In the United States, National Teacher Day falls during Teacher Appreciation Week, which takes place in the first full week of May. Students often show appreciation for their teachers with token gifts.______________________ The National Education Association describes National Teacher Day as "a day for honoring teachers and recognizing the lasting contributions they make to our lives". The NEA gives a history of National Teacher Day: The origins of Teacher Day are murky. Around 1944 Arkansas teacher Mattye Whyte Woodridge began corresponding with political and education leaders about the need for a national day to honor teachers. Woodbridge wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt who in 1953 persuaded the 81st Congress to proclaim a National Teacher Day. ____________________ NEA along with its Kansas and Indiana state affiliates and the Dodge City (Kan. ) local lobbied Congress to create a national day celebrating teachers. Congress declared March 7, 1980, as National Teacher Day for that year only. NEA and its affiliates continued to observe Teacher Day on the first Tuesday in March until 1985, when the National PTA established Teacher Appreciation Week as the first full week of May. The NEA Representative Assembly then voted to make the Tuesday of that week National Teacher Day. As of September 7, 1976 September 11 was also adopted as Teachers' Day in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Currently, Massachusetts sets the first Sunday of June as its own Teacher's Day, annually.