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Teacher Appreciation Week

It’s teacher appreciation week and I urge everyone to really take a minute to think about your child’s teacher.  What do you know about them?  What do your kids know about them?  Some of my best and most useful gifts have come from families who really knew something about me.

**Please note, I’m not saying gifts are a must, just saying for those of you that do show appreciation in this way, make the present fit the person.**



Top Teacher Gifts that I have received in my decade of teaching:

  1. A brightly patterned orange backpack. (My favourite colour is orange, which the children all know from color lessons. I also travel a lot so a nice carry on sized backpack is a great thing to have.  I’ve used this gift 100s of times).
  2. Acute teacup with an assortment of tea. (I drink tea every morning, and throughout most of my parent teacher conferences…I used this gift and enjoyed it.)
  3.  A travel mug and Starbuck card (Same as above with the tea, and it was nice to treat myself to a fancy earl grey latte a few times.)
  4. Amazon gift card code (This is one I’ve received lots of times and always find a good use for it.  Sometimes for children’s books to round out my classroom collection, sometime for graduate school textbooks, and once in a while for a trashy book for my Kindle.)
  5. Potted plants (I’ve received a few over the years and though they mostly die due to my major lack of green thumb, I always want them to live and try my best because I love the way they brighten my house. Note; Aloe I have managed to keep alive!)
  6. Pictures with your child in a frame.  (I have a shelf that has a half dozen or so picture of me with former students.  Often the frames reflect the child’s personality—pink sparkling butterflies, trucks, or dinos.  While these frames admittedly gather dust, they also warm my heart every time I see them.)
  7.  Fancy grocery store gift cards (when I first started teaching and was broke nearly all of the time, I loved when I got a Whole Foods gift card.  It was such a treat to go to the fancy store and buy a few special things that I wouldn’t normally buy for myself. This is a good one for young teachers.)


All in all—hugs and smiles, notes from the children, anything that show that you care will make a teacher’s day!
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