What are you getting the teachers this Christmas?

[caribear]

I do not blame the teacher's for throwing out the handmade food items. Save the food items for relatives or friends who know you and would not hesitate to eat them.

I think I am giving my DSs main teacher a $25 CG to Target...and her assistant a $25 GC to Disney. They both work very hard as pre-k teachers and deserve the gifts. Not sure about DDs teacher....might do a GC to Staples so she can buy copy paper or something for the classroom. I would not know what to get her otherwise.

I hate to think of my gift being thrown away...so I refrain from giving candles, lotions, food items (unless requested by the teacher), or anything else that can be a personal preference type of item.

 

[mafibisha]

what kind things to do.

I am a teacher in a very poor inner city area. Due to this, there are limited teacher gifts throughout the whole building.

The best gift for me as a non tenured teacher is a letter/email to the principal telling her what a good job I do. That costs nothing and would mean so much.
As for food/snacks, our staff never gets those. No one shows up in the teachers room due to our overwhelming schedule. If something ever came, I'd give it to the security guards/police in our building. They work hard, have longer hours and put up with a lot of physically demanding work.

That is a great idea that could also be done any time of year. Just made myself a note to send one about our kids' teachers!

And I want to also say *Thanks* to you, and to all the teachers out there. I can't imagine doing what you do; its tough enough with my own little darlin's

 

[lisateaches]

Tis the bizarre gift giving time of year- I just received my first "Halloween Treat". Ferraro Rocher Chocolates! About 3/4 fo my kids are Muslim, so I get chocolates at Halloween and Valentines. I am still surprised after all of these years.

 

[mafibisha]

Tis the bizarre gift giving time of year- I just received my first "Halloween Treat". Ferraro Rocher Chocolates! About 3/4 fo my kids are Muslim, so I get chocolates at Halloween and Valentines. I am still surprised after all of these years.

Yum, now that IS a treat! I love those chocolates!!

 

[CastleChick]

I have 3 in school this year and I ended up getting the Organizing Utility Totes for the 3 main teachers ($7 each from my awesome 31 consultant who lets me purchase the specials when others spend the $31 but don't want the special of the month ) and I figure I'll place in them some homemade cookies/cake balls (I know they eat them as my kids have seen them eat them and they usually ask me for the recipes- I send in goodies for them throughout the year. I actually had one teacher tell me that she ate them because she knew I was a clean person lol!), gift cards to the local bakery (I've seen the teachers run through in the mornings there for coffee) and maybe something for the classroom or whatever else I can think of to put in there I did pick up some small glass jars that I was going to paint on a chalkboard square and put in Hershey's kisses (with the words Christmas Kisses, then a Heart and the kids name on it- totally eraseable).

Last year for the End of year gifts that we hand out I handed out Cold Stone Creamery Gift Cards *yummo*!

 

[Aliceacc]

Something else I've gotten as End of the Year gifts for my kids' teachers in the past:

Scholastic runs a dollar sale in the spring; Barnes and Noble does a huge sale a week or so after Christmas. Some years I stock up on stuff-- dollar books, border, posters, anything classroom related-- and give the teachers a big bag full in June.

My $25 or so gift contains a good $100+ of classroom supplies. Elementary teachers, particularly in this economy, frequently pay for that stuff out of their own pockets.

 

[daughtersrus]

My DD goes to a school for special needs students. They have A LOT of pot-luck events at the school. Since they ask parents to bring food in for these events, I doubt that they throw away the treats that I make at Christmas. As a matter of fact, one year I gave them store bought gifts because I was really short on time. The teacher thanked me but smiled and asked where the chocolate pretzels and pink ice was.

DD has 6 classroom paras, 1:1 para, classroom teacher, music therapist, 2 different OTs, 3 different PTs, 2 SLP, vision itinerant, hearing itinerant, bus driver, 1:1 aid for the bus, and an aid that is assigned to the bus. It's A LOT of gifts to buy for. Even at $10 each, it's over $200!

DD#1 is a SpEd teacher in a self-contained classroom. She's never gotten any gifts from students, just from her para pros.

 

[Swimnoid]

One thing you might want to think about is a gift card to Amazon. I have had several people give me these and they just accumulate so I can save for something big, like a Kindle, if I want or just have it handy for little things I might need.

 

[Jake&IzzyLand]

I wasn't referring to your kitchen! I, too, used to make homemade treats, until I started reading these threads. Turns out a lot of people will not eat homemade goods from homes they've never been to, or from people they don't know on a personal level. Me? I have no problem eating any homemade treats!

Good to know!



I put a lot of effort into what I bake (even took cake decorating classes) and I was planning on making some really great things and packaging them very nicely for DD6 and DS4 school teachers, bus driver, and religion teachers. However reading after reading these thread I have changed my mind. Still not sure what to buy though

I do know I want them to like/enjoy what we give. Just wanted to do something other than a GF/cash.

 

[mward73]

My kids are in preschool and kindergarten (at the same school as the preschooler). Between the 2 of them, they've had just about every teacher in the school at one point or another, so I send a big plate of homemade sugar cookies (snowflakes or something non-denominational) for them to share in the kitchen.

Each kid's teachers (2 each) get a little baggie of cookies, a candle and a gift card (usually a restaurant in the shopping center where they all run for lunch). This year, the older one's lead teacher is getting a stack of books as well - she's been borrowing our Magic Tree House and Junie B Jones books to read to the kids, so we're getting her a few from the local used book store (she's fine with this, as we've given her some already and she's thrilled). She celebrates Hannukah, so she'll get her presents before she's out for that and the others will get theirs before Christmas break.

