How to show a professor your appreciation?
Hi! I was wondering what the best way to show my appreciation for one of my professors is! In my four years as a biology student at Western, I have never met a professor so caring—every detail of her course seems to be for the benefit of the student and to enhance learning.
She goes above and beyond to accommodate her students (has both in-person and Zoom options for lectures), tests are based on preparation and understanding rather than brute memorization (allows us to bring cheat sheets to tests), and has very lenient marking schemes that doesn't promote "perfection" (eg. on online quizzes, she gives us multiple tries and rounds up any mark above 80% to a 100%. This is such a small but thoughtful detail as I would waste hours to get 100% on quizzes if multiple tries were available). She understands that students have lives outside of school, is an amazing communicator and teacher, asks questions to get us to think deeply about learning, and it is obvious that she goes above and beyond to make her content exciting and interesting (for basically every concept she teaches, she includes a study that proves it to be true and goes over the "why" and "how"). I know this sounds so over-the-top but as someone that struggled heavily with mental health and burnout due to university, it was so touching to have a professor that showed she cared for students through her actions and not just words.
I really wanted to show my appreciation for everything that she does without coming off as weird (haha). I plan to write her a thank-you card at the end of the year after exams and leave a nice comment on RateMyProf and the performance evaluations. I was wondering if there was anything else I could do though! I know there are teaching awards—would I, as a student, be able to nominate her for any? I just think that she is such an exemplary educator and definitely deserves recognition and to know that all the effort she is putting in has a positive impact on her students!