Teacher Appreciation for men

Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up! Whether your child’s school celebrates officially or not, it’s always nice to let teachers know you appreciate them. This is especially true if you happen to be married to a teacher, as we both are. 🙂

There are so many great ideas for teacher appreciation gifts, but what do you do for the male teacher in your life?

While all teachers will appreciate any kind of gift, it’s nice to know that you’re giving a gift that can be useful and won’t leave the teacher trying to figure out what to do with the 15 “World’s Best Teacher” plaques he now has. 🙂 If you’re scratching your head about how to show Mr. Teacher your appreciation, try one of these:

A handwritten note. Any teacher, male or female, loves getting sincere artifacts of gratitude, such as notes or pictures, from their students and the students’ parents. My husband’s students are always sending home notes and pictures and they decorate our fridge. This one is one of our favorites:

A twist on this idea is a jar of appreciation, such as this one at Life in the Carpool Lane.

A gift card. Does Mr. Teacher love to eat out? Go to the movies? Buy office supplies? Hike and camp? Getting to know just a little bit about the teacher can help you figure out how to get something that he will appreciate and use. For example, my husband would definitely use an iTunes gift card but my 60-something father, also a teacher, would have no idea what iTunes is and would much prefer a gift card for dining out.

A book. Any elementary school teacher will love a book, regardless of what the book is. You could give your child’s favorite book with an inscription telling the Mr. Teacher why the book is a favorite, or check out these printable bookplates at Skip to My Lou.You could also give book accessories, such as bookmarks or bookends.

Edibles. Food, candy, drinks–anything edible is a winner in my husband’s book. It’s that easy. If you’d like to dress it up a little bit, try one of these:

• Put your edible in a fun box with these printable patterns (6 shapes) from PattieWack.
• Make a cute pouch/tag for a water bottle or other drink with this tutorial from Blue Eyed Blessings.
• Flowers are probably out, but a cookie flower arrangement such as this one from Cookies in Motion or this one on Sugardoodle is sure to be gobbled up.
• Combine a note and candy bars into a candy gram. Check out this one from Shauna-na-na for inspiration.
• Or turn those candy bars into a candy bar topiary like this one from Just Deanna.

An item that they already use or that they need in the classroom. Most teachers, especially first-year teachers, are already spending their own money for school supplies in one way or another. Pencils, file folders, clipboards, magnets, and even thumbtacks can be craftified so that they are both useful and decorative. Skip to My Lou has some great ideas for this, but keep in mind that Mr. Teacher is still a Mr and probably won’t be into zebra stripes or hot pink flowers, no matter how trendy you might think they are. 🙂

If you’ve spent time in your child’s classroom, you may have also noticed specific things that the teacher is using all the time that you could replace with a custom version. For example, all of the teachers at my husband’s school wear lanyards for their official teacher badges and whistles. How fun would it be to make a lanyard with Mr. Teacher’s name on it?

A USB drive. These are a necessity for any teacher that doesn’t want to spend all night at school. They are moved back and forth often with information for the next day on them. Because they are moved so often they are lost often too, so a new one is always put to use.

Volunteer time. Volunteer time is always appreciated. There are many things that teachers would like to do but they just don’t have the man power to get around to it. Volunteering your time is perhaps the best gift you can give your teacher and your child. Nothing helps your child learn more than parental involvement.