Hi friends.  It's that time of year........I'm trying to think of nice gift ideas for my kid's teachers.  I always get the elementary school teacher something nice;  but I'd like to give a little something to my son's middle school teachers, and the reading, computer etc. teachers, and secretaries at my daughter's school too.  I'm thinking of a budget of around $15. each.  I'm spacing out here.  Any suggestions?

I'm no good at "general gifts".  If I know a lot about a person and can really think about it, I'm awesome.  But this I'm not so good at.  But I just wanted to share the coolest gift I think I ever gave a teacher of mine was a glass apple made out of Mt. Saint Helen ash.  But I don't know how practical and readily available those are.  My grandparents owned an antique shop when I was growing up.

Sorry...I'm not much help. 

AshleyJohnsonPhotography:

I'm no good at "general gifts".  If I know a lot about a person and can really think about it, I'm awesome.  But this I'm not so good at.  But I just wanted to share the coolest gift I think I ever gave a teacher of mine was a glass apple made out of Mt. Saint Helen ash.  But I don't know how practical and readily available those are.  My grandparents owned an antique shop when I was growing up.Sorry...I'm not much help. 

Wow, that is a great gift!  I love giving gifts, but I hate shopping.  And I have no clue what kind of stuff anybody but the main teacher likes.  Hmmm.  Maybe I'll see if I can find any of those apples on Ebay!

Coming from a teacher - do not give them apples.  Gift certificate.  You don't have to shop and who doesn't love a gift certificate?  Out Chamber sales them and any place that is a chamber member is on there. 

Teachers love food - you could do coffee shop gift card.

book store gift card

movie gift card

Most middle school teachers don't get gifts from students - so anything that you give will be appreciated.  But if you are going to spend the money - do it on something they will use.  An apple will just sit in the room and gather dust.

Thanks, tlash.  The idea of the movie gift card is great!  That's reallly different.  I think I might go with that one!

tlash:

An apple will just sit in the room and gather dust.

Aww but it's made out of Mt. Saint Helen ash.  It's an antique.  It's unique.  And all those other "-ique" words.  And it was pretty.  It looked nice on her desk. 

A Starbucks gift card. What teacher can't appreciate the pick me up?

AshleyJohnsonPhotography:

tlash:

An apple will just sit in the room and gather dust.

Aww but it's made out of Mt. Saint Helen ash.  It's an antique.  It's unique.  And all those other "-ique" words.  And it was pretty.  It looked nice on her desk. 

LOL, Ashley, you should have held on the that apple.  They don't even have any on Ebay!!!!!!!!  The closest thing was an ash tray in the shape of an apple!  Probably not a  great teachers gift.  That was a real collectible.  She probably sold it and bought an island in the Carribean.

shannone:

AshleyJohnsonPhotography:

tlash:

An apple will just sit in the room and gather dust.

Aww but it's made out of Mt. Saint Helen ash.  It's an antique.  It's unique.  And all those other "-ique" words.  And it was pretty.  It looked nice on her desk. 

LOL, Ashley, you should have held on the that apple.  They don't even have any on Ebay!!!!!!!!  The closest thing was an ash tray in the shape of an apple!  Probably not a  great teachers gift.  That was a real collectible.  She probably sold it and bought an island in the Carribean.

Lol...I actually still have one...and I don't think its worth that much. 

As a teacher I agree a small gift certificate would be great.  I always love the coffee shop card.  I have a few other thoughts though.  Nice pens (the ones the office supplies are crap), a favorite book of your child's to add to the teacher's collection (please write on the inside cover), a bouquet of flowers, a game for the classroom, cd of kid's songs or relaxing music, or maybe a nexflix subscription for over the summer.  Also nothing will bring more tears to the teacher's eyes on the last day of school than a thoughtful, hand written card from you and your child.

I love the gift cards, too.  Loved receiving them as a techer and now I love giving them as a parent.  This year I'm giving movie theater gift cards.  Last year I gave their teacher a gift certificate to the nail salon --- she was a big fan of pedicures!

