Teacher Appreciation Toolkit / Communications / Idaho State Department of Education (SDE)

At the State Department of Education, teachers are the heart of our mission. Teachers help us find our voice, focus our interests, overcome obstacles, turn dreams into reality and succeed in the classroom and in life. Now more than ever we see that teachers are a cornerstone in our society. COVID-19 has disrupted teachers’ important work, but in the midst of a pandemic, Idaho teachers persevere in engaging students and providing education and services in new and innovative ways. For Teacher Appreciation Week 2020 (May 4-8), we hope you’ll join us in raising a ruckus for Idaho teachers and showing them how appreciated they are! However you celebrate a teacher this Teacher Appreciation Week, make sure to share on social media with the hashtag #ThankIdahoTeachers or post in our “Celebrate Idaho Teachers” Facebook group!

Here are some ideas for recognizing teachers:

Mail a homemade card/letter to a favorite teacher, or send an e-card to their email
Create sidewalk art or decorate your window for a teacher, take a picture and post to social media
Take a selfie or film a video for a teacher and post to social media
Support a local business and buy a gift/gift card to send to a teacher
Nominate an amazing teacher for Idaho Teacher of the Year

For your social media posts, make sure to share in our “Celebrate Idaho Teachers” Facebook group, use the hashtag #ThankIdahoTeachers, and tag a special teacher!

Thank Idaho Teachers Graphic

Celebrate Idaho Teachers FB Group

Nominate a Superstar for Idaho Teacher of the Year

Teacher of the Year Nomination

Idaho town’s ‘drive-by prom’ celebrates graduating seniors from local schools

By Kristin Rodine, Idaho State Department of Education

About 1,000 community members social-distanced along the Main Street ‘loop’ on a warm Saturday night, most sitting in their cars and pickup beds. They cheered as a line of vehicles slowly passed by, carrying grinning teenagers – some in gowns, one in a mascot tiger suit.

For the small Idaho town of Mountain Home, May 2 was a chance for everyone – families, teachers, businesspeople, police and firefighters, folks from the adjacent Air Force Base – to gather in social-distancing mode and celebrate their Class of 2020.

For these students, their senior prom – canceled like all other customary celebrations during the Coronavirus pandemic – became a true promenade, defined by Merriam Webster as “a leisurely walk or ride especially in a public place for pleasure or display.”

No one kept count, but organizer Sarah Winings estimates up to 200 of the some 250 seniors in the community’s three high schools -- Mountain Home High, Bennett Mountain High and Richard McKenna Charter High School – took part, riding and waving in cars, pickup trucks and at least one limo. A police car led the way with a sign declaring “Move Over for Senior Prom.”

“This has been a rough spring for all of us, and it’s wonderful the way the whole community banded together to make sure this year’s graduates don’t feel lost in the shuffle,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra, a longtime Mountain Home teacher and administrator who still lives in the community. “Police, businessmen, farmers and others joined teachers and parents in celebrating these seniors’ hard work and accomplishments. And it’s just one example of how Idaho is honoring this special group of graduates.”

Winings, a lifelong Mountain Home resident and Class of 2020 mom, said she got the idea from her high school pastime of “cruising the loop” on weekend nights and a desire to fill the gap left by closed school buildings and canceled gatherings during what should be seniors’ most celebrated spring.

“I contacted a bunch of kids to see if this was something they’d be interested in, or if they thought it was hokey,” Winings said. “They loved it, so I set up an event page on Facebook to gather support.”

The resulting “Light the Night Senior Prom” turned out much bigger than Winings expected, she said, with businesses happily agreeing to display giant (28 by 36-inch) senior photos in their windows.

Allen Niksich, school liaison officer for Mountain Home Air Force Base, featured more than 50 photos of the promenade on his official Facebook page. This demonstration of community caring really changed many seniors’ outlook on their senior year, he said.

“Kids seemed kind of sad about this as their senior year, but when you look at it, this gives them something to remember that’s totally different and remarkable,” Niksich said.