Monday, December 20, 2010

Teacher Appreciation

Bing is donating money to education and on Twitter we have been having a discussion about several things.  Someone asked me to blog about some of my answers, since 140 characters can not really explain everything perfectly, so here you go.

Q1: HOW DO YOU APPRECIATE TEACHERS DURING THE HOLIDAYS? HOW DOES IT DIFFER FROM OTHER TIMES?

Eventually this got to the subject of what do you give teachers for gifts.  For me personally, I try really hard to be healthy.  I do not give my class treats as rewards, and I told them I try to take care of myself and eat  healthy as well.  Believe me, your mom does make the best cookies, yes those brownies should be the talk of the town, and will I eat them and enjoy it, heck yes I will!

But what do you do when you get 20 of those on the same day and most will only truly be great for a day or two?  Then they get hard and stale, and sit on a table.  Plus, like I said, I try to be healthy.  On Friday so many kids asked, have you tried mine yet?  There was no way I could have even taken a bite of each of their treats.  I am going to have to throw a party or else half of these treats will never get to be enjoyed.

I would much prefer food over treats.  A $5, $10 or more gift card to a place I like to eat, a grocery store, bookstore, iTunes, Amazon, gas card, would be much preferred.  Everyone needs to eat and teachers love reading and music.

But in all reality, I just want to be appreciated.  I hear so many complaints about teachers and public education.  Yes it is far from perfect, but almost all of the teachers I know are trying their best.  I don't need a token gift, yes I work hard, I should, it's my job.  I don't care if I get anything. Just do your best to help your child be successful, that is why I spend hours and hours outside of school doing what I do.  I want your child to succeed.  So check their homework, make sure they get it done, tell them it's important and I will be more than happy.

Other good gifts are things that our classroom needs and uses everyday.  Kleenex, paper, hand sanitizer, pencils.  It seems like you always can use more of these things.  Plus these gifts help who matters most, your students.

I am going to leave it at this, maybe I will post another day on some of the other questions.

I just checked my mentions and here are a few questions/comments I will answer real quick:

Hi @! What is your favorite thing you've gotten from a student?
I am a big Jazz fan and one of my students wasn't using their tickets and they gave the two of them to me.  I did not expect this, nor plan on it ever happening again, but it made my day.

@ really? When I taught I loved the famous treats, got me out of holiday baking! I'd take platters 2 parties.

I know I have a lot of other teacher friends, what do you think?  How would you like to be appreciated?  Favorite gift?  Things you would rather not get?  I could start an amazing Hot Chocolate Mug collection.

P.S. I appreciate every single thing I got, if you read this and you gave me cookies, I appreciate it more than you will ever know.  Nothing in this is a complaint, I am just answering my own personal preferences, thoughts and ideas.

Bing will donate up to 1 million dollars, all you have to do is go to this page and click.

http://www.bing.com/gives/default1.aspx#fbid=tamxdGknwv7&wom=false

3 comments:

GrandmaBev said...

I enjoyed your thoughts. We do get too many goodies at Christmas time.

Unknown said...

Some of my most favorite gifts from this year were a book of quotes about teaching, one for every day of the year. 2 giant size things of Gatorade, pencils, Cafe Rio/Applebee's/Target gift cards, a homemade loaf of bread and homemade jam, and some really nice Christmas cards.

Lorraine said...

We had a big discussion at Relief Society the other night about what to give to the teachers. This year, the girls drew a picture for their teacher and then decided to make it into an ornament. We also gave them a family picture and a chocolate Christmas card - at least that will last! Camille has 5 teachers, between school and her various therapies and Lucille has 3 teachers, so accomplashing that much was good for me.