Question for teachers...best gift from principal at Christmas?

[daisyduck123]

My principals (I've had 4 over the years) have never gotten us (the staff) anything. We don't expect it either.

One year, for Teacher Appreciation Week, we were given THE GIFT OF TIME.....all meetings that week were canceled and we were free to work in our rooms as we chose. We loved that!


Sadly, we only got that once a few years ago.

 

[torinsmom]

I would love bagels and cream cheese in the staff lounge or pizza at lunch. Our principal gave us travel mugs with the school emblem on them last year. I don't drink coffee or tea, but I use mine to collect the grease when I cook bacon Even a handwritten card with a few smooth writing pens attached would be a nice touch. Our principal has also given us 2 hours comp time. We can't use it when kids are there, but we can come in late or leave early on a teacher workday.

Our guidance counselor said she wanted to give us airplane bottles of liquor after the year most of us had last year. We aren't allowed to have alcohol on campus, so she gave us chocolate instead.

 

[riley2008]

I think I figured it out!!! I can do lunch - I can make a large salad, boil noodles and buy Olive Garden sauces and breadsticks. (I've got a pretty good knock-off recipe for their dressing too.) [We're thirty minutes away from Olive Garden, so if DH is off that day, he can go pick it up and deliver.] I'll also bring in a variety of bagels and creamcheese for those only there in the mornings. Maybe I could get DH to help at lunch.

(I'll still write cards - this has been a rough semester for us.)

Thanks everyone!

 

[ksloane]

Glad you figured it out. I was going to say that our administration had us fill out a "survey" early in the year where we list out favorite drinks, snacks, etc and randomly throughout the year, they will come through with a rolling cart and just give us a drink and candy bar.

My principal also cooks us lunch 3 or 4 times a year.

And one year we got a lottery ticket with our snack/drink.

 

[phoenixphantom]

If you live in an area where a $5 gift is not going to make much of a difference in your employee's life, then take the total that you can spend and buy 1 thing for a needy family for the holiday and let everyone know what you chose to do in honor of them and also write that hand written card. After all it is not the gift, it is the thought!

 

[StitchBuddy]

A Jeans Pass for the day of your choice! My principal does this and we love it!!

 

[DawnM]

We got day planners for the following year and I loved that. In my 16 years of teaching that is really all we ever got at Christmas time and I don't think it was from the principal.

However, our school had over 200 employee/personnel so I wouldn't expect anything from the principal himself.

Dawn

 

[cinnamon-sugah]

The lunch/bagels idea you have planned sounds great. I also want to echo the jeans day idea. I know at my school we are easy to please...food and jeans days make us very happy! I'd much rather have a jeans day than a trinket. I don't know why but jeans days are just nice!

 

[libinatorsmom]

Lottery Tickets make great gifts for teachers and co-workers!!!! Cheep and fun!!! Can usually get $2 - $5 each ticket

 

[Sandy321]

Saw your post that you figured it out!

Hire a masseuse to hang in the teachers lounge all day so that teachers can get a free massage during their lunch/prep. This was used as a fundraiser incentive locally and it was a HUGE hit! People made sure to fundraise x amount of money so they could get a massage at the VIP tent before the walk event started. I'm sure teachers would love it too!

Our principal did hire 2 masseus - we had to sign up for times -they had classical music, and their "chairs" so it was the easy 5 min neck massage - but we were all surprised, and relaxed!

Could you do a dessert tray of some sort? I know things like that fly out of our staff room. Even homemade cookies and brownies would be fabulous. Cake pops? Bagels and cream cheese isn't too expensive and yummy.

My Principals have never really gotten us anything, whihc was fine, I never expected it. One Principal got us another microwave in the staff room and another toaster. We loved this b/c in winter we're always standing in line to heat our lunches.

Yes, one year he brought in bagels from Panera Bread and then for lunch the chocolate cake from the most awesome place around!!

The lunch/bagels idea you have planned sounds great. I also want to echo the jeans day idea. I know at my school we are easy to please...food and jeans days make us very happy! I'd much rather have a jeans day than a trinket. I don't know why but jeans days are just nice!

and jeans day is always a plus! add to that a "cancel" a meeting, and you have a great gift!

 

[RangerPooh]

I've gotten the token mug with candy in it. While it isn't the most impressive, our K-3 VP (very largeschool) was still buying like 25+ gifts for those in the grades he supervised. We've also received catered lunches which is always appreciated