Anonymous wrote:There are the holiday gifts, the teacher appreciation week gifts and then the end-of-year gifts. $100 is fine!

I like the preschool way of donating to one pot of money that gets evenly distributed to all the teachers and aids as a holiday bonus and the giving is anonymous.

Anyway PP is right, we give to the PTA and support the PTA fundraising, some of that money goes to supplies for teachers. We bring in supplies when teachers send out a list. We also give class money and possibly baked goods or whatever activity for teacher appreciation and we give money to holiday gift and end of year gift.

First, all these things are supposed to be voluntary. If I am about to be laid off, have this time five kids, or whatever, I hate to think what is supposed to be voluntary and discretionary giving has become some major drama with the classroom. Second, a gift is supposed to be just that. Do you call to shake down your relatives to say "oh Grandma, you could only send $30 this year why did you even bother, or do you say thank you, and think of what extra thing you may do with this money?

There are the holiday gifts, the teacher appreciation week gifts and then the end-of-year gifts. $100 is fine!

Anonymous wrote:when my kid was in K, I contributed $50 to the class fund. And by Christmas, the room parent sent out an email saying she was going to buy $50 gift card to the teacher on behalf of the class. I emailed her and asked how much was collected. I never had the answer but the gift amount was changed to $250. I never contributed more than $30 to the class fund from then on.

This. We began doing indiv. family gift cards from there on out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$100 for 23 kids.

That is less than $5/kid. We're in a low income/high FARMS school and I find that too low.

May not everyone is contributing?? I've been in a class of 24 kids and we collected $140, but that was only about 10 parents who participated. Others said they already had purchased something.

I'm sure the teacher will be happy with whatever is given to them.

This is so typical. A handful of parents are generous and the others are getting by on that generosity without contributing a cent. (speaking from experience about a well-off school body)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do people live who are giving $100 to their kindergarten teacher as a class gift and worrying that it's too little?

+1

Herndon -- hardly the most well-heeled part of the DC area

Herndon here again. We are the ones who gave $200 to the teacher and $50 to the aide. Kindergarten.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I came from a country where teachers at public schools are not allowed to receive any gifts from students/parents. Instead, they receive greeting cards/letters from students in holiday seasons (during the summer break and New Year).

Both of my parents were teachers at elementary school and I remember their big smile when they received cards/letters from their students. Money is not everything.

+1
My DD wrote the sweetest things about her teachers in the cards she made for them. I bet it gives the teachers a much bigger smile than any gift card.

My DS, though, would never do that. Never mind. I'm sure the teachers will still care just as much for him!!

My old roommate (a teacher) used to come home from school the day before holiday break laden down with holiday bags. She'd rip through them, throwing out all the notes and homebaked goods. It wasn't even out of malice or anything like that but she just didn't like clutter (nor did we have room for it) and she also didn't want a lot of baked goods sitting around for us to eat.

Ever since then, I have been scarred by watching this and so I never do homebaked goods OR personal notes to a teacher! AmEx gift card is the route I always go, so they can spend it on ANYTHING they want.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do people live who are giving $100 to their kindergarten teacher as a class gift and worrying that it's too little?

+1

Herndon -- hardly the most well-heeled part of the DC area

when my kid was in K, I contributed $50 to the class fund. And by Christmas, the room parent sent out an email saying she was going to buy $50 gift card to the teacher on behalf of the class. I emailed her and asked how much was collected. I never had the answer but the gift amount was changed to $250. I never contributed more than $30 to the class fund from then on.

$200 sounds fair.

Anonymous wrote:I came from a country where teachers at public schools are not allowed to receive any gifts from students/parents. Instead, they receive greeting cards/letters from students in holiday seasons (during the summer break and New Year).

Both of my parents were teachers at elementary school and I remember their big smile when they received cards/letters from their students. Money is not everything.

+1
My DD wrote the sweetest things about her teachers in the cards she made for them. I bet it gives the teachers a much bigger smile than any gift card.

My DS, though, would never do that. Never mind. I'm sure the teachers will still care just as much for him!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD's elementary school sets a limit ($20 or lower). I think this is a GREAT idea.

What's that teacher's salary, PP?

The entire school system has a limit. $20 per family is the limit on the value of a gift. Some people break that obviously, but they should know when doing that you are putting the teacher in the position of violating the MCPS ethics policy and they could be fired.

Point?

Anonymous wrote:Where do people live who are giving $100 to their kindergarten teacher as a class gift and worrying that it's too little?

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD's elementary school sets a limit ($20 or lower). I think this is a GREAT idea.

What's that teacher's salary, PP?

The entire school system has a limit. $20 per family is the limit on the value of a gift. Some people break that obviously, but they should know when doing that you are putting the teacher in the position of violating the MCPS ethics policy and they could be fired.

We just gave $200 to the main teacher, $50 to the aide.

K class of 20, parochial school, NoVA.

Some teachers here can't afford to live on their paychecks.