Joe Cooper and Linda Humbert knew it was Teacher Appreciation Week because students left piles of small gifts and tokens of their appreciation on their desks each morning.

"One teacher even got a watermelon," Ms. Humbert said.

The two seventh-grade instructors at Magothy River Middle School in Arnold joined a small, festive crowd in the Cade Building on the campus of Anne Arundel Community College Tuesday to meet and laud the young winners of a countywide essay contest sponsored by the college's Teacher Education and Child Care Institute and Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

Scattered among the audience of family...