End of year gift for teacher

[Anonymous]

I'm really thankful for my son's teacher this year. It's his first year in MCPS - he transitioned from private into public. If there are any teachers, please suggest a great gift a teacher would really appreciate. He will be writing her a heartfelt letter of appreciation to go along with the gift. For holiday gift, he gave a gift card and small plant so something different for end of year gift would be ideal.

[Anonymous]

Gift card. There is also teacher appreciation week

[Anonymous]

We give a bottle of nice wine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm really thankful for my son's teacher this year. It's his first year in MCPS - he transitioned from private into public. If there are any teachers, please suggest a great gift a teacher would really appreciate. He will be writing her a heartfelt letter of appreciation to go along with the gift. For holiday gift, he gave a gift card and small plant so something different for end of year gift would be ideal.

I'm sure you'll get lots of good ideas here, but I really appreciate your post and your whole mindset. It's nice to hear when things go well!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We give a bottle of nice wine.

FWIW, alcohol is not allowed on MCPS property. This gift could get your teacher fired.

Gift card, along with the heartfelt email that gets copied to the principal

[Anonymous]

Plus one for the gift card (ignore the $20 rule, nobody polices it. I am an Mcps employee myself and gift more than that for my DD teachers who go above and beyond) and absolutely copy your teachers administrator on a nicely written email. That is so flattering and rarely done… your child’s teacher will be blown away.

[Anonymous]

Do not ignore the $20 rule.

[Anonymous]

Some principals have made teachers return gifts. We don't have a room mom that collects money so I give a 25 dollar gift card - inflation y'all- for the holidays and end of year. And I also send in paper towels, snacks for parties, etc. I make sure the teacher feels appreciated throughout the year. I write a heartfelt note for teacher appreciation week.

quote=Anonymous]Do not ignore the $20 rule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do not ignore the $20 rule.

I have been ignoring this rule for the past 10 years. MCPS has lots of silly rules and this is one of them. We are at a lower-income school and we are not wealthy by DCUM standards (if we were, my kids would be in private).

But teaching in MCPS is hard. MCPS doesn’t seem to support teachers the way it should.

So, when my kids have had a good teacher, I do a $50 gift card at the end of the year with a nice note and sometimes a nice note emailed to the principal to go into that teacher’s file.

MCPS can suck it. $20 is ridiculous. When was that rule even implemented? With inflation and how much things cost now, I have even upped how much I give elementary aged kids gifts for birthdays. Used to do $20 or $25 and have upped that up to $30. Why wouldn’t I do the same for teachers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We give a bottle of nice wine.

Don’t do this. Many people aren’t drinkers and alcohol is now allowed on school property. Gift card to Amazon/target etc is the way to go.

[Anonymous]

Op here. Thank you for the suggestions. I would definitely not feel comfortable gifting wine as I'm not sure the teacher drinks and would not want to break any rules regarding alcohol on school property- so will probably go with a gift card - but was also looking at a personalized swig or yeti travel mug. If anyone has ordered something like this from a good website, please share. As far as the email to cc to the teacher - I guess I feel a little odd about that, but if you all think that's really important I will do that. However, this teacher has been teaching for decades and is probably not looking for letters in her file for advancement so not sure this will be helpful if that makes sense. Thanks again for your insights.

[Anonymous]

It's not about advancement - it's about letting the supervisor, in this case, know the teacher is STILL doing a great job after all these years. STILL making a difference in children's lives

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do not ignore the $20 rule.

I have been ignoring this rule for the past 10 years. MCPS has lots of silly rules and this is one of them. We are at a lower-income school and we are not wealthy by DCUM standards (if we were, my kids would be in private).

But teaching in MCPS is hard. MCPS doesn’t seem to support teachers the way it should.

So, when my kids have had a good teacher, I do a $50 gift card at the end of the year with a nice note and sometimes a nice note emailed to the principal to go into that teacher’s file.

MCPS can suck it. $20 is ridiculous. When was that rule even implemented? With inflation and how much things cost now, I have even upped how much I give elementary aged kids gifts for birthdays. Used to do $20 or $25 and have upped that up to $30. Why wouldn’t I do the same for teachers?

I would think it puts teachers in a bad spot to receive gifts over the allowed amount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We give a bottle of nice wine.

I am a teacher and all my teacher friends love and need hard alcohol. Wine does not cut it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do not ignore the $20 rule.

I have been ignoring this rule for the past 10 years. MCPS has lots of silly rules and this is one of them. We are at a lower-income school and we are not wealthy by DCUM standards (if we were, my kids would be in private).

But teaching in MCPS is hard. MCPS doesn’t seem to support teachers the way it should.

So, when my kids have had a good teacher, I do a $50 gift card at the end of the year with a nice note and sometimes a nice note emailed to the principal to go into that teacher’s file.

MCPS can suck it. $20 is ridiculous. When was that rule even implemented? With inflation and how much things cost now, I have even upped how much I give elementary aged kids gifts for birthdays. Used to do $20 or $25 and have upped that up to $30. Why wouldn’t I do the same for teachers?

I know more than one MCPS teacher who gives away all gift cards over $20...so you might think you are being super wonderful but he or she may get no benefit at all.