Colleen Clohessy of Millennium Elementary School

🎉 It’s Teacher Appreciation Week and one Tinley Park teacher is one of the happy winners of the 2025 Sign Up Genius Teacher Appreciation Giveaway 🍎✨. And she happens to be our daughter’s teacher.

15 years into her teaching career, Millennium Elementary’s Colleen Clohessy says that she’s “wanted to be a teacher since [she] was in first grade.”

“I have always loved it and knew it was what I was suppose to do with my life.”

Colleen Clohessy, B.A., M.ED (Reading Specialist)

About The Sign Up Genius Teacher Appreciation Giveaway

Sign Up Genius is an online platform used by schools and parent teacher organizations (PTO) to simplify the sign-up process for school events, fundraisers, volunteer coordination and more. The PTO at Millennium Elementary uses it quite a bit, and so naturally the platform’s annual Teacher Appreciation Giveaway was noticed by some parents and staff.

Our family nominated Mrs. Clohessy in April and took advantage of their suggestion to create a petition so as to bolster Clohessy’s odds of being chosen a winner. This extra capability may have helped—but Sign Up Genius receives on average over 140,000 submissions each year for the Teacher Appreciation Giveaway. You just never know with contests.

in April and took advantage of their suggestion to create a petition so as to bolster Clohessy’s odds of being chosen a winner. This extra capability may have helped—but Sign Up Genius receives on average over 140,000 submissions each year for the Teacher Appreciation Giveaway. You just never know with contests.

Fast forward one month later, May 2nd to be precise, and Sign Up Genius notified our family that Mrs. Clohessy was one of the five winning teachers. Sign Up Genius asked for her email, so they could notify her and securely send her electronic $500 Amazon gift card. On May 5 the winners were officially announced by Sign Up Genius.

We are so happy that she was chosen as a winner. She has truly been a game changer for our daughter. 🥹 Here’s the snippet from our entry that was quoted by Sign Up Genius on their blog:

Colleen Clohessy – Millennium Elementary School (IL)

“Mrs. Colleen Clohessy is the kind of teacher you wish you had as a child. She is a true student’s advocate, works closely with parents, holds herself to high standards, is emotionally intelligent, and inspires her students.”

 

To read the snippets for all five teachers who won, visit: https://www.signupgenius.com/blog/teacher-appreciation-2025

Submit Your Teacher For Next Year’s Giveaway

Sign Up Genius has been running the Teacher Appreciation Giveaway since 2022. So be sure to check in on any of Sign Up Genius’ social media profiles (@SignUpGenius) next April for the link to next year’s application. Why not take the chance?

And in case the teacher your child would like to nominate doesn’t win, here are 20 Teacher Appreciation Gift Ideas from Sign Up Genius’ blog. Showing gratitude can come in many forms, and doesn’t have to be monetary-based. Showing appreciation could come in the form of a bouquet of flowers, volunteering at classroom parties—the possibilities are pretty much endless. Before giving gifts however, ensure you check your child’s school’s policy regarding gift-giving to avoid any violations of anti-bribery rules.