I think the best gift would be for the students to do their best work all year long, and be respectful and polite.

Veronica and other teachers--do you find that you or other teachers "keep score" on which students give presents (and what they give) and which do not? It seems like a really bad system to set up those kindof expectations from students, even if the expectations are perceived and not real from the teachers' points of view.

I just don't think it should be the norm to give teachers presents. Same for office gift-giving. It just doesn't seem right to me because it's like gift giving out of obligation or pressure, and that's pretty much contrary to the notion of giving gifts in the first place. That's not something that I would want to teach a kid.

But here we are stuck in the system, I suppose. I did not participate in gift giving activities like Secret Santa at my old job. Nor did I participate in giving to the family that the office "adopted." I participate in bettering the world in my own way. I got some dirty looks, since employees were "encouraged" to sign up, so everyone knew what everyone else was doing. My new job does not do gifts, thankfully.