Top Ten Gifts for Middle School Teachers

Top Ten Gift for Middle School Teachers

A middle school teacher is a rare breed. Normally dubbed insane by the rest of the teaching world they are called heroes by the students and parents as they miraculously weed through the ever-changing emotions of the middle school student to not only teach them academics but also life lessons. What do you give to these insane heroes?

I surveyed teachers at a middle school in Florida and here are the top ten gift items that they gave me. The prices for the gifts range from free to about twenty dollars.

1. Gift Cards – Hands down this was the most popular gift with the majority of teachers screaming for Starbucks or Barnes and Nobles.
“The best gift that I have received is a gift card to a book store. I used it for my class room. Any kind of gift card is the best because you can actually use them.”  - -Rebecca Brye

2. Basket of supplies - (items such as pencils, markers, stickers, sticky notepads). Teachers are constantly running out of basic supplies and many have to purchase some things on their own. You can go to your local Wal-Mart or similar store to buy everything you need to make the perfect basket.

3. Movie tickets/gift certificates – Buy tickets to local movie theaters online or at your local theater.

4. Coupon to be the “teacher helper of the day”—Middle school students love to help out and teachers appreciate it when they do.

5. Homemade book – Songs, poetry or even a cookbook put together by a student are a big hit with teachers. “My ALL-TIME favorite gift was a book of songs that one of my students had written. He had the songs bound into a book for me. It is priceless to me!” - - April Addington

6. Games for the classroom - (Discovery Store and any local educational store)