Yesterday our SWMAESP Sub D Principals group met for our quarterly meeting. We shared ideas for staff holiday gifts so I thought I would share in case you are still looking for ideas.
- Scarves with district logo
- Lottery tickets
- Movie tickets to the dollar movie theater
- T-shirts/sweatshirts with logos
- Grade level progressive dinners
- Principal cooks breakfast for teachers
- Secret santas
- Hoop-lalala Spirit wear week
- Grade levels given $200 to adopt a family to buy for
- District purchased hams and turkeys
- District purchased gift cards
- Lanyards with names and logos
Funding varied by principal. Pop machine fund, social committee funds, PTO purchased, district purchased. One principal mentioned shopping the day after Christmas for sale items to give the next year at Christmas time.
Usually I post a picture of my holiday gift AFTER the break. Some of my teachers read my blog:) So it’s hard to keep secrets from them when it comes to gifts.
We (assistant principal and me) hold an assembly the day before our winter break. Each grade level is allotted 45 minutes, no teachers allowed, and the theme is dedicated to our Bucketfillers/Character Education program. We present student developed videos (from our Character Club), award the winners of our character essay contest, and reinforce these programs with personal messages. It is not only well received as a gift to our teachers, but many parents have commented on the impact it has had on the students.
I love this idea! Thanks for sharing!I like your idea of giving the teachers 45 min.! One of the principals in my district is doing the same and they are making ornaments.
We did 12 Days of Christmas this year, giving 12 small gifts. Send a video every morning that I just compile using a video editor with my iPad. Have given 10 minutes extra for lunch, jeans day, Christmas cookies, and hot chocolate. Teachers have really enjoyed the videos as much as anything. Example was day 1. "On the first day of Christmas the office gave to me……a pencil because my principal is cheap!". Gift was a Christmas pencil.
Love the video idea! That actually goes along with my professional development plan that I was going to use more video in my work this year! Going to have to tweak it since there aren't 12 days left.