Classified Employee Appreciation Week

This week is national classified appreciation week. I have 5 instructional assistants that work in my classroom throughout the week. Three of them trade off throughout each day and work with the student in my class who has Down syndrome. The other two help out during math time to support students who are struggling.

It is an amazing help to have other adults in the room to support learning, answer questions, and check/correct student work. It also gives me the flexibility to work with a small group myself or to have one of the assistants take a small group so we can support students who need additional instruction. I am so appreciative of the helpers I have that I wanted to do something special for them.

I went to Michael's Arts and Crafts store this afternoon and found some great items on the dollar rack. I got some blank cards and a cute "thank u" stamp, an assortment of list notepads with magnets on the back, and some small tins with crayons on them. I filled the tins with M&M's and am going to let each IA choose which notepad they would like. I also wrote each one a note in the card to let them know how much I appreciate them. I bought three bags of M&M's from KMart which were on sale for 3/$7. Each tin and each notepad was 1.00, the notecards were 4.99 and the stamp was on sale (25% off) and cost about 6.00. Altogether I spent about $30 which isn't a lot, but I think it will make the IA's feel special and that is my goal!