Teacher Retirement Gift

[cheme]

I am trying to think of a retirement gift for a great teacher but am stumped. There are a few usual things the PTA is doing for her, but I was trying to think of something personal as I have had kids in her class for several years. One thing I thought of is that she has a theme every year - I think I can figure out what the theme was every year, but I'm not sure what to do with them! Maybe a christmas ornament for each theme? A poster/photo print collage with a picture/symbol of each? Any thoughts? Or other ideas that don't use the theme idea? The themes aren't the "cutesy" type decoration that you see on pinterest but more what the projects centered around that year - so one might be water, another insects - so pictures/ornaments could be hard for some of them!

I was also thinking of trying to contact past students - I know I can't get to all of them, but I have a good start at locating several. Would you ask them to just email back a short thank you? Maybe put the thank you's in a photo book around some old pictures? I was thinking she would also be interested in what they are doing now...but not sure if I should have a whole questionnaire for them or what!

Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated!

[doberbrat]

See if her students still have any items from their theme year. Get them to take a pic of themselves with it and write a sentence or 2 or short video of the item with themselves.

Last year, a dd2's 1st grade teacher retired after 30+ years. For years, she's made plaster pigs with her classes. The pigs are amazing. They had a movie of 30sec clips of kids from the current year to kids who are now in their 20s with their pigs. It was amazing.

Alternatively, a scrapbook is nice. I bet people still have pics of their kids with her.

Pretty sure we also gave her a gc for a massage. dd2 still talks about her.

[squimp]

I would do a photo book with then and now pictures of kids with a quote about the teacher. I love the video idea but I have no idea how I would do that.

We did a group photo of the kids in kindy and 8th grade for our kindergarten teacher. Warms my heart to see it!

[baymom]

DS's kindergarten teacher was retiring his year. We had a Mom in our class for whom this was her 3rd child with our wonderful teacher. She and her husband video interviewed the entire class (what was your favorite thing about T? what advice do you have for her in retirement? ect.) They made a video montage with it and as you can imagine, it was quite funny. There was also a part at the end of video clips from other teachers, the principal and even her family. It was so sweet and touching. At the year-end party, they showed the video it was a really nice send-off. It must have been an incredible amount of work/time, but if you have some help, I think it's really meaningful.

[almostamom]

A mom in my class made a book for me using this from etsy. https://www.etsy.com/listing/280708856/personalized-teacher-appreciation-end-of?ga_search_query=teacher&ref=shop_items_search_2 She printed them on cardstock, had each child fill it out, and created the book. It is a treasure!

[cheme]

Thank you for all the ideas! I really like the photo book idea and I think I’ll attempt that, and will put memories, thanks, etc around the pictures. I’m a little nervous about getting enough pictures from her early years of teaching, so I like the idea of current pictures with a theme item. I do have a few good contacts, so I’ll see where those lead me. Thanks!