Student Teacher & Teacher Mentor Gift Ideas

It's been a crazy last few weeks for me and I wish I spent more of my time blogging and blog reading.  But instead I've been slaying away on the computer trying to complete countless of job applications.  I've always had a bittersweet feeling around this time of year because of the school year ending and knowing there are schools hiring teachers.  I'm also anxious and stressed all of the time because of job hunting.  So in the last couple days I've been interviewing with different schools.  (I'm hoping and praying that finally this is the year someone will give me the chance to start my teaching career!)

Hopefully by the summer I can get back into gear and start blogging more!

Anyways today I wanted to briefly blog about gift ideas for student teachers and teacher mentors.  Many of the student teachers at my school have already left for the year and it reminded me how I wanted to share what I received and gave when I student taught.

For Student Teachers
I know for many teachers, they want to give their student teachers something to start their teaching careers.  Here is one of the pictures of what my student teacher gave me.  I wish I had a picture of everything when I received it!

Inside the cute little woven basket, my teacher mentor put in lotion, nail file, scissors, a small stapler, glue sticks, Papermate pens (she knew I was obsessed with them), a flower pen she made, a grading chart, and a tuning stick (not sure of the proper name but it's an attention grabber tool).

Here is what the "tuning stick" looks like.  My teacher mentor said she ordered from one of the classroom catalogs.  I saw one of the kindergarten classrooms at my student teacher school using this in their classroom and I thought it was amazing!  Both the teacher and students like to use it as an attention grabber and listening tool.  When you hit it against anything, it makes a neat ringing sound.

Other things I also received as a gift from my student teaching class was a hand written note from each student and a book with everyone's names signed in the inside cover.  

What have you given your student teachers in the past?

For Teacher Mentor
Now I really wished I took a picture of my awesome gift to my teacher mentor.  For some reason in our First Grade classroom, our pencil sharpeners always broke.  It was a hassle to always sharpen pencils because it won't work correctly, so for my gift I bought a new one.  Always try and think of things to give that your teacher may want in her classroom but doesn't really have the time or money to go out and buy.

My teacher mentor's daughter was in another 1st grade classroom, so I would always see her before and after school.  Another gift I gave both of them was a T-shirt from my college (my teacher mentor also happened to attend the same college as me).  Additionally, I ordered a notepad with her name on it from  Vistaprint.

What have you given your teacher mentors or co-workers?

Lastly, I wanted to share with you that I donated one of my products, Summer Olympics Mini Unit to the Teacher's Notebook Moore, OK relief bundle.  Click below to donate and receive over $1,000 worth of products!  My thoughts and prayers go out to the families in OK over the recent tragedy from the tornadoes.



Click on the picture to review this product in TN or here for TpT.

BTW, this weekend is my birthday weekend so come back to my blog for a freebie that I've been working on!!! It's another fun science experiment that I can't wait to share!  And maybe (if I have time to plan) I'll do a giveaway of one of my products!