#MyFavoriteTeacher — Saying Thank You to the Teachers That Shape Us

This concept intends to explore the potential of creating a #ThankYouTeacher & #MyFavoriteTeacher movement as a joint mechanism to promote good teacher practices, validate positive teaching characteristics and reimagine and reshape the perception of teachers in Macedonian society. Furthermore, as a product & platform, it explores the potentials to build upon existing UNICEF and other education initiatives, including the #Inno4Edu project (co-creating with students and teachers to develop solutions to growing educational challenges).

Initially envisioned as a supplementary campaign tool to engage the audience during the conference “Quality education for growth, results and a better future” organized and supported by UNICEF  the website #MyFavoriteProfessor quickly outgrew itself, leaving the physical limitations of the event and offering a much bigger audience the chance to digitally say thank you to their favorite professor.

The tool, designed as a straight-forward web-site in which you input basic information about the professor you want to publicly thank and then enter your personalized message and signature (optional), enables an intimate moment, one dedicated to diving deep into what made a certain professor stand out for you, both personally as well as pedagogically. After the input, the web-site first checks the words and flags anything atypical after which it generates an image that resembles that of an old “un-sent” letter. This image, somewhat nostalgic in its nature and design, is then sent to the writer who shares it on social media, often tagging the professor and starting around a conversation with them as well as other former or current classmates.

Closing the campaign, through statistical analysis, the top professors were chosen (those with the highest number of “thank you letters”), and a short video was prepared. The video showcased their explanation of what teaching means to them, what motivates and drives them, and last but not least, was an opportunity to share good practices. In its final moments, as a surprise, we had invited the students that sent the letters to read them in person. This ended in a truly emotional and real “this is why I love teaching” moment, one which led to great viewership and dissemination results and comments of encouragement to continue with the campaign.