In the spring 2023, a group of partners– SSFUSD, SSFCTA, SSF Ed Foundation, and Bay Ed Fund–sought ways to appreciate our SSF educators. We knew that the best ideas for how to appreciate educators would come from educators themselves, and we needed to create spaces for these good ideas to flow. We held a planning meeting with over 30 educators from all district schools to hear about what great appreciation looks like and followed up with a smaller group to further flesh out ideas.

Guiding Principles

The educators we engaged were loud and clear:

Great educator appreciation is authentic, inclusive, consistent, and personal.

They also generated a long and exciting list of ideas for educator appreciation. Our educator appreciation efforts are based on this foundational understanding of what is essential in educator appreciation and which ideas educators are most excited about.

Guiding Principles Designed by SSFUSD Educators

  • Meaningful and authentic- Efforts should acknowledge educators’ work and experiences and include intentional consideration of what educators most need and want. This can include designing opportunities that are tied to educators’ work and dedicating time to design and implement something of quality.

  • Inclusive- Appreciation should be extended to all staff. This can mean including classified staff and considering staff not affiliated with one of the main campuses– Baden staff, preschool staff, and staff who serve multiple schools.

  • Consistent and timely- Educators should not only be appreciated once per year but there should be multiple efforts to demonstrate how much educators are appreciated. It’s also helpful to time efforts for appreciation during particularly challenging or stressful moments (e.g., report cards, conferences, end of the year).

  • Differentiated- Appreciation efforts could be specific to the educator or include different offerings based on the school (e.g., elementary and high schools have different appreciation efforts). This can mean offering choice, varying the appreciation efforts over time, and letting campuses select what’s the best fit for them.