On Tuesday, Oct. 4, International Baccalaureate (IB) Council set up a teacher encouragagram station in the IB Colony. At the station, students could write their IB teachers letters of appreciation, thanking them for all of their hard work. Students were able to personalize these cards with stickers, washi tape, and colorful markers before placing them in a labeled envelope for their respective IB teacher.

“The plan for teacher appreciation is to do something at least monthly, to celebrate our teachers and say thank you,” IB coordinator Ms. Christin Key said. “ [Teachers] work so hard for our students and our students genuinely love our IB teachers and are grateful for them. So our hope is to continue with these efforts as the year goes on.”

Student response to the IB encouragagram event was positive, with over 300 letters of appreciation written by students for their teachers. On Oct. 14, as the event drew to a close, each IB teacher received their envelope filled with kind messages and compliments along with a Crumbl cookie.

“I love [the encouragagrams] because it feels really nice being appreciated by my students,” IB Chemistry teacher Mr. Robert Cochran said. “Looking at each [letter], I liked it because everything was personalized. It felt nice to be appreciated and I felt encouraged to keep going. It felt uplifting.”

The immense student participation in the IB encouragagram event allowed students to uplift their teachers with tangible messages of thanks.