A thoughtful note

1) I really love this question and thank you for asking it and thinking of teachers!

2) If this is a teacher you already know (or if you want to bookmark this for later, like a parent-teacher conference or the end of the school year), a note thanking them specifically for something they've done as a teacher – something you can see your kid has learned, or an initiative that that teacher has been involved with at the school – is always extremely meaningful. If you don't know what to say, you can ask your kid to set aside 10 minutes or so to hand-write a note, spending some time really thinking about what they've loved and learned in that class this year. Getting positive feedback like that from current and former students is what makes my job feel so, so worth it – it makes me cry every time, and I think I'm not the only one.