Little treats, big impact: How Illinois can retain teachers without breaking the budget

When I was a kid, I often turned my family’s bathroom into a STEM lab.

My little brothers and I built boats from household items like foil, duck tape, and utensils, racing them across the bathtub. All of our boats floated across the water carrying loose change and tiny green army men. That little STEM lab was chaotic and loud but it was also one of my first classrooms, a space where creativity, partnership and intellect met.

These were also my earliest lessons in self-efficacy: small acts of encouragement crafted with intention that helped to build my budding leadership. Decades later, I see the same spark in my fifth-graders when they receive a scrumptious scented sticker or handwritten note from me. It brightens their whole day and their families’, too. In schools, these small acts are the foundation of student success and belonging and are directly connected to teacher well-being.

During Teacher Appreciation Week last week, I thought often about my colleagues whose well-being, just like that of our students, is nurtured through many informal everyday actions that shape our school culture. It is the colleague who leaves me my favorite treat before a long IEP meeting. It is the assistant principal who schedules creative staff collaborations that lift morale. It is the class stuffed animal that travels with my students weekend after weekend, year after year and becomes the unofficial underground mascot of an entire school. Culture is built in the depths, not the shallows.

These moments create something essential: teacher belonging. When we build micro-moments of celebration, we teach children what community looks like. We show them how to see each other.

Adults need the same.

My principal’s language is gift giving. With time, I started bringing treats to colleagues, too. So did the rest of the staff. Suddenly, teachers began leaving small gifts for each other. No committee mandated it; it grew organically. There were more smiles in the hall and fewer groans when we had to sub. We are abundant in what we need if everyone brings one thing to the table. That is how communities feast.

A Harvard Business Review study found micro-recognitions increase motivation by 40%. Nearly 74% of adults say small rewards help them cope with stress. Small rewards are something we can all do, right now. And while I recognize that they are not nearly enough to solve our big problems — the need for more equitable, robust school budgets, teacher shortages, retaining the educators we have — small rewards are a great place to start.

School districts can also engage in the practice of providing teachers like me with small rewards that don’t require big budgets. These include protecting mental health time during the school day through early release blocks and coverage rotations, free monthly talk therapy sessions for staff, partnering with local wellness providers and businesses to offer on-site yoga, meditation and restorative practices. Districts could also offer free breakfasts and lunches as well as partner with local grocery stores and gas stations for gift cards and donations. Little treats matter.

In Illinois, nearly 36% of our teachers are over age 50 and another 28% are under 35. The gap between new and retiring educators is widening. Salaries have grown only about 1.8% annually over the last decade while inflation has soared. While we need real systemic change, we can also identify and activate the resources already around us: the networks of relationships, expertise, talent, community businesses and micro-incentives that lift morale without requiring a full extreme home makeover edition overhaul in our schools.

We can cultivate belonging and joy right now. When teachers feel valued, students do, too. Families show up. Communities reconnect. Schools can transform into thriving ecosystems. We just have to name our assets, share our resources, and honor the leaders already standing in our hallways. All of us, students and adults alike, will benefit.

• Yameira Church is a fifth-grade teacher and PBIS Coach at Warren Park Elementary in Cicero, and a 2025-2026 Teach Plus Illinois Policy Fellow.