I need help with a gift.
 

This seems like the right place to put this, right?

A good friend of mine, my co-worker of nearly 3 years, and recent college graduate has landed herself a teaching job in a public school.

Nice place, rural, not a lot of money, but filled with good people and the perfect place, in my opinion, for her to get her feet wet. I want to get her something for the occasion and I've run up against a wall.

You see, I'm not the greatest gift giver. I like to buy things for people and I do put a lot of thought into them, but most times they just falls flat. The gift that I thought was perfect is met with the polite laugh and fake smile that nice people use to hide the overwhelming feeling of 'meh' that has washed over them once they've opened my present.

Anyway, I know there are quite a few teachers here and I thought I could pick your brains a bit and see if you can help me out.

Thanks

budget?

Fruit basket. Nothing tells another person you care more than a fruit basket (only kidding of course). ;)

If you know this person well enough, and it sounds like you do, invite her over for dinner and cook her something nice. So it doesn't seem like you're trying to woo her, invite some friends to share the occasion with. As long as you can cook decent, the gesture will be much appreciated.

Get her a spa day somewhere to be used 3 months or so into the job.

She'll need it.

spa facilities might not be available in a rural area..

Since teachers are often stuck wtih providing their own school supplies, a gift basket of various school supplies...

A moleskin journal and a nice pen- to keep track of her adventures in teaching

What about grade tracking software? Something practical that will her job a little easier?

Or if you are good with excel or computers, you can make one.

what about a gift cert to a store that sells teacher's supplies? I know they have them here, either the ABC store or the School Box, I would assume they have something similar in your area?

Reasonable, which I guess at the most is somewhere in the $100 range. Is that too little...too much? I'm not sure on the ettiquette....

She's already got this fantastic piece of software for that. It tracks grades, stores lesson plans, all that jazz. All of the teaching students are required to buy it from what I understand.

The spa thing is a nice idea. She could probably use it now as she's a very tightly wound bird, but, yeah, we're talking real rural. Like Dogpatch rural, which coincidentally is literally right down the road from this place. No. Seriously.

First of all, maybe I'm just a schmuck, but I haven't 'seen' you around lately and it's nice to hear your voice--or at least the voice in my head that is 'you.' Second, that is an excellent idea.

To be honest, I'm not sure either, but she could always shop online, right? I thought about things like this (gift card, school supplies, etc), but immediately discredited because I thought it was an excellent idea and well, I know how that usually turns out. I do want to get her something practical and useful....:hmm:

Ah, the dinner party. I like her well enough and we get along great, but I can count on my two hands the number of times we've mingled outside of work, so, it might be a little odd if I were to suggest this out of the blue. Good idea for something else I've got on the back burner, though...

Thanks all. This is good, keep 'em coming.

Expanding on the teacher supplies idea, which I would do....
Find a not too small wicker basket, perhaps one that sits on a desk(about the size of a man's sneaker and about 6 inches deep), take it to one of the stores Shani mentioned and ask one of the floor people to help you fill it with teacher essentials for the grade she'd be teaching. Depending on what you spend and get, then get a gift card for a general department store you know she'd find, ala Walmart or Target and include that.
Budget should be what you can comfortably afford without being obscene, perhaps $50 to $75 if you're close enough to consider her a friend.

Getting girls gifts is so hard!!!

Flowers are always a good idea for women and the best thing about them is that you can give them more on the next occasion. Failing that, for a teacher I would go for a gift certificate from a book store.

Heh, I've had 50/50 success with flowers. And I've heard some girls don't like them.

Yeah....not all girls like flowers, Im one of them.....I'd much rather have a gift card lol I find flowers a BIG waste of money

Agreed totally. I have a garden if I want flowers. They die-there's only one thing they do-pretty up the area in which they sit til death. Plus certain ones make me sneeze.

What does she teach?

English 7th, 9th and 10th grades.

She was talking today about her classroom and how she's only got a few months to get everything together....this practical gift idea seems to have some legs, yes?

Getting good gifts for anybody is hard, but this is working out well.

Good, good, good. :)

practical gifts often show a lot of thought so those are good gifts to get :D there's only so m uch bubble bath, scented candles and pot porri a person can use

I also agree with the practical gift idea. There are all sorts of learning stores out there (Lakeshore Learning Store, for example) that are packed with teaching and classroom supplies. They almost always offer gift cards, so she could pick out what she needed.

Or you could get her a Starbucks gift card. That's the only way I could cope with getting up that early every day! :p

a couple motivational posters?

all my highschool teachers had them...
http://www.allposters.com/-st/Motiva...rs_c12920_.htm


or maybe a despair poster would be better :p
http://despair.com/store.html

I would like to borrow from mal's suggestion. Buy a high quality pen and have it engraved with the name of the school and the year. She can choose to use it or save it as symbolic of her career start.

This gesture should be well within your budget and appropriate to your business relationship. I doubt she will ever forget your thoughtfulness.

Pen

I like the pen idea something anyone could use. But i suggest a good pair of ear plugs so she dosnt need to hear all those kids all day long.

The de-motivational posters would be great--I might get a couple to hang up around the cubicle--but, sadly, we don't share the same sense of humor. Too bad though, most of those are really funny.

I think I'm going to go with the practical gift idea. We haven't had too many conversations lately, but the few we have had, she's mentioned she needs things--classroom is empty, I have to buy stuff, etc. etc.

Thanks for all the help.