I am planning ahead but does anyone have any diffrent ideas for teacher appreciation?

[Thumpersmom]

A couple of things I have done for teacher's

I bought an apron and fabric markers....had all the kids in the class sign it and draw a little flower or some other small thing and gave it to the teacher with seed packets, knee pad for gardening etc.

Took a class picture on one of the field trips, printed it up 5x7 size and then had the kids autograph the mat. It was matted to an 8x10 picture. I put her name and the school year on the mat with scrapbook rubons before the kids signed. It is still up in her classroom.

Get a fill in the blank sheet and write questions on it like what did Mr./Mrs. soandso teach you this year, name, age, favorite color etc. You can have the kids bring a picture of themselves in or pose everyone in front of the same door or playground and put it all together in a scrapbook.

I usually send something each day of teacher app. week. One day it is stuff for the classroom (pencils, dry erase markers, stickers, etc) one day is stuff for their hobby or favorite team, one day a food gift. I usually make up a I forgot my lunch thing with a tuna kit, soup bowl, crackers, granola bar etc. things that will stay good for the rest of the year. Another day is getting ready for summer (beach towel, suntan lotion, book, fan or something like that)

I start shopping early and pick up stuff on sale etc. and it goes great, my DS loves to take a gift every day and the other students love to see what he brings in.

 

[bellebuzzandpooh]

I'm a jewelry designer so I've given my kids teachers jewelry for every occasion so far and they've been THRILLED with it!

 

[dizkids]

DISNEY PINS!

Our elementary school teachers and faculty wear lanyards for security reasons as they display their name badges, photo,etc. I gave Disney Pins to 3 teachers who loved them. One teacher never went to Disney and she says hopefully some day she will. Our school nurse loves Disney so last trip we bought the Minnie Nurse's Pin in Downtown Disney for her. She has her own Disney lanyard too so she really started me on the idea. I gave these out with Dunkin Donut's gift cards.

 

[daisyduck123]

DISNEY PINS!

I would so totally love that!!

 

[Disney Hot Mama]

I too am in charge of teacher appreciation week at my daughters school. We have 28 teachers plus we usually provide somethign for the office staff and all the teacher aids as well. That total number is usually about 50 but the teachers receive a bit more than the support staff. This is done as a PTA activity so I do have a budget to work with usually abut 500.00 for the week but that goes quickly...

Last year we did coffee GC to Starbucks, provided food daily - either muffins and juice in the morning and for recess or lunch catered by local businesses. Then one day was appetizers and a 5 minute massage for anyone who signed up.. one of our moms is a massuse... it was great!
On the last day we gave each teacher (not staff) a flash drive to help them if they take files home to work with...

This year I have not started planning but it will be wierd because I will be in a long term sub position at the same school for Teacher Appreciate week as well so I will be giving and receiving too!

 

[PlutoPup]

I dont think its too early to be planning.. I am a class mom and I have already been contacted about TA week.

My children are in a public school thats preschool - K only. Last yr The TA commitee asked for people to volunteer to either make something or contribute $ for a theme of the day, ie italian, american, brunch..

Parents could supply napkins, drinks, bagels, yogurt, desserts, decorations or time (to set up and clean up). Also, people who made something handed in their recipe and it was made into a book for the teachers.

HTH

 

[kkheburn]

Im a preschool teacher and have had lots of great gifts. Massage, note pads with my name on them, school bag w/name on it, salon gc,a book of drawings from each child (loved it), flowers, starbucks, apron, and many other gc's. I love to get gc's because I can pick out what I like. For my daughters K teacher each parent put in $25 and we got her a visa card. She loved it! We all have so many candles, apple theme things. please reframe from these items.

 

[wide awake]

As a teacher, my favorite gifts haven't been "gifts"...they've been thank-you notes or cards. I feel guilty when I receive a gift, because lots of times I know the family's financial situation, and what they give me is way more than I think they should spend. For example...one of my families gave me four pounds of gourmet coffee for Christmas...this from a family that was homeless a little over a year ago...and no, they haven't won the lotto. I can appreciate a card or note, or a thoughtful gesture with much more enjoyment. Another example..this same family knew I was having surgery...so the mom called me when she figured I'd be home, and told me that they'd all made a lemon meringue pie...she didn't really want to talk about the pie, she just wanted to know that I was okay...that meant so much to me. After a surgery she has also had her children meet me at my car so I wouldn't have to walk up the stairs to their apartment...incredibly thoughtful, and the type of thing that means so much more than any material gift. Another time one of my moms entered an Oprah spa contest...she wrote on her entry that if she won, I had to be invited also, because I work so hard w/ my students.

 

[tinytink]

As a teacher, my favorite gifts haven't been "gifts"...they've been thank-you notes or cards. I feel guilty when I receive a gift, because lots of times I know the family's financial situation, and what they give me is way more than I think they should spend. For example...one of my families gave me four pounds of gourmet coffee for Christmas...this from a family that was homeless a little over a year ago...and no, they haven't won the lotto. I can appreciate a card or note, or a thoughtful gesture with much more enjoyment. Another example..this same family knew I was having surgery...so the mom called me when she figured I'd be home, and told me that they'd all made a lemon meringue pie...she didn't really want to talk about the pie, she just wanted to know that I was okay...that meant so much to me. After a surgery she has also had her children meet me at my car so I wouldn't have to walk up the stairs to their apartment...incredibly thoughtful, and the type of thing that means so much more than any material gift. Another time one of my moms entered an Oprah spa contest...she wrote on her entry that if she won, I had to be invited also, because I work so hard w/ my students.

