End of year gift for teacher

[Anonymous]

Don't think you can demand higher grades. It's not fair to the kids earning their grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't think you can demand higher grades. It's not fair to the kids earning their grade.

Oh please. This is a gift at the end of the year. It’s after grades have already been determined. And it’s elementary school!

This has nothing to do with demanding higher grades.

[Anonymous]

This is really lovely! I am a teacher, but we are not allowed to accept gifts over $25. We actually have a yearly training on ethics, so it's not like someone can claim ignorance. Do some people receive more than that? Perhaps, but I never have. I would not be comfortable with that at all - nor alcohol. You never know if someone is in recovery or their family is. Or that their religion condones it. A very nice gesture, but honestly, what means the most to me are real, heartfelt notes. I had a student - a really 'tough' guy in 7th grade - write me a note at the end of the year. It said' Don't open until you have a really bad day' So I waited. And I opened it on a particularly tough day. The kid who everyone else dismissed - apparently somehow something I did made a difference. Please have your kids tell your teachers how they made a difference. We need to hear that. It stays with us so much longer than a bottle of wine, a gift card, or some trinket. (Just my 2 cents as a very exhausted middle school teacher)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Teachers have more mugs than they can ever, ever use, including travel mugs. Stick to a glowing email to the principal, copied to the teacher, and, if you like, a gift card.

[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've always followed the rule but also give gift cards several times a year including winter break, teacher appreciation and the end of year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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've always followed the rule but also give gift cards several times a year including winter break, teacher appreciation and the end of year.

PS and it adds up after ES when y our kid has 7-8 teachers...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is really lovely! I am a teacher, but we are not allowed to accept gifts over $25. We actually have a yearly training on ethics, so it's not like someone can claim ignorance. Do some people receive more than that? Perhaps, but I never have. I would not be comfortable with that at all - nor alcohol. You never know if someone is in recovery or their family is. Or that their religion condones it. A very nice gesture, but honestly, what means the most to me are real, heartfelt notes. I had a student - a really 'tough' guy in 7th grade - write me a note at the end of the year. It said' Don't open until you have a really bad day' So I waited. And I opened it on a particularly tough day. The kid who everyone else dismissed - apparently somehow something I did made a difference. Please have your kids tell your teachers how they made a difference. We need to hear that. It stays with us so much longer than a bottle of wine, a gift card, or some trinket. (Just my 2 cents as a very exhausted middle school teacher)

We don't have ethics training every year?

[Anonymous]

Teaching kids about bribery is still teaching. So at least they are learning something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is really lovely! I am a teacher, but we are not allowed to accept gifts over $25. We actually have a yearly training on ethics, so it's not like someone can claim ignorance. Do some people receive more than that? Perhaps, but I never have. I would not be comfortable with that at all - nor alcohol. You never know if someone is in recovery or their family is. Or that their religion condones it. A very nice gesture, but honestly, what means the most to me are real, heartfelt notes. I had a student - a really 'tough' guy in 7th grade - write me a note at the end of the year. It said' Don't open until you have a really bad day' So I waited. And I opened it on a particularly tough day. The kid who everyone else dismissed - apparently somehow something I did made a difference. Please have your kids tell your teachers how they made a difference. We need to hear that. It stays with us so much longer than a bottle of wine, a gift card, or some trinket. (Just my 2 cents as a very exhausted middle school teacher)

We don't have ethics training every year?

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/ethics/

It's in the yearly compliance training

[Anonymous]

Not lying to your parents and admin about how horrible the teacher is is gift enough. When this happens we teachers have to deal with office bullying and haarrassment.

[Anonymous]

Just give cash or multiple gift cards in smaller amounts.

[Anonymous]

As a room mom, is it necessary to collect funds from other parents for end of year or teacher appreciation gifts? Or should every student send in their own gift? Our ES stressed the $20 limit during the holidays. I'm not sure how to handle it, especially when the other parents weren't really responsive for the holiday gift.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a room mom, is it necessary to collect funds from other parents for end of year or teacher appreciation gifts? Or should every student send in their own gift? Our ES stressed the $20 limit during the holidays. I'm not sure how to handle it, especially when the other parents weren't really responsive for the holiday gift.

I meant to say should students send in their own gift if they want or can send one in.

[Anonymous]

Please no alcohol. I can’t have it on school property.

A gift card is nice and a personalized note is especially welcome.

[Anonymous]

Bumping this - I have a graduating 5th grader and we want to do something for her teacher, who has gone absolutely above and beyond this year, and another school employee who has helped her immensely for her entire six years there. From this thread it sounds like we should not break the $20 rule, and I love the idea of a note ccing the principal. Any other gift ideas? Can I give "stuff" beyond the $20 gift card (not sure what it would be?) I just want to do a bit more than we have done every other year, but not sure how.