Simple Ways to Give Gratitude to Teachers as an Instructional Coach

Teachers open their classroom doors to us every day. They let us sit in the back of the room, watch them teach, take notes, and then come back with suggestions about how to do it better. If you have ever been on the other side of that, you know it can feel stressful, even when the coach is kind and the feedback is good. A teacher who keeps that door open and keeps taking our advice is giving us something, and a simple thank-you tells them we see it.

Teachers deserve our thanks for so many reasons. They are the ones who help us learn and grow as instructional coaches. Every strategy I have ever shared with a teacher, I learned by watching someone try it first, and every time a teacher let me into the room, I walked out with something I could carry to the next classroom. Without teachers, there is no coaching.

So this Insight is about gratitude, and about keeping it simple. You don’t need a budget or a committee. The three ideas below take a few minutes each, and they fit inside the coaching you are already doing.

What does giving gratitude to teachers look like for a coach?

When I talk about gratitude, I mean small, specific, and frequent. A grand gesture once a year is nice. A note on a desk every week is what changes the relationship. Here are the three ways I come back to again and again.

1. Leave a little note

After a Snapshot (a short, focused, non-evaluative classroom visit), leave a short thank-you note on the teacher’s desk that names something good you saw. Maybe it was their classroom management. Maybe it was the new strategy they have been working on with you, or the way they stayed calm with a challenging student. There’s always something. If you follow a coaching model, you can make sure leaving a note is just a part of your routine, so it happens every time and never depends on whether you remembered.

2. Provide a small treat

A donut, a piece of chocolate, a coffee. Pair it with a quick message: “Hey, I think you’re doing great! Here’s something to make your day better.” That’s the whole thing. Teachers are some of the most underappreciated people in a building, and a two-dollar coffee with one sentence attached tells them you noticed. Tuck a note in with the treat and you have covered two of the three ideas at once.

3. Use verbal affirmation

Say it out loud. Stop by the room for a minute at the end of the day, or vary the way you run your Snapshots so that the feedback you give includes praise and gratitude alongside the next step. Taking a few minutes to speak with a teacher face to face tells them they are valued, and it costs you nothing except the time.

When to give gratitude to teachers

• Any time during the year. There is no wrong week.
• Right after a Snapshot, while what you saw is fresh.
• After teachers return the survey forms you asked them to fill out. They did you a favor.
• At random, with a surprise note and a small treat on a Tuesday for no reason at all.

Why gratitude changes what happens in classrooms

Coaching runs on trust, and trust is built in the small moments between the big conversations. A teacher who feels seen keeps the door open. A teacher who feels evaluated starts finding reasons the schedule doesn’t work this week. Gratitude tells the teacher you noticed what is working, and that changes how the next piece of feedback about what to adjust lands. When the last three things a coach said to me were specific and kind, I am ready to hear the fourth one, even when it stings a little.

It also changes what you look for. When you walk into a classroom knowing you will leave a note that names one good thing, you start watching for the good thing, and you will find it. That habit makes you a better observer of instruction, and it keeps you from walking in with a checklist of what’s wrong. The teacher can tell the difference the moment you sit down.

And there is a reason that is about us. Teachers are the ones who help us learn and grow as instructional coaches. Without them, we couldn’t bring new ideas into classrooms or watch students become the leaders they are going to be. We need to give gratitude to teachers for so many different reasons!

How do you build gratitude into your coaching routine?

The trick is to stop treating gratitude as an event and start treating it as a step. If it lives on your calendar and inside your Snapshot routine, it happens whether or not you are having a good week. The steps below are the routine I use, and the download gives you an idea bank of notes, treats, and affirmations sorted by occasion, along with a simple tracker so no teacher goes a month without hearing from you.

Thank a teacher today

Teachers deserve our thanks for so many reasons, and most of them will never ask for it. Pick one teacher, one specific thing you saw, and one simple way to say it before you leave the building today. It will take you five minutes, and they will remember it for a lot longer than that.