Happy Teacher Appreciation Week: Our Gifts To You!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! We know you spend all school year helping your students grow with every lesson. That’s why we want to take the opportunity to stop, reflect, and see how the seeds of knowledge you’ve planted in your students all year are blooming and will be perennial as they continue their education. Take a look at the ways we’re recognizing and celebrating you this week:

• Give your fellow teachers their flowers by celebrating their accomplishments
• Watch your students grow with these Teacher Appreciation Week activities
• Help our Facebook community flourish

[Give your fellow teachers their flowers by celebrating their accomplishments](id-spotlight)

At Newsela, and especially in our educator community, we love to highlight teachers who go above and beyond to bring content-rich instruction and engaging activities to their students in the classroom every day. Let’s give a virtual round of applause and spotlight some of our featured teachers for this Teacher Appreciation Week:

Alex Sirna

Alex is a 9th- and 11th-grade social studies teacher at Hamilton High School in the Milwaukee Public School District. Alex uses Newsela to incorporate other school-subject skills into the social studies classroom. 

One thing that surprised him about using Newsela in the classroom? How quickly it helped his students connect important information from previous articles, documents, or lessons to new content throughout the semester—all on their own!

Alexa Friedman

Alexa is a 4th-grade science and social studies teacher at Washington Elementary School in West Orange School District. Alexa uses Newsela to preview and review content with her students and activate their schemas and prior knowledge of a topic.

One problem Newsela solves for Alexa and her students? Saving time with lesson planning and prep, plus keeping students engaged and on-task when they’re pulled from class for activities like orchestra or band!

Andrea Valenzuela

Andrea is a 10th-grade science teacher at Richardson High School in Richardson ISD. Andrea loves the variety of question types in Formative, which helps her students develop critical thinking skills. 

One thing she was surprised to learn she could do with Formative? Set up assessments for students with accommodations!

Jessica Lyons-Castañeda

Jessica is a 3rd-grade teacher at Arrowhead Elementary School in the San Bernardino City Unified School District. Jessica loves Formative’s real-time insights, especially for math, to help identify which students need extra support.

One thing she was surprised she could use Formative for? Improving student engagement and accountability on activities and assessments!

Sarah Call

Sarah is a 9th-11th grade ELA teacher at Boca Raton High School in the School District of Palm Beach County. Sarah uses Newsela to present texts her students read from their district textbook to extend student knowledge, comprehension, vocabulary building, and application to the curriculum texts.

What do Sarah’s students love about Newsela? They like the tools they can use while reading, like listening to audio and answering checks for understanding questions!

[Watch your students grow with these Teacher Appreciation Week activities](id-activities)

Want to help your students show appreciation for other teachers at your school? Here are some activities you can do with your students to help spread gratitude throughout your building:

• Ask students to describe their teachers in three words. Create and share a word cloud for each teacher to display in their classrooms.
• Have students ask teachers the names of their favorite books. Find a way to purchase any missing titles for your school library—either with school funds or by having students brainstorm ways to fundraise—and donate a copy dedicated to that teacher from your class.
• Teach students how to write thank you notes and encourage them to write messages to their favorite teachers.
• Browse the Appreciating Our Teachers text set to get even more ideas on how to help your students thank and celebrate the other teachers in your school and their lives.

[Help our Newselaverse community flourish](id-community)

In the Newselaverse, you can find a variety of voices from teachers, administrators, and instructional coaches. Join now to start collaborating! 

Not on Facebook? Not a problem! You can still be a part of the Newselaverse by following us on other social media platforms—like Instagram, X, and LinkedIn—and by subscribing to The Weekly Planner and Weekly Formative Feed.