Teacher Appreciation

One year at Lil O's former Montessori school, I was the coordinator of school spirit, which really meant making the teachers and staff feel appreciated.  I was soooo happy to have that job.  I loved coming up with "gift packs" for each teacher and staff member with my $20 budget for each (paid by the Parent Association).  I surveyed all the teachers and staff at the beginning of the school year to find out their interests and favorites - favorite colors, Starbucks drink, style of home decor, music, etc.

You can kind of see in the photo above the "gift packs" I would put together.  I needed to blur the image a bunch to keep the names semi-private.  This is the Internet after all, right?

Gift packs for teachers:

• Box of favorite tea.  I found Trader Joe's and Target had the best prices.
• Beaded necklace I would create in their favorite color.  I have quite a collection of beads, so I literally didn't need to buy any supplies for this; I already had them!
• Framed photo of students.  I found great deals on frames at Joanns, Michaels and Home Goods.
• CD with favorite music and a recording of the children singing Happy Birthday to them,  I used the "Voice Memos" app on my iPhone to record this.
• Card with messages from all the families* and all the children's signatures.  I think kids' signatures are priceless.
• Framed Wordle created with words that described the teacher or staff member*.

From what I understand, the teacher appreciation gift packs were a bit hit.  I know the teachers and staff thanked me a lot.

Educators and school staff sometimes are under-recognized for the amazing love and nurturing they provide to students.  Have you shown your appreciation to an educator or ally lately?

Just wondering....

Jen

* In order to efficiently gather parents and families' birthday messages and descriptive words for the Wordle, I used the free Survey Monkey and made a survey with two questions:  1)  Describe the teacher in 3-5 words, and 2) What is your birthday message for Mr./Ms. XYZ?  Then, I emailed the survey link to all the parents and families and set a deadline to complete it.  Once completed, I simply copied and pasted their responses into a Word document or the Wordle template.  It was easy peasy that way.

Word cloud gifts

Do you remember this old-school, Tech Tuesday post on Tagxedo and Wordle?  If not, click here to (re)visit it.  If you need a personalized holiday gift, Tagxedos and Wordles look super-duper snazzy when they are framed.

I bet you know who got a gift related to the Tagxedo above.  I wish I could say I made it, but I found it in the Tagxedo gallery.

Score,

Jen

Tech Tuesday - Tagxedo and Wordle

Two of my favorite freebie web-tools are Tagxedo and Wordle.  Yes, I know everyone knows about Wordle, but most are unfamiliar with Tagxedo.  They both are similar - tag cloud generators - however, Tagxedo makes the coolest shapes with their tag clouds, see?

In case you aren't sure what a tag cloud generator is it basically takes words and phrases (that either you enter yourself or you tell it to grab from a URL) and displays them in a "word splash" form based on frequency.  For example, if you say "Butterflies" 100x in a website, it will make the world "butterflies" bigger since you used it so often.  This video helps to understand Tagxedo.  Here is a slide show which shows the many uses of Wordle (which can also be applied to the lovely Tagxedo).

I like to use either web tool for:

• Get to know you introductions
• Debriefing a concept or lesson
• Assessing prior knowledge on a subject
• Just to be cool (since they are so pleasing to the eye)

Special tip:  To enter phrases, use the "~" sign  (the tilde sign) in between words.  Not a hyphen, the ~ sign is the one you need.  You know, the one you use in Spanish?  If you think of other creative uses of Tagxedo or Wordle, do share them in the comment section below.

Happy Tech Day,
Jen