Last year we put a little saying/poem in their mailbox with a little edible goodie attached. Something like we are wild about you attached to animal crackers. We did this with a different goodie for every day of teacher appreciation week. They seemed to like that. We did the same with our classified staff during their week and then we had a staff luncheon for all staff with a token gift. They really seemed to appreciate the little goodies in their box. I also made a banner with a quote for each week to hang in there.
Our PTA doesn't do anything directly for Teacher Appreciation. What we do is organize parents to do direct teacher appreciation.
Our most popular method is a once-per-year collection of small amounts specified to certain teachers (we have departmentalization so students typically have three or four teachers) and then those small donations are aggregated and the teacher gets a certificate they can redeem scrip with.
The result is, parents can put in as little as $1, and the teacher gets a nice gift at Christmas or their birthday or whatever-- no trinkets or knickknacks, no shopping by parents, nobody spends a lot, nobody looks cheap, and the teachers end up with something useful. I love this personally because I'd like to give something wonderful but there's always that fear of looking like you're brown-nosing or trying to outdo someone else.
I agree with giving it to the teacher to spend only on the classroom but these were visa cards to spend as they please. I also agree on giving them an appreciation but I don't believe in this kind of gift and overpriced food from a big restaurant to cater.
It was spent on $50 and $100 gift cards for the teachers, staff, board members, and some volunteers. They had a separate budget for the volunteer appreciation.
"I found out our PTA spent over $10,000 on the staff appreciation"
smileyL - what exactly did they spend the funds on? Teacher Appreciation should cover things like staff lunch/desserts or token personal gifts (for instance, when each teacher gets a small votive candle or a coffee mug filled with candy). In other words, the small things the parent group does to honor and recognize the teachers.
In my opinion, sometimes other items get miscategorized. The big one is when a parent group gives each teacher X amount for classroom supplies. Suppose you can afford $100 and there are 50 teachers. That's $5000. Yes, it's a benefit to the teacher - but I wouldn't count it as Teacher Appreciation. I'd make sure it was labeled as funding school supplies and materials. Note - I'm against the practice of giving teachers a financial gift to spend however they want with no paramenters. But when it's for the classroom, that's different.
