Students don’t have to wait until the end of the semester for Student Perception of Teaching evaluations to show appreciation for their professors thanks to the Thank a Teacher for Teaching Excellence program.

Romana Hughes, associate director for teaching excellence of the William H. Koehler Center for Teaching Excellence, which sponsors the program, said the program is a way to let instructors know that students thank them for providing quality education.

“There are all kinds of reasons students want to thank their teachers,” she said. “Usually it has to do with making a difference in their life, their class or taking time to work with them.”

Hughes said that the Thank a Teacher for Teaching Excellence program, which she said started in 2006, received great feedback from faculty members, and the center had already received over 150 responses from students as of Wednesday.

“[Teachers] enjoy it, and they really like to know that they have made a difference,” Hughes said.

Students can fill out a thank you note online, and the note will be sent to the instructor’s e-mail.

“The faculty currently gets a copy of the responses, even if it is anonymous,” she said. “We get a copy of it, and at the end of this run of Thank a Teacher, we compile a report that we send to the deans, the chancellor and the provost so they can see and share in the wonderful responses from students.”

Drew Dahlstrom, a senior strategic communications major, said he planned to fill out a thank you note even though he hadn’t had the time to do it yet.

Senior film-TV-digtal media major Jill Cox said the program was a good idea and was beneficial to teachers.

“Teachers have their evaluations, but other than that they don’t really have any other opportunity to get personal thanks for what they do,” she said.

Thank a Teacher forms can be found online at elearning.tcu.edu/thankateacher.asp.