I am the head room parent my son is in 4th grade and they are currently reading Cricket in Time Square but the classroom copies are in really bad shape so I was thinking each child could get a new copy of the book for the teacher. She uses this book every year as a part of the curriculum so I am getting intouch with BN and Borders to see if they can order that 25 books. I think this would be very helpful since she would have to purchase the books out of her classroom funds which is so little to start with. Our PTO also puts on a TA lunch.

 

[buzz5985]

Teachers are paid full time salaries for part time work. Have incredible benefits. That should be appreciation enough.

 

[mdsouth]

Teachers are paid full time salaries for part time work. Have incredible benefits. That should be appreciation enough.

You have to be one IF not the RUDEST person on earth!

You can feel this way if you want - it is YOUR opinion. However, you are rude in the fact that you sought out a thread that was devoted to teacher APPRECIATION to air you opinion. This is probably due to the fact that no one really wants to hear what you say in normal circumstances, so you have to seek out specific areas to spread your rude opinions.

 

[daisyduck123]

Teachers are paid full time salaries for part time work. Have incredible benefits. That should be appreciation enough.

I want to comment here...but I don't want to get the moderators mad...."no points, no points, no points..."

Let's just say, "I'm glad I don't live in Wakefield, MA".

 

[TruBlu]

Teachers are paid full time salaries for part time work. Have incredible benefits. That should be appreciation enough.

In reality, teachers are not paid very well and work more than 40 hours a week (they just don't have the children for 40). They care for, teach, mentor, and love our children. I for one appreciate that very much and like to show it in any way that I can.

 

[Disney4Drew]

Teachers are paid full time salaries for part time work. Have incredible benefits. That should be appreciation enough.

I get paid for the months I work. That "full-time" salary I get over the summer is spread out from the 10 months I work. Nice try, though.

 

[lovehoney]

For the last 4 years I've given the preschool teachers beach towels and bottled lemonade at the end of the year. I think I might change it up this year. We also gave my DS7's kindergarten teacher tickets to see the Astros last summer. She is a big baseball fan and really appreciated the tickets.

 

[4mickeyfans]

This thread really has my attention!

Truly, I won't adress the whole full-time salary/part time hours thing because everyone is entitled to an opinion, and to my fellow teachers, who have no doubt at some point and time done the whole "salary divided by hours equals nowhere NEAR minumum wage" calculation, we all know the poster just needs a little positive reinforcement


So...onto the point of the thread...

What got me laughing is the whole food thing. My colleagues and I FIGHT over any food delivered and I don't think even once someone has mentioned to worry about homemade...not that I think those of you who do are wrong, it's jus that the thought never came to me!

Our most appreciated appreciations usually center around food. One favorite was a family dinner brought to school for us to take home. They had a school dad who caters prepare spaghetti/meatballs and bread pudding. Family size servings were put into those nice disposable containers and our large shopping bag was filled with a loaf of french bread, and a box of pasta to cook. The best part was that we could heat and serve that night or wait a day or two. The teachers LOVED that gift and my family wasdelighted because I never cook. I was thrilled to surprise them. Very nice gift.

Another idea worth mentioning may not be an option for you but my all time favorite appreciation was one year for Christmas. We are always treated to a Christmas luncheon by our Co-Op and they arrange parents to cover our duty schedules for that time frame. One year, they made arrangements to cover us for a 2 hour period which allowed us to eat AND leave campus and get some last minute Christmas shopping done. You cannot imagine how grateful we were to have this "free time" to Christmas shop because many of us have our own children in the school and are literally, NEVER away from them.

The gift of time is invaluable

 

[disneyamy]

As room parent for my son, I had the teacher make up a 'Wish List' and sent it home with the students to help give parents ideas on what his teacher wanted. She loved it and ended up getting a lot of things that she needed for her classroom that she normally would spend her own money on.

That being said, I always make a stack of thank you cards for the teachers. They are always in need of them and have told me it's one of their favorite things to receive.

Also, never fear gift cards for teachers. It gives them the opportunity to choose whether they get something for themselves or for their classroom.

 

[MM27]

Teachers are paid full time salaries for part time work. Have incredible benefits. That should be appreciation enough.

Are you serious?
For those of you planning for TA, thank you. While it is not expected, it's nice to see that we are appreciated by most parents.

 

[preb]

As room mom for my daughters 2nd grade class last year I picked up 2 dozen roses at Costco and a vase and brought them up to the school during the last recess of the day. I lined the class up and when the bell rang they each presented the teacher with a rose and told her one thing that they appreciated about her. There were lots of tears and she seemed to love it!

 

[marcyinPA]

If you read other threads that have been posted about this topic before, you will find that there are MANY other teachers (myself included) on the DIS who feel this way...not just this poster. We never said we were ungrateful. Would you like to eat something made from someone's kitchen that you've never seen? I've seen neighbors' kitchens & some of them you wouldn't believe....animal hair floating around (heck, some of my neighbors allow their cats to sit on the counters, counters that are never wiped, just uncleanly environments).

Values has nothing to do with it & this does not send any kind of message to the students.

Do you eat in restaurants? Some of the nicest ones are filthy. I have had several friends who worked in the industry confirm this.

I teach pre-school, and our parents give us breakfast at our monthly staff meetings. Some things are store bought, and some are homemade. I never once even considered the fact that it could have been prepared in a dirty kitchen. I was just so happy to have breakfast that I didn't have to make myself!