National Teacher Day
National Teacher Day is always the Tuesday of the first full week of May. An Arkansas teacher, Mrs. Mattye Whyte Woodridge, began corresponding with political and education leaders as early as 1944 about the need for a national day honoring teachers.1
The week is always the first full week in May; the day is always the Tuesday of that week. For 2008, the week will be May 4-10 with National Teacher Day falling on May 6. This year’s theme is “Great Teachers Make Great Public Schools.” The theme helps draw attention to the important role teachers have in making sure every child receives a quality public education.2
Around 1944 Arkansas teacher Mattye Whyte Woodridge began corresponding with political and education leaders about the need for a national day to honor teachers. Woodbridge wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, who in 1953 persuaded the 81st Congress to proclaim a National Teacher Day.3
NEA and its affiliates continued to observe Teacher Day on the first Tuesday in March until 1985, when NEA and the National PTA established Teacher Appreciation Week as the first full week of May. The NEA Representative Assembly then voted to make the Tuesday of that week National Teacher Day.4
If you click on the Google logo, it brings you to a web search for the words “national teacher day”, which has a bunch of ideas for how to celebrate it. So send a teacher an e-card, or find some other way to celebrate the holiday.5