a champion—an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.” -Rita Pierson
- “We teach because in a world where there is little hope, teachers can be the only light for a child who has been left in the dark.” -Pink Tulip Teaching Creations
- “Our job is not to prepare students for something. Our job is to help students prepare themselves for anything.” -A.J. Juliani
- “Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions.” -Anonymous
- “The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards; curiosity itself can be vivid and wholesome only in proportion as the mind is contented and happy.” -Anatole France
- “The future of the world is in my classroom today, a future with the potential for good or bad… Several future presidents are learning from me today; so are the great writers of the next decades, and so are all the so-called ordinary people who will make the decisions in a democracy.” -Ivan Welton Fitzwater
- “If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.” -Chinese Proverb
- “The work of a teacher — exhausting, complex, idiosyncratic, never twice the same — is at its heart an ethical enterprise. Teaching is the vocation of vocations.” -William Ayres
- “One of the beauties of teaching is that there is no limit to one’s growth as a teacher, just as there is no knowing beforehand how much your students can learn.” -Herbert Kohl
- “Thirty-one chances. Thirty-one futures, our futures. It’s an almost psychotic feeling, believing that part of their lives belongs to me. Everything they become, I also become. And everything about me, they helped to create.” -Esme Raji Codell
- “I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.” -John Steinbeck
- “What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.” -Karl Meninger
- “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” -Albert Einstein
- “A good teacher is like a candle—it consumes itself to light the way for others.” -Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
- “Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together.” -Scott Hayden
- “It takes a big heart to help shape little minds.” -Anonymous
- “Proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you have always known” -Frank Herbet
- “I am not a teacher, but an awakener” -Robert Frost
- “At the desk where I sit, I have learned one great truth. The answer for all our national problems — the answer for all the problems of the world — comes to a single word. That word is education.” -Lyndon B. Johnson
- “Teachers, I believe, are the most responsible and important members of society because their professional efforts affect the fate of the earth.” -Helen Caldicott
When to Give Teacher Gifts
Whether it’s homemade, bought in-store, or shipped it’s extremely thoughtful to give a gift to the teacher in your life. But the question remains, when to give teachers gifts?
You can give your teacher a gift on both Teacher’s Day (October 5th) and a day within Teacher’s Appreciation Week (the first full week of May). Or, you can pick one of those days to physically give a gift to your teacher and still show your appreciation in some sort of other forms (verbally, written, drawn). Teachers aren’t looking for the shiniest and most expensive gift; they deserve and would love to receive recognition for their hard work and to know that their dedication to education is making a difference.
If you’re looking to give a gift to your teacher but you need some inspiration, keep on reading!
Gifts for Teacher Appreciation
Figuring out what to give the teacher in your life to show your appreciation can be difficult to narrow down. There are a few different gift giving routes you can go, let’s go ahead and explore your generous options!
Homemade Gifts for Teachers
- Handmade card with drawings, cut outs, and a thoughtful message inside (Bonus: if you have a picture with you and your teacher, print it out and place it inside!)
- Baked goods with sweet note attatched
- A home video of you and other students saying why they appreciate their teacher
- Create a little pocket book and write in memories you have of you and your teacher, and why you’re thankful to have your teacher in your life
Store Bought Gifts for Teachers
- Shop local! Get your teacher a gift from a local shop, or even create a little basket full of local items
- Assorited box of cookies
- Boquet of flowers with a thoughtful card
- A mug (Bonus if it’s a mug with a teacher theme!) filled with chocolates, or a bag of coffee beans or tea
Amazon Gifts for Teachers
Teacher Gifts for Christmas
As much as students look forward to Christmas break teachers need a break too, and a gift while we’re at it! No teacher deserves coal for Christmas, they’ve spent all year educating minds and spreading good knowledge. Take a look at these teacher gifts for Christmas to get some inspiration for your teacher’s Christmas gift!
Every teacher deserves to be appreciated every day, but make this Teachers Day extra special by surprising the teacher in your life with a wonderful card and gift!