Family Magazine
In my latest CHEX Daily segment, I sit down with hosts Teresa Kaszuba and Mike Judson to chat about Christmas gifts for teachers:
Are they necessary?
What do teachers really appreciate? (It might not be what you think!)
What if you're on a budget?
How can you acknowledge support staff?
And (since Mike asks!) what my least favorite gift is...though please be assured I really do appreciate the thought, no matter what! (Mike, husband of a teacher, also shares a great gift his wife received!)
I'm at the 31:52 mark if it's not cueing properly for you, and if you can't see the embedded video you can find it at the link here: http://youtu.be/IXasObxVrBM?t=31m52s
By the way, when I sent out a tweet asking for others to share their Christmas gift ideas for teachers, David Smolyn from The Body Shop in Peterborough (@TBS_Ptbo) was quick to tweet back to suggest their "Glazed Apple gift, packaged in a fun and reusable apple inspired tin. Only $20!" Because it can be hard to get people to take the time to reply to tweets, I thought I'd give him a shout-out here!
Usually after my segments I come home and type out any of the points from my notes that I missed, but we managed to pack a lot of ideas into four minutes!
One popular suggestion we didn't discuss was ornaments. Anything with the year and/or the child's name makes it a real keepsake (sometimes there are kiosks at the mall for personalization), and it can also be neat to select one that is meaningful to the teacher in some way: a guitar for the music teacher, a Montreal Canadiens ornament for the (discerning) hockey fan, etc.
My personal favourites: I start my segment by sharing my very favorite gift - which doesn't cost a penny! However, if you're going to spend money, charitable donations are fabulous (anything that provides food, books or healthcare to kids tops my list), I love gift cards (I don't find them impersonal; I promise - Chapters, Tim's, restaurants, spa, they're all good!) and chocolate never goes to waste at my house. Who am I kidding, it doesn't get past my desk! Quite honestly, I am honoured when families take the time to acknowledge me in any way at Christmas. You can't go wrong!
Are they necessary?
What do teachers really appreciate? (It might not be what you think!)
What if you're on a budget?
How can you acknowledge support staff?
And (since Mike asks!) what my least favorite gift is...though please be assured I really do appreciate the thought, no matter what! (Mike, husband of a teacher, also shares a great gift his wife received!)
I'm at the 31:52 mark if it's not cueing properly for you, and if you can't see the embedded video you can find it at the link here: http://youtu.be/IXasObxVrBM?t=31m52s
By the way, when I sent out a tweet asking for others to share their Christmas gift ideas for teachers, David Smolyn from The Body Shop in Peterborough (@TBS_Ptbo) was quick to tweet back to suggest their "Glazed Apple gift, packaged in a fun and reusable apple inspired tin. Only $20!" Because it can be hard to get people to take the time to reply to tweets, I thought I'd give him a shout-out here!
Usually after my segments I come home and type out any of the points from my notes that I missed, but we managed to pack a lot of ideas into four minutes!
One popular suggestion we didn't discuss was ornaments. Anything with the year and/or the child's name makes it a real keepsake (sometimes there are kiosks at the mall for personalization), and it can also be neat to select one that is meaningful to the teacher in some way: a guitar for the music teacher, a Montreal Canadiens ornament for the (discerning) hockey fan, etc.
My personal favourites: I start my segment by sharing my very favorite gift - which doesn't cost a penny! However, if you're going to spend money, charitable donations are fabulous (anything that provides food, books or healthcare to kids tops my list), I love gift cards (I don't find them impersonal; I promise - Chapters, Tim's, restaurants, spa, they're all good!) and chocolate never goes to waste at my house. Who am I kidding, it doesn't get past my desk! Quite honestly, I am honoured when families take the time to acknowledge me in any way at Christmas. You can't go wrong!