Teacher Appreciation Week is almost over, and here at Bloomz we are still overwhelmed by all the love and gratefulness we've seen displayed both among teachers and from parents who deeply appreciate the educators that mold the minds of their kids.

This week we sent parents a small Thank You card that they could sign with a small appreciation note and share with their teachers. Parents immediately logged into Bloomz and started sharing their sentiments of gratitude to the teachers leading their classrooms. Thousands of kind comments were written in the following days. Now, teachers in the 10 classrooms with the highest parent participation are up for another surprise, as the loving contributions of their parents have earned them a $100 Amazon gift card as a sign of appreciation from Bloomz for being such great teachers! Here is the list of winners:

1. Miriam A. in Maryland
2. Iris Z. in Texas
3. Dina L. in Florida
4. Kyleen C. in South Carolina
5. Katie C. in Georgia
6. Rachel R. in Wisconsin
7. Jennifer M. in Massachusetts
8. April K. in New York
9. Shannon B. in Pennsylvania
10. Jenn M. in California

In addition, we also asked parents to nominate their teachers for our Teacher of the Week program, which recognizes teachers all around for their contributions to students' education. We were also amazed by the strong response to our request... parents from all over responded with amazing notes of gratitude for their teacher. Starting tomorrow, we will be posting these stories every week here in our blog - so, please keep an eye for it!

Here is a sample of all the great notes we received over the week, check them out, your name might be there:

"Thank you Mrs. Nikki for an awesome school year for giving Connor your very best. We love and appreciate all you have done. Not one time did he ever complain about his teacher. Hope you enjoy your special week." - Heather A. in Texas

"Mrs Fontarina (MrsF) is an amazing teacher for my Kindergartener Blake.
She's kind, fair, caring and thoughtful.   She not only treats him as a student but as one of her kids. We love her and appreciate all that she does her our son and our family." - Jill K. in California

"I really appreciate the great effort that Mrs Tatum doing with my daughter Maria" - Maryam G. in California

"Mrs Morrison does an amazing job with her class, she has 26 students, at least a third are special needs or Title 1 . . . .she gives each student opportunities to move forward and excel in their own level of education.   Yet  provides the same education to her special needs students,    She presents them with challenges and makes every thing  lots of fun.   She brings excitement to learning in her classroom and goes out of her way to accommodate each kid." - Gwen C. in Maine

"Mrs. Klute is a very caring,sweet, happy teacher.  She listens to her students and also the parents of these children. She's a true teacher at heart. Im so happy my grandson was blessed to have her for a teacher." - Betty F. in Wisconsin

Finally, during this week we also invited teachers to share with us the names of other great teachers on our Facebook page, so we could thank them for their work. The response was no less impressive. Our followers brought our attention to many teachers who they are thankful for, giving us the chance to meet them and, in return reward a couple of them. We will be publishing the winners of our sweepstakes tomorrow on our Facebook page. You can like our page to stay up to date with this and other news from Bloomz too. Update: On Friday, we selected two winners for our Facebook promotion. Congratulations to these two teachers from Idaho:

• Jessica T.
• Denise T.

All in all, it's been an amazing week. Not only do we get to do what we love for a living, but also see such great expressions of gratitude and honest appreciation, that only make work even more joyful, and another thing to be grateful for. THANK YOU!