Man, i wanna work at your school!

Maybe all of us teachers should post our best and worst gifts we recieve in the next few weeks.

at high school, i dont see much so anything is fine. i use mugs for markers and ditto others on bubble bath. regifting is also a possibility if it's really questionable. also in terms of food, feed the masses or the last class before the vacation starts.

One gift I think is great for teachers are gift certificates to office supply stores like staples-that way they can buy the things they need to for themselves or the classroom (let's face it these days teachers have a tough time with getting supplies covered by the schools). Definitely better to get a gift they can use.

One of my friends has a teacher/principal mom, and her mom does something really cute with the extra frames/mugs that she gets but no longer wants - she gives them to a school in the inner city for their teachers, who tend not to get any gifts at all this time of year. :D

what a great idea with the mugs geeky!

I agree with forever that the gift certificates will most likely get the use-and especially if its money towards supplies for the classroom like the ones from staples-I think they'll get more immediate use out of them.

A gift certificate to a spa would be a great papering present.

I know this is kinda late...but my roomie who is a teacher...gets the most use out of the gift cards, etc. we had dinner for the month of january paid for last year. it was great.

LOL, I got 2 more mugs among my gifts from students! But I also got some amazing stuff, including some Burts' Bees items--thanks to AlphaGam 1019 for turning me onto that!

Now my husband, who teaches at a private school, really brings home some major gifts! Gourmet candy and cookies, gift certificates to restaurants and department stores, classy items for the garden--

This is late but as a teacher I would love Gift certificates to restaraunts or to places like Report Card, Office Max, Office Depot, etc. (copying handouts and supplementary materials add up quickly).

You guys are forgetting the GREATEST gift EVER (well, at least IMHO from the year I taught)

A STARBUCKS/DUNKIN DONUTS GIFT CERTIFICATE.

As a teacher, especially a young one, I found I needed all the caffinee possible for 8am class.And the coffee from the cafe/teachers lounge left alot to be desired.


ETA: I'm sure this doesn't apply to anyone on this board, but- my mom is a teacher, and for the most part of all teacher I know, unless the family is known well 95% of the homemade cookies and stuff went in the garbage. Honestly, it kinda skeves me too...looking back on some of the students I had.

you are absolutely right! i refuse to eat most homemade stuff, especially when the kids say they help. it sounds mean, but honestly, i've seen them eat lunch with dirty black fingers. i have to remind them to wash the dirt off! so no way will i eat anything that they made because i can't be sure that they had clean hands! and, depending on the household, it's hard to know what's really "safe" to eat or not, so we all err on the side of caution.

when i heard about the NYC rule that teachers can only accept $5 gifts or homemade crafts and cookies, i laughed out loud. who in the world would keep a homemade craft at their house? and most teachers won't eat homemade goods. obviously, it's the thought that counts, and gifts ARE appreciated just for what they are, but we also have to think about reality!

When was this rule put in effect? Is it for all teachers or only for certain grades? I remember when I was a senior in high school that everyone tried to get the best possible gifts for their teachers in order to get teachers to agree to write recommendations for college for them. It sounds bad but with a graduating class of 654, you gotta do what you gotta do.

joel klein just put it into effect like a week or 2 ago. it made all the local papers. can you imagine telling a business person that they would have to make the CEO of their company a craft for the holidays? it's ridiculous to tell anyone what they can or cannot accept as a gift thanking them for what they do.

the nerve
 

When Joel Klein makes my salary what it should be for what I do, then we can talk about what kind of gifts I can and cannot accept at the holidays.

In reality, if you were to make a gift for a teacher, wouldn't it cost more than $5 to buy the stuff for it?