Teachers are in the classroom every day with your children, working to educate them, training them to be responsible citizens, and often becoming good friends. What would make the best gift for your child’s teacher? We compiled this list of our favorite suggestions from a sampling of teachers and GreatSchools.net users.

Teachers Tell Us What They Want
Mary Beltran, a second-grade teacher in Pacifica, California, says,"I always get a kick out of gifts that have been chosen or made by a child. Most teachers I know always appreciate gift certificates to Starbucks, Target, school supply stores or bookstores. New teachers, who spend a lot of their own money on books and supplies, especially appreciate these gifts."

"I always enjoy getting flowers or a gift card," adds Dr. Ruth Jacoby, an educational consultant in Florida and co-author of the School Talk! Success Series. "Many of my parents usually ask other staff what my likes are. One school at the beginning of the year sent a survey to all staff members on likes and favorites, so many times I get gift baskets with my favorite coffee, snacks and books."

Pool Your Resources with Other Parents
"As parents we want to give our children's teachers something to show our appreciation,” writes a GreatSchools.net user in California, “but one person cannot afford too much. I try to organize the parents of the students and pool our money to give the teacher a gift certificate to a bookstore or for a dinner, something to make her feel special. Pooling the money allows each family to spend whatever they feel comfortable spending yet allows you to get a gift one person could not afford by themselves." Another California parent suggests, "A great idea would be for all the parents in a classroom to chip in for a spa gift certificate. As wonderful as our children absolutely are, teachers do have stressful moments on a daily basis!"

Scrip Gifts
Marcie Wollesen, a third-grade teacher in San Francisco, suggests that parents consider purchasing their gifts through scrip organizations. Scrip brokerages, such as Escrip, are groups that coordinate merchants and schools for mutual benefit, with a percentage of the profits going to the school of your choice. “Scrip gives money back on purchases, so that makes so much sense to me,” Wollesen notes. “People should register all their credit cards so everything they do comes back to the school somehow.” Wollesen, who likes to cook at home and does cooking projects with her students in the classroom, adds that for her a gift certificate to a cookware store would make an ideal gift.

If your school isn't already raising money with scrip, consider starting a scrip program so that parents can buy from participating retailers and see a portion of their money go back to the school. Parent groups can work with merchants directly or through a scrip broker who does the coordinating in return for a portion of the profits.

Be sure to choose your scrip broker carefully by checking credit references and contacting other parent groups. In California, the Central California Better Business Bureau has suspended the Fresno-based Scrip Advantage after getting complaints that scrip orders weren't being delivered and sales reps were unreachable.

Donations in the Teacher’s Name
Peggy Mannion, an eighth-grade social studies teacher in San Francisco, remembers one especially meaningful gift. "A student made a donation to the American Cancer Society in my name. I liked that, because, you know, I don’t need anything! I mean if somebody said 'I gave ten dollars to a homeless person instead of buying you a gift' I’d be thrilled!”

Margaret Wallace, a special education teacher in Queensbury, New York, agrees, “The only gift giving these days which I support is donations to causes which one cares about.”

You may be lucky enough to be counting your blessings about your child’s school, but there are many others that need your help. DonorsChoose is a nonprofit that allows teachers to post specific requests for their classrooms and donors to directly fund them. You can fund a project in the name of your child’s teacher or give the teacher a gift certificate to use on the project of her choice.

If you browse the requests from teachers, you’ll see a wide range of needs and the donations needed to fill them, from a New York first-grade teacher whose classroom rug is so old that her students with asthma can’t sit on it to a middle school teacher who wants graphing calculators for his class in the North Carolina foothills.