Teacher appreciation week, what are you doing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid's school has a nice tradition of just doing a luncheon for the teachers. No individual gifts. A few parents sign up to organize the event, school is closed for the afternoon. The food and drink is all donated by parents, as well as flower arrangements for each teacher & staff member.

I taught at a school where they did the luncheon. Some parents still gave small gifts like cookies or Starbucks gift cards for one drink. I’ll say the best gifts I ever got were simple notes of appreciation from parents or a card written by students. The worst gift I ever got was probably the most expensive one — a fancy expensive candle. I am sensitive to fragrances and this one from of my worst students/demanding helicopter parents in over a decade of teaching.

Just reminding everyone that many teachers simply like feeling appreciated and valued for their work. It’s not about material gifts at all, so please don’t feel pressured to give a large amount or any material gift at all. I’ve seen people comment here countless times that we overdo it with Teachers Appreciation and having to hear teachers moaning on social media every year about Back to School, but for every one of those complaining blowhards, there are so many of us just quietly doing our best to educate and nature your children

[Anonymous]

Depends on your school.

Our local school is Title 1 (over 75% of students qualify for free lunch, so the whole school gets free breakfast too). Nobody advertises teacher appreciation to the kids or parents. PTA does a catered lunch (partial donation from a local restaurant, so costs ~$5-8 per teacher) on Friday. When parents have to decide whether to keep a kid home or pay $5 for a field trip, there’s no extra money for teacher gifts.

With that said, there are a few individuals in the community who do support the teachers. These teachers spend well over the $500 they can write off each year, so the community does gives school supplies, gift cards to teacher supply stores, books, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP again - OP, since you mention that you just came to the country - the next time you go back home, buy small trinkets from whichever country you are from. Teachers love the exotic gifts from other countries. You could buy small things for the special teachers and something more expensive for the class teachers. My friend used to do this all the time.

No, they actually don’t. Teachers don’t want useless trinkets. They want gift cards or cash.

Disagree! I’m a SS teacher. I want the trinket from your culture. I give the Starbucks cards to homeless people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP again - OP, since you mention that you just came to the country - the next time you go back home, buy small trinkets from whichever country you are from. Teachers love the exotic gifts from other countries. You could buy small things for the special teachers and something more expensive for the class teachers. My friend used to do this all the time.

No, they actually don’t. Teachers don’t want useless trinkets. They want gift cards or cash.

I love my Indian students but boy howdy the garish gifts...