I was room parent for Pippa’s kindergarten class last year, and I have been reprising that role for her first grade class. I never really thought of myself as room parent material, but I actually enjoy the work.

Teacher Appreciation Week is the week of May 4. For weeks, I had it on my radar but could not wrap my mind around what Teacher Appreciation Week might look like while we are distance learning. Last year, we did everything in person. The kids brought flowers, cards and sweets, and I brought in a big cake to end the week. How the eff could we manage any of that from home?

But a week ago, a few ideas started to take shape. This morning, I finally emailed my ideas to the first grade parents.

1. I asked everyone to have their kids fill out the form that is in this blog post by The Suburban Mom. Parents will then email me photos or pdf’s of the finished forms (that talk about what they like about our first grade teacher) and I’ll collate them into a single PDF. Now, this time next week, I might be cursing myself for adding this item to my To Do list. Or, the other parents might be cursing me for adding something to their lists. But hey, it feels good to try.
2. We have been having online class every morning, so I suggested the kids each pick a flower and bring it to “school” on Monday, May 4. Then they can all “give” the flowers to the teacher. It’s not the same as an in-person plant or bouquet, but it might turn into a sweet photo if we can get all the kids to hold up their flowers at the same time. I also suggested that kids draw a picture of a flower if getting outside to find a dandelion feels like too much. Crazy times, folks! Let’s keep a low, low, low bar.
3. That’s it! But I also suggested that for kids who are looking for ways to keep busy, they can make cards or write paragraphs about what they miss about school during quarantine. Then they can take photos and send to our teacher.

I thought about sending an online gift card to Amazon or Starbucks (Pippa’s teacher is obsessed with Starbucks), but I figure I’ll just gather money in May by Venmo for an end-of-year gift.

I emailed the class an hour ago, so fingers crossed that I do not get too much hate email in response.

But I’m glad I tried. It felt beautifully normal. If Covid-19 had not blown up the school year, then right now, I would have been organizing Teacher Appreciation Week. It felt damn good to ignore the quarantine, put on my Room Mom hat for a few minutes and do exactly what I would have being doing this week, quarantine or not.