Hello Fellow Teachers,
I know we usually use this forum to post articles, so I hope it is ok if I post a couple questions. I could use your advice and I’ll bet there are some other teachers on this forum who will appreciate the feedback as well.
1. What are you doing about holiday gifts for your students? I just saw a great idea online about making a picture CD of all the events over the past year. I might do that, but I’d love to hear what you guys are doing.
2. My program has 4 teachers working in it besides me. I want to have a holiday party for them but I don’t want to spend an arm and a leg! Any ideas?? I thought about having a talent show or something, but I’m not getting any clear ideas yet.
Please help a teacher out!
A photo CD is a nice idea. However you could take the photo idea even further and create greeting cards, calendars, buttons, T-shirts, stickers…photo based gifts.
I bake Christmas cookies, and each student gets a small gift bag of Christmas cookies. This has really grown into an eagerly anticipated event during the holidays, and it has a very personal touch that everyone enjoys.
As far as your employees…I suggest hosting a dinner party at your home. That might be a reasonable way to treat them to a nice evening while keeping costs low.
Good luck!
First, I was kind of shocked to discover that we don’t have a bulletin board “forum” section on this website. That would be the perfect place for this post, as well as other teacher to teacher discussion. Perhaps in 2009… (Brandon?)
But anyway, I don’t get my students anything for Christmas. No one at my studio does. I’m not sure if there’s a rhyme or reason for it, but I’m mostly just going with the flow for now. One potential idea I had (in case I decide to give gifts one year) was to make a “mixed tape” CD for all my students with great percussion songs (I teach percussion).
As for the party, I’ve had success with pot-luck style dinners. As long as it’s well organized, everyone’s cost is kept to a minimum and there’s plenty of food for everyone.
These are all great ideas. I like the pot-luck style party. We could even have a secret santa or white elephant portion for gifts. I also like the idea of making other photo gifts. Any links to a cheap place to make them? I know sometimes this can get pretty pricey.
I have too many students to try and put together something that costs anything, so what I usually do for the younger ones is give them a candy cane with a pencil that has their instrument on it. They get a little something, and I never have to ask them why there’s no pencil in their case after that.
This year I have made a decision to promote my studio through various marketing strategies–not sure if they have brought more students but it has been fun designing brochures and a studio logo. For a Christmas gift this year, I splurged and purchased tote bags for each student with my studio logo. This was a two-for-one investment–useful gifts for students and studio promotion.
I LOVE this idea. Where did you have them printed?
After little response from most companies I chose an online company called customink.com and they were VERY good. I highly recommend them–prompt, helpful, creative…