Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One year the room mom seemed kind of shady. I contributed $50 and spoke with three other moms who also contributed around $50 each. So that's at least $200 to the K teacher just from the 4 of us. Well, later on the teacher thanked the class for the gift and adding it up (ex. Starbucks tumbler and &50 gift card, a few snacks, gift card for $50 for lunch) it added up to $150. That was the last time I contributed $50. Now I contribute $10 to the group and anything more than that I have my child personally give to the teacher.

Wow.

I've seen that happen one year too. Some room moms pocket the money for themselves on the pretext of collecting for the teacher.

I started doing individual gifts after that and don't bother contributing to class group gift

From now on I’ll give my own gift (Target gift card) because room parent frequently gets something I don’t like: visa gift card (you waste so much $$ on activation fees), box of candy or other treat food gift (most ppl are trying to lose weight and don’t want this!), random items like candles or hand lotions that is not something I’m interested in giving and wouldn’t want to receive.

I give to the teachers individually because my sister is a teacher and has told me what she thinks is most appreciated (Target gift card fwiw) and by doing it myself I ensure 1. Teachers get the full value of the donation and 2. It’s not some “gift” a room parent selected that they may not want or appreciate (like when I saw a teacher “gifted” a basket of products from the room parents MLM…)

Anonymous wrote:So I’m a teacher and I have a hot take on this. I once organized a gift card for another teacher that assisted my grade, parents immediately started sending me $50. That same teacher appreciation week I got my “class gift” that cost under $30 from my room parents. The room parents also saw my email about getting a gift for the other teacher and told me to return the money as they were organizing one so I did. They gave the teacher a $10 gift.

It made no sense to me that parents were donating so much to a teacher who occasionally supported our class, while I received something not as large.

Obviously I don’t believe this was the case and after talking to other teachers I started to really not trust parents who collect money without transparency.

I do wish the class parent would confirm how much the total amount collected.

So I've been a room parent a lot and some parents don't even contribute money to the class gift, but I still have to sign the gift from the whole class. Honestly the point of the gift is to spoil the teacher not to get credit for it. The more you contribute, the better the gift can be. I usually like to spend $50 to $60 on a gift, but as the room parent, if I'm trying to make an awesome gift for the teacher, and I'm not getting very many donations, I'll donate $100 to make up the difference. Yes, some people are cheap and can afford it. But there are some people who also just really can't afford it. So again, the point is not to take credit for it. The point is to do something nice for the teacher. And I know as a room parent, the more contributions you get, the better we can make the present for them.

Do your own gift! "Class parent" is not "Emperor of Earth" so I don't know why people act like they can't do their own thing.

Anonymous wrote:So I’m a teacher and I have a hot take on this. I once organized a gift card for another teacher that assisted my grade, parents immediately started sending me $50. That same teacher appreciation week I got my “class gift” that cost under $30 from my room parents. The room parents also saw my email about getting a gift for the other teacher and told me to return the money as they were organizing one so I did. They gave the teacher a $10 gift.

It made no sense to me that parents were donating so much to a teacher who occasionally supported our class, while I received something not as large.

Obviously I don’t believe this was the case and after talking to other teachers I started to really not trust parents who collect money without transparency.

WOW. I was a room parent once and I bought a gift card with all of the money that was Venmoed to me and I sent an email to all of the parents with the full amount - it was something like 152.50, which is weird, but it was the total. It never would have occurred to me to siphon anything off the top. How awful!

Anonymous wrote:I was the original PP - I live in Arlington and I think it’s ridiculous that my son’s teacher who had a baby was gifted close to $1500 one year ($500 each for Christmas, teacher appreciation, and baby shower), but our friend who works in a high FaRMS school in Arlington gets maybe $20 if she’s lucky. Our teacher was fine, but not amazing, she simply gets a crazy bonus by virtue of landing a job in the right zip code.

FWIW I felt so much real appreciation when I worked at one of the poorest APS schools that I never cared about what the north side schools were getting. I’m now in one of the schools in the middle. My class gifts are always signed by the whole class and I have no idea who contributes. I like it that way

Anonymous wrote:I was the original PP - I live in Arlington and I think it’s ridiculous that my son’s teacher who had a baby was gifted close to $1500 one year ($500 each for Christmas, teacher appreciation, and baby shower), but our friend who works in a high FaRMS school in Arlington gets maybe $20 if she’s lucky. Our teacher was fine, but not amazing, she simply gets a crazy bonus by virtue of landing a job in the right zip code.

Teacher here.
I taught in loudoun and got enough in gift cards to buy myself a REALLY nice designer bag, plus I was given enough funds to buy every school supply in the planet.

I now teach in a rural county in VA and receive maybe $50 total in gifts and have to buy a LOT for myself!

I was a room parent once, and one mom had twins. She gave $10 total. Maybe one person gave $50 and most gave $20.

Give the teacher the $50 separately from your child.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I prefer when room parents calculate the various gifts throughout the year and ask for a suggested amount up front at the beginning of the year. That said, my mom was a teacher and I find it ridiculous that our teachers are regularly getting $500 gift cards multiple times a year - yes they work hard, but honestly the teachers in the less fortunate neighborhoods work harder, spend more of their own $$ and get much less (we have a family friend who teaches at one school, so I asked her). Maybe consider matching your annual gift to a less fortunate school?

Do you work? Do you get a holiday or annual bonus? Is it at least $500? For many, many people in this area the answer to that is yes. Why shouldn't teachers receive bonuses as well?

Many many professions don’t receive holiday or annual bonuses. If they do, it is from their boss. It isn’t the role of parents to supplement teachers’ salaries

I was the original PP - I live in Arlington and I think it’s ridiculous that my son’s teacher who had a baby was gifted close to $1500 one year ($500 each for Christmas, teacher appreciation, and baby shower), but our friend who works in a high FaRMS school in Arlington gets maybe $20 if she’s lucky. Our teacher was fine, but not amazing, she simply gets a crazy bonus by virtue of landing a job in the right zip code.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I prefer when room parents calculate the various gifts throughout the year and ask for a suggested amount up front at the beginning of the year. That said, my mom was a teacher and I find it ridiculous that our teachers are regularly getting $500 gift cards multiple times a year - yes they work hard, but honestly the teachers in the less fortunate neighborhoods work harder, spend more of their own $$ and get much less (we have a family friend who teaches at one school, so I asked her). Maybe consider matching your annual gift to a less fortunate school?

Do you work? Do you get a holiday or annual bonus? Is it at least $500? For many, many people in this area the answer to that is yes. Why shouldn't teachers receive bonuses as well?

Don’t they? Do teachers receive no bonus or performance money or end of the year money from their managers?

No we do not. It’s possible if you get a perfect evaluation but it’s almost unheard of.

So I’m a teacher and I have a hot take on this. I once organized a gift card for another teacher that assisted my grade, parents immediately started sending me $50. That same teacher appreciation week I got my “class gift” that cost under $30 from my room parents. The room parents also saw my email about getting a gift for the other teacher and told me to return the money as they were organizing one so I did. They gave the teacher a $10 gift.

It made no sense to me that parents were donating so much to a teacher who occasionally supported our class, while I received something not as large.

Obviously I don’t believe this was the case and after talking to other teachers I started to really not trust parents who collect money without transparency.