 

[pklein09]

It appears that after reading the 8 pages of responses, the only "good" gift is money in some form. I guess I don't want to look "cheap" because my limit on teachers' gifts is $5.00. My last child is in grade school, but when all 4 of them were in grade school, I was looking at 10+ gifts for just school teachers (oldest DD has learning issues and had multiple teachers). While I could afford to do more monitarily for teachers this year, I don't want to change what I have always done because all 4 kids have gone through the same school.

<heavy sigh>

 

[scrapquitler]

It appears that after reading the 8 pages of responses, the only "good" gift is money in some form. I guess I don't want to look "cheap" because my limit on teachers' gifts is $5.00. My last child is in grade school, but when all 4 of them were in grade school, I was looking at 10+ gifts for just school teachers (oldest DD has learning issues and had multiple teachers). While I could afford to do more monitarily for teachers this year, I don't want to change what I have always done because all 4 kids have gone through the same school.

<heavy sigh>

I've only ever done $5 gift cards, and I don't think that anyone sees that as cheap looking... it doesn't look any cheaper than giving a mug from the dollar store filled with a bunch of candy, and I think that $5 for Dunkin Donuts (which comes out to 2 coffees or a coffee/muffin plus leftover towards tomorrow's coffee) is a lot more appreciated.

 

[daisyduck123]

I've only ever done $5 gift cards, and I don't think that anyone sees that as cheap looking... it doesn't look any cheaper than giving a mug from the dollar store filled with a bunch of candy, and I think that $5 for Dunkin Donuts (which comes out to 2 coffees or a coffee/muffin plus leftover towards tomorrow's coffee) is a lot more appreciated.

I'd MUCH rather have a $5.00 gift card than $10.00 or $20.00 worth of lotion, shower gels, ornaments, etc.

 

[torinsmom]

It appears that after reading the 8 pages of responses, the only "good" gift is money in some form. I guess I don't want to look "cheap" because my limit on teachers' gifts is $5.00. My last child is in grade school, but when all 4 of them were in grade school, I was looking at 10+ gifts for just school teachers (oldest DD has learning issues and had multiple teachers). While I could afford to do more monitarily for teachers this year, I don't want to change what I have always done because all 4 kids have gone through the same school.

<heavy sigh>

Give what you feel comfortable giving, whether it is a heartfelt letter about something that made a difference in your child's life, a bag of chocolate or a $5 gift card. I promise your teacher will appreciate whatever you give, even if it is not something they can use. It really is the thought that counts, at least in my classroom.

 

[TB'sWidow]

Do you think they would admit to your face that they threw it away?

Actually yes I would like them to be honest and in fact did ask them to be, for the simple fact of not wasting my time,money and energy in making them homemade treats. I think that would be the decent thing to do.

 

[dpratt68]

As a teacher I don't expect anything and just love when the kids write me a peronal note in a homemade card. I know some of you always buy gifts for teachers. One thing I would greatly appreciate would be vitamin C and airborne.

 

[SDSorority]

I'm a music teacher (private, not in the schools) and normally my kids get me things like a mug with candy, a candle, home-baked cookies (which I can't eat this year because I'm gluten-free now), an ornament, etc. Something small, but it's certainly very thoughtful!!

 

[Kat&Dom]

I had my mind all made up that I was going to buy gift cards for my son's teachers - he has his main grade 1 teacher, a phys ed teacher, social studies teacher and choir teacher so today as I dropped my son off at school age program - I asked the supervisor to do some investigating for me so that I could figure out the best gift card to buy for each one.

We are heading to Disney in 2 1/2 weeks. So I asked the school age supervisor what size of t-shirt she wears because she is big Mickey Mouse fan - she confessed to me that her secret passion is pens and if I found a pen with Mickey Mouse - it would be perfect for her. She said she would love a t-shirt but be over the moon happy with a pen.

So that got me thinking, maybe I should be looking for unique, nice writing pens to give to all the teachers. I would love input from teachers on this idea. TIA.

 

[torinsmom]

I had my mind all made up that I was going to buy gift cards for my son's teachers - he has his main grade 1 teacher, a phys ed teacher, social studies teacher and choir teacher so today as I dropped my son off at school age program - I asked the supervisor to do some investigating for me so that I could figure out the best gift card to buy for each one.

We are heading to Disney in 2 1/2 weeks. So I asked the school age supervisor what size of t-shirt she wears because she is big Mickey Mouse fan - she confessed to me that her secret passion is pens and if I found a pen with Mickey Mouse - it would be perfect for her. She said she would love a t-shirt but be over the moon happy with a pen.

So that got me thinking, maybe I should be looking for unique, nice writing pens to give to all the teachers. I would love input from teachers on this idea. TIA.

Well, I am a Disney-holic, so I would LOVE a Disney pen. I bought several of this kind that had a mini snowglobe on top with a character inside a few years ago. I haven't seen that kind since!

 

[Aliceacc]

I had my mind all made up that I was going to buy gift cards for my son's teachers - he has his main grade 1 teacher, a phys ed teacher, social studies teacher and choir teacher so today as I dropped my son off at school age program - I asked the supervisor to do some investigating for me so that I could figure out the best gift card to buy for each one.

We are heading to Disney in 2 1/2 weeks. So I asked the school age supervisor what size of t-shirt she wears because she is big Mickey Mouse fan - she confessed to me that her secret passion is pens and if I found a pen with Mickey Mouse - it would be perfect for her. She said she would love a t-shirt but be over the moon happy with a pen.

So that got me thinking, maybe I should be looking for unique, nice writing pens to give to all the teachers. I would love input from teachers on this idea. TIA.

I would love that!