Top Five: Holiday Gifts for Teachers

Well, gift-giving time is fast approaching, so it's time to start throwing ideas out into the blog world! You might consider giving your child's teacher a gift this next week as a thanks to him or her for his or her hard work! Christmas gifts abound, but Thanksgiving gifts are quite rare. Just a thought! I wrote a little post a while back on great gifts for teachers that work any time of the year. Below are some new ones that seem particularly suited to the holidays (remember, in my five years of teaching middle and high school, I received many, many holiday gifts of various sorts...this list comes from experience! I also have my fair share of random trinkets, ornaments, candle holders, etc....).

1. Gift Certificates for personal items: clothing stores and bookstores are the best!
2. Gift Certificates for classroom items: many teachers buy items for their classrooms out of their own pockets. A gift certificate to someplace like Schoolbox would come in handy!
3. Edible Goodies: I'd recommend you not wait until the last week of the semester to send in something edible. I once got so many edible gifts that I thew a Christmas party to use them all up--seriously! So, send some cookies in the first week of December or bake a loaf of banana bread or pumpkin chocolate chip muffins or scones this coming week for your child's teacher to enjoy over the Thanksgiving Break.
4. A Meal for the Freezer! Seriously, folks, if I'd received this during a crunch week (or just ahead of a crunch week) when I was teaching, what a gift this would have been! If your child's teacher has children at home to feed, this would be a tremendous help. If your child's teacher is single or married with no kids, pack up a smaller portion. Comfort food always works: Chicken Pot Pie or Cheeseburger Meatloaf would be great options.
5. Relaxation Rx: Gift certificate to a restaurant and movie tickets plus offer to babysit; gift certificate to Blockbuster plus some microwave popcorn and some hot chocolate mix; you get the idea!

Go thank those hard-working teachers!