Happy Teacher Appreciation Week, everyone! We are so grateful for all the educators in Washington, DC and beyond!

To celebrate properly, we wanted to focus this episode on ways to reimagine teacher appreciation week beyond traditional gestures like food and gifts.

For this, we invited the amazing teachers and EmpowerEd Fellows and Board Members, Jackeline Peña and Gabrielle Dubose, to share the memorable and meaningful forms of appreciation they have received during their education careers.

Together, we discussed:

• How to handle the under-appreciated aspects of teaching, such as emotional labor and behind-the-scenes tasks.
• Ways to infuse teacher appreciation efforts with a human-centered touch.
• How city-level policy reforms and policy change can be the most impactful way to show appreciation for educators.

We are so grateful to be working with so many amazing school leaders who understand the power of teachers' contributions and work to support the wellness of their educators.

Please let us know the ways you like to be appreciated and please share this episode with another educator in your life! Thanks for listening and all you do.

Thank you for listening! Please learn more about our educator wellness work in schools at or email [email protected]