The Power of Praise during Teacher Appreciation Week and Beyond

Caitlin Churchill, Possip‘s Experience and Support Team Lead, shares why she values praise, and how you can use teacher praise from Pulse Check reports for Teacher Appreciation Week.

Praise is powerful. It enables social capital, and more importantly, it is steam for self-esteem. It pushes us through wins and losses. Praise reminds us of our inherent value and visibility in this world. It says, “you are known, seen and appreciated!” I praise people behind their backs all the time! Call it positive gossip, if you will.

This Teacher Appreciation Week, you’ll have the opportunity to praise the educators around you, and we want to make it easy for you to do! There are thousands upon thousands of praise comments from parents that show up in Pulse Checks! Gain inspiration from the following praise quotes and check out these ways to use Possip praise for easy, yet meaningful Teacher Appreciation Week gifts!

This year, teachers have received wonderful shout-outs like:

*“Ms Snyder, Mr Quinn, Ms  Campos, Ms Sparks, Mr Wells, and Mr Watts have been extremely helpful with helping my granddaughter with her academic and social challenges. They are the role models, that can lead our children and other teachers in the right direction. Thank you guys.”

And praise for going above and beyond:

Me gustaría agradecer Mr. Olson….el se a tomadola molestia de ofrecerse a levantar a mi hijo está semana para que el pueda asistir a sus exámenes debido a que yo estoy trabajando y se me es difícil llevarlo, así que le estoy infinitamente agradecida.🎖🏆🎖👍” Which translated says, “I would like to thank Mr. Olson …. he has taken the trouble to offer to pick up my son this week so that he can attend his exams because I am working and it is difficult for me to take him, so I am infinitely grateful.

Parents have recounted really touching experiences:

I couldn’t love Ms. Lowe and Ms. Smith more. They are compassionate, creative, and responsive. This is my son’s first school and we were so apprehensive. We are so pleased with our decision to enroll every day.

And success stories:

I love the inclusivity of the school. It’s such an incredible place! My son recently decided he wants to be WRITER when he grows up. I attribute this to the amazing educators and humanities classes.

We’ve also seen praises about the growth students and families experience:

I also was so excited for my scholar to receive the nicest gift from the school for turning in all of his homework.  I cannot tell you how hard we have worked, even when my scholar didn’t want to.  Homework has taught us all so much because teaching a kindergartener 2 plus 1 isn’t really just a lesson in math.  I am facing myself at every level and gaining a tremendous amount of respect and appreciation for everyone who works in or supports schools.

It can be hard to know the impact you are making as an educator, but we have evidence of it through really kind and thoughtful praise quotes from parents. (For example, Possip partner Inglewood Elementary celebrates its teachers year round by using parent quotes from Pulse Checks). What better time to share those quotes with your team than Teacher Appreciation Week?

Get Teacher Praise Reports from Possip now, and let us know how we can make sharing praise really easy so your team knows they’re appreciated year round!

*Teacher names have been adjusted to maintain anonymity.