Not specifically about rebranding teachers, per se, but how about a classroom that doesn't give the impression that students sitting silently working individually is the definition of a "good" classroom?

Someone opening a door.

Being an art teacher, I am not "using crayons and making holiday art.". I am teaching ideas, history, open mindedness, questioning and most of all, creative problem solving. A symbol for a teacher needs to incorporate an adult helping a child build a well rounded brain. The image would need to be tough while being gentle and caring, all the while being flexible and innovative. The apple has probably never been replaced because designing a new image that represents all the things a teacher does and stands for is so grand.
Thank you for approaching this topic!

A teacher is everything that has been addressed. A mother, a father, a developer of ideas, a counselor, a mentor, a scribe, an oracle, a search engine, the list could just grow. We build. The teacher of today builds people through intellect, ideas, and courage. A teacher is no longer to be considered a collector of apples or the great OZ so to speak of today. A teacher is rather the beginning of or the start at which a person becomes what they will become. What symbolism fits this role? An apple does hardly cover the job in whole. What if a teacher is represented by a scale with an apple weighing against emptiness?

I am a teacher and when I think of an image for what I do, a juggler comes to mind.
Also, a fire starter -- but that might be misinterpreted.
A wise friend once told me that running a school was like filling a wheelbarrow with live frogs.

Make sure you take a look at this presentation from Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert as you redesign teachers AND education: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Take us out of the 19th Century, please.
Intelligence
Technology
Building relationships with students
Students as workers
Teachers as facilitators
Educated
With it

Apple Crapple? Right now, I do not think "Apple" is considered a bad branding idea.....Steve Jobs did pretty well with it.

At the risk of being overly dramatic, my vote for teacher rebranding in the US would be the statue of Liberty. Defenders of the future, and the future freedoms of America by standing up for critical thinking, resisting coercive manipulation, and preserving the rights and freedoms of our children.

Francis Bacon said, "In the beginning of a country, arms do flourish, in it’s golden age, education, in it’s decline, mercantilism (commercialism)"

Recent report listing the happiest countries in the world:
http://travel.yahoo.com/ideas/the-world-s-happiest--and-saddest--countries.html
shows a common thread of expanded rights and high educational levels.

it's not that it's apples. i love apples, and they have a beautiful shape and a gorgeous range of color. and they do make a great lunchbox snack for students and teachers alike. it's not that it's apples!

it's that it's crappy, cartoony apples. and rulers. and schoolhouses. jeez. you could take any iconic idea in education and instantly reduce it to crap status by giving it all the aesthetic attention and value of mid-80s clip art-- no thank you. Apples, slide rules, brains busting through chalkboards, whatever-- just make it look beautiful, make it look valuable, make it look like a gift that YOU would want to receive, and it will be appreciated.

(ps as a Montessori teacher, i've always taken the Handwashing Work, Pink Tower, Binomial Cube and Thousand Cube as my personal emblems)

I would brand teachers as being "Pension Savvy" far more so than most financial analysts. Why not take advantage of poor municipal planning... if the politicians are buying votes then mine is also for sale. No where in the history of the world can one purchase an annuity with rewards guaranteeing 1/2 pay, or more, for the rest of your life. Such a deal... over 20 years their total contributions (nickel and dime payments) amount to a mere pittance of their last year salary.

I'm following this re-design with great interest. I am a designer and I haven't heard a real workable idea yet that wouldn't dilute the “teacher” brand. In my own humble efforts working for an association of educators, i've tried to give the apple/crapple a more corporate feel...to at least present teachers as serious people with a mission.

I speak in terms of graphics. Photographic images will take care of themselves. More teachers now use white/smart boards in their classrooms, and those tools (computers too) are showing up in photographs. Those photos are being purchased and used in current design.

The PR situation teachers face is beyond a re-packaging solution. I can't pick out one of my teachers, whom I would thank. I found my public schooling very dull. That wasn't the teacher's fault. There were too many students (30 on average) in my classes. That might be a good ratio to assimilate but not to educate.

Both my parents were teachers.

As a professional designer for 23 years and a high school design teacher in NJ, I can tell you that the time-worn metaphors of apples, blackboards and chalk might work, but are very limiting. The teacher of the 21st century has to inspire creativity while balancing administration, parents, relevance of lessons, testing requirements and now, of all things, negative public perceptions. If your designer(s) can balance all of that out successfully, they might deserve an ADC or AIGA award.

I'd really like to know where this idea of giving apples to teachers came from to begin with.

Also, I hope you get away from the apple problem and address the whole picture. You note ABC/123, but what about the advertising icon of the teacher as young woman holding a globe like a sidearm; can we obliterate that while we're at it?

Fundamentally, teaching is a relationship, defined by the teacher's ability to determine whether a student is learning and then adjust methods to make learning more effective. What's the graphic depiction of that?

Above all else, teachers must be innovators in their classroom. Present times are perilous at best and we're the one ones charged with preparing students for a future we can not imagine. Yes, students today need the content and knowledge stressed by education reformers. But more importantly, students must learn to be problem solvers, creators, and metacognitive thinkers. These higher-order skills need to be modeled everyday by their teachers.

How about a mechanical brain busting through a chalkboard while eating an apple?

When you get an apple from a student It is still a pretty cool feeling. An apple can be a metaphor for a lot of things. I have students who want to be teachers, and students who show pride in introducing me to their parents.
Apples also relate to the seasons. Every year we start over with another group of students. The students are the same age as the previous group, you are the one who got older.

21st Century Skills require 21st century tools. Computers, personal devices, apps, collaboration, authentic and meaningful products/assignments should be the face of modern day education. I've always hated the apple and chalkboard portrayal. Its archaic.