I'm glad someone said no apples!!  I have several friends that are teachers who apple everything!!  I always get my daughters' teachers gift certificates to somewhere I know they would like.  I send my daughter on a spying mission--look for cups or wrappers from certain places (like Starbucks).  Last year, we gave one of her teachers a gift card to Starbuck's and he told us that it was the best gift ever because as a teacher, he just couldn't afford to pay that much for a cup of coffee!!  With the giftcard--he HAD to splurge on it!  I've also done a little basket with a bag of microwave popcorn, some different "theatre" candies (Milk Duds, Good-n-Plenty, Junior Mints), and a gift card to Blockbuster (or whatever local DVD store you have)--that one was a big hit, too.  You could also give them a mall gift card--that way they could use it in any store in the mall.

Gift cards are appreciated (speaking from six years experience here). A thank you note is great too. Just like we look through our portfolios to remind ourselves that, "Hey, today may be a bad day but overall my work is great and getting better!" a thank you note lets a teacher do the same thing. I know my coworkers and I kept thank you notes and letters to remember all the positive sides to teaching.

 Besides from apples teachers get lots of mugs and bath products (lotions, bubble bath, etc.) and it ends up being too much to use. I'm guilty of giving a mug this year myself though I took a class picture and a few candids of my son's teacher, created a collage in PS3 with text and had it printed on a mug. She loved it... but then it's her first year teaching so she hasn't had time to develop a collection yet.

My mother in law is a teacher and she gets TONS of stuff. Christmas is her biggest haul. Most of what she gets is thrown in a bag and is forgotten about, probably because she already has ten of the same thing already.

One of the things I like is when she gets gift cards. Anything with Starbucks she keeps. Anything with Borders, Jamba Juice and McDonalds gets passed down to me. Back in January of this year, she gave me about $85 in Borders gift cards, two of them dating back two years (I called and they were still good).

What I'm saying is, Borders gift cards! Maybe a few of those will trickle on down to me. Tee-Hee!

-Koa-

Food, eh?

Get together with other parents and pay for private chef d-session . . .that means the chef (like a good chef) will come to your teacher's house and make incredible dinner . . . .I'll post pictures next day

I want someone to come cook me dinner.  When are you coming back to the states Tommas?

I have no idea.

Really, besides vacation and such (ie work) short stays . . .I just don't know. We talked with my better half about all this and plan is to keep our options wiiide open for whole word for about one two years more. Most I want to open my own restaurant, I think we could do it basically now already, but just the idea of 24/7 attention to such place for next 5-7 years gives me headache.

Tomas

I did the school pictures, so I have access to them.  I made her a mug with the class pic and the year and put "Thank you" on the bottom.  My son saw it and wanted different wording, so I made another that says "To our favorite teacher - From your favorite class".

 What I really want to do for her is to have the kids each write something, be it a poem, a thank you note, a memory of something funny that happened or their favorite day in school this year.  Then I want to scan them in and put some pics of each kid around it and then have it printed into a book.  Time is running out too quickly and I doubt if I'll be able to do this so she gets the mugs instead.

Thanks for all the great suggestions!  Last year, someone at the middle school had a great idea.  For like five or ten bucks per teacher, you could contribute to them going out to a group dinner in the function room of a very nice nearby restaurant.  It sounds like they really did it right, because they all sent thank-you notes raving about the evening. And naturally, a personal thank you note to each of them is a must. My kids have had such awesome teachers.  So many days I wonder how these amazing folks do this work......even if you're a teacher in another part of the, my hat goes off to you!  Thank you!   

as an ex teacher... the best thing you can give, is a note...of what the teacher meant to you and your child...

I gave my kids teachers bath & body works wallflowers & foaming hand soap (in matching scents of course!) for Christmas and they seemed to like them.  My mom was a kindergarten teacher for 30 years.... yea.... skip the apples!

 Hey, you could get apple scented wallflowers!

I was considering sending a photo purse, but designing a pretty 8x10 that had a neat teacher phrase on it.  Then they could change it and put what they wanted later.  But havent figured out what to put on it yet.  If someone has teacher phrases that would be neat let me know.

 

I would suggest you to buy a gift which is useful to them so that they will be remembering your kid whenever they will use the gift you have given.

 

 

As long as you're on the gift certificate idea, what about little delis or smaller resturaunts near the school. This way they can run out quick for lunch, or stop on the way home and grab dinner.