Gift for teacher question

[JfromReston]

Originally Posted by jillabean

"I am more than happy with a letter or card that expresses appreciation, or even better, is addressed to my boss."

In my professional job I am often in the position to send thank you notes and letters of appreciation. The strategy I have found that works the best is to send the letter or note to the person's second level supervisor, copying the person and the first level supervisor. This lets people at high levels know just how valued the people who work for them is by those they interact with. I usually start out with a short email thanking the person and letting them know that I would like to send a note to their managment and requesting the names and titles of their first and second level supervisors. This method gets the "attaboy" for two people, the person who did the work and the first line supervisor. I have found it much appreciatated - I often get nice messages from the higher manager letting me know that it is nice to hear good things about their employees or that they know they have great employees and it is good to hear that others think so too.

[jillabean]

Thanks again. I wrote the thank you note and it's all ready to go. I plan on CCing the principal and vice-principal. I am not sure that there is anyone else for it to go to (not sure if the chain of command is direct to the teacher any higher than that). If there is, someone please let me know.

Now I am eager to give the note! lol.

By the way, this is an elementary school teacher, so no, my daughter will probably never have her again for a teacher since they teach specific grade levels.

[michgc]

Thanks so much for this idea. I just sent an email to my older daughter's principal at our old school in Vienna, praising her teacher. This teacher went above and beyond our expectations, and still emails my daughter to see how she is doing in her new school, now that we have moved away.

I already received an email back from the principal that she will be sharing the letter with the teacher.

I remember when I was fresh out of college in the working world - in an office - and I had to do a special project for another department. The person I did work for wrote a letter of praise to my boss, who shared it with me. It was so nice to see that someone appreciated my work. It's much better than a physical gift. And I believe it factored into getting my getting promoted a bit later.

[marie5v]

Originally Posted by jillabean

Thanks again. I wrote the thank you note and it's all ready to go. I plan on CCing the principal and vice-principal. I am not sure that there is anyone else for it to go to (not sure if the chain of command is direct to the teacher any higher than that). If there is, someone please let me know.

Now I am eager to give the note! lol.

By the way, this is an elementary school teacher, so no, my daughter will probably never have her again for a teacher since they teach specific grade levels.

Sometimes there are awards that teachers can get and they usually have to be nominated by a parent. You might also ask if there are any such awards that the principal knows of.

[khuntrevor]

I think the fact that it's not even the OPs beach house makes it weird. If it were his house and he was going to give me the key, it would be a little different. It sounds more like the teacher will be on standby for a cancellation.