Making the Perfect Gift for a Special Teacher

Is anyone else like me and struggling to find a unique and thoughtful gift for a teacher who has made a difference in your child’s life? I’ve thought of just about every kind of gift card, walked the aisles of HomeSense and thought of making a donation but they just don’t seem right for Jayden’s teacher. This year has been challenging, but positive.  Slow but steady. While the progress hasn’t moved quite as quickly as we’d like, Mrs. M has really helped him this year to try his best, focus more in class and help him find success at school. She’s completed paperwork that we’ve needed for referrals, met with me several times and even made several accommodations in class that she knew would help Jayden do well. She took Jayden under her wing and even spoke to me “mom-to-mom” in a way that let me know that she cared for our amazing and creative little boy.

Even though we’ve decided to move forward with private testing to see if he may be struggling with a learning difference (after academic tests show he is average or above in his knowledge), we know that without her support and open dialogue, he would not be ending off the year feeling like he was successful. We are really proud of the process he’s made with the help of a special teacher.

See why this gift means so much to us? 

So on the way home from the first 3 hours of private testing, it hit me…Jayden and I need to create a word cloud and frame it like we did for another special teacher. Handing Jayden the pad and pen, we started to write down the words that came to mind when we thought of Mrs. M.

Armed with the words that represent Mrs. M, we hit my favourite word cloud site, Tagxedo.  You must first download the software, but then the instructions are simple to follow.  

Tips:
1. When you choose CREATE, you can enter the words that you’d like to use to describe the person you are honouring. What are things they love to do with that person?  What silly stories or words describe them?  What are their favourite things? One hint is to not use spaces between phrases (ie.  type “bestteacher” not “best teacher”) so that they words stay together in the cloud.

3. Choose a SHAPE that represents the person or the holiday- we used an apple for a favourite teacher and a heart for Valentine’s Day.  There are tons of shapes to use, so be creative!  
3. Have fun with themes and colours!  If you will be framing the final image, think of what colour frame you will be using. 
4. Once you create your cloud, remember to save it as a “jpeg” so that you can use it for printing or even photos gifts. Use editing software, like PicMonkey.com to edit and crop the image for 8×10 and upload to any photo printing site (we love to use Costco).

What do you think of our homemade gift for our very special teacher? 
We even made one for Ty’s amazing teacher!
 

 

2 Comments on Making the Perfect Gift for a Special Teacher

  1. Simone
    June 24, 2016 at 6:16 pm (8 years ago)

    Perfect timing. I needed an idea for daycare, and after reading your blog, I now have the perfect gift. Thank you Heather.

    Reply

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