Of course the note, the words are the most important piece of the gift. How about a mani/pedi gift certificate? I've given this as a thank you to young women teachers and they are laugh out loud thrilled by the gift.

Anonymous wrote:Write a nice note, and forward a copy to the principal and assistant principal. I am a former teacher, that was the nicest thing parents did for me.

Agreed. The teacher will remember your kind words (and your son!) long after any gift. Your letter would likely become part of the teacher's professional file and be great support if she is ever nominated for any awards or something.

Write a nice note, and forward a copy to the principal and assistant principal. I am a former teacher, that was the nicest thing parents did for me.

For the administrative staff, flowers are nice. There's so much food around during the holidays that sometimes people are happy not to face an extra temptation.

For the teacher, I agree with the posters who said you should write her a heartfelt note expressing the things you said here. If you want to spend money, for $52 you can send an Afghan girl to school for a year. We are doing that in honor of a special teacher who has changed our child's life over the past couple of years. Knowing this teacher, she will value the gift of education to an Afghan girl more than anything for herself. www.rescue.org

I agree - a nice card with your thoughts would be wonderful.

I think a card telling her all of these things would be the best gift.

I know you're looking for more but the words you've written above should be part of your gift. As a teacher, I found them wonderfully moving.

I've never done much for the teachers at holiday time. At least not since our first year in daycare, when I made special, elaborate, expensive gifts. Then, life kind of hit me and I stopped trying to be that awesome parent. And our first year in elementary school, the holidays coincided with a blizzard and school was cancelled for the whole week before... etc.

Anyway, my son has a truly wonderful teacher this year, who just this past few days did something so incredibly kind for him that I'd really like to show some appreciation. My kid is not a teacher's dream by any stretch of the imagination - bright enough but fidgety and behind in math and intense in his interests - and he's not super popular this year among his classmates. Still, this teacher has answered our emails in the middle of the night and found us tutors, and just last week rallied her class to do something deeply thoughtful for my son in a difficult time.

So, please give me your best ideas for how to show a teacher how much they are appreciated. I don't know much about her other than she is young and smart and tech savvy. I'd have made this same request irrespective of Sandy Hook, but it's hard not to feel more emotional about a dedicated, caring teacher right now.

And bonus points if you can suggest something nice to do for the administrative staff too, since they have also been wonderful. Is food a good thing or a bad thing? Flowers? What else can I do for a group of staff whom I don't really know?