Coteacher Christmas Present Suggestions

[Sara]

I'd suggest holding off until Chinese New Year (sometime in Feb.) Your principal, vice principal (and maybe coteachers) will expect gifts from you at this time anyways.

[cnicolaou2]

Any ideas?

[ohherro]

One option is not to get anything at all for certain individuals and buy everyone in the office lunch as a friendly gesture.  I've bought coffee and lunch before on 2 separate occasions (lunch was Chinese food and ended up being less than 40,000 and coffee for the whole office was about 45,000).  If you haven't done it and decided to do it during the holidays, I'm sure they'll appreciate it.  Since it's around the holidays, they'll understand that you're celebrating the spirit of giving (if not, maybe you can tell them it's because of the holidays).

Or, you can ask them some indirect questions.  My coteacher is always looking at random stuff online and I ask her if she likes whatever she's looking at and if she plans on buying it.  She has a tendency to look at the same things over and over again, so I have an idea what to get her.  I thought about buying my other 2 coteachers the same thing, so that they are all treated as equals (I understand there is a hierarchy, but...I'm short on ideas for gifts).  The gift will be a Starbucks tumbler - it's a bit pricey, but I like my coteachers.  I don't know what the other two like, so I'm hoping they will put this gift to good use.

[klin062]

I want to get my co teachers something for Christmas, nothing too major just a small gift.  I work at a small country school so I have 6 co teachers so I don't want to be spending loads of money as I have 6 of them to buy for.  Anyway the female co teachers are easy to get gifts for but I'm stuck on what to get my 2 male co teachers.  Both of them are young (in their late 20s) and both are Christian and don't really drink much so alcohol is kinda off the menu.
Does anyone have any suggestions about a gift I could get for them? 

[Bump]

If they can read English, perhaps a spiritual/self-help book of some sort?  My coteacher is currently reading Become a Better You by Joel Osteen, and she seems to love it.

[neelbo1]

books are great.  I'm planning to give one of co-teachers a lonely planet of England.
winter or vacation survival kit full of goodies(hand cream, lip balm, face masks) 
a chicken or pizza party ( i did this with my teacher's club and other teachers who feed me) :D
buy one of those roll cakes from PB or TLJ  and some hot cocoa/tea/coffee and relax with them
take them out to dinner

or wait until New Years and by a gift set.

chocolate is always nice.  Anything is nice.

[matthews_world]

This is my 4th PS contract and none of my co-staff have ever expected gifts. 

Giving gifts to especially the higher ups these days are considered bribes.

Out of generosity I'm bringing in homemade pumpkin pie, one for co-teachers and one for office staff, head teachers and principals.


No teacher should be obligated to give anything to their co-workers.

[Keuka]

If they give something to you, then I would give them something.

[VanIslander]

If they give something to you, then I would give them something.

Do unto others as they do unto you? The Goodfellas approach! 

[coffee]

Union Jack flag!

[jammyb]

Thanks for the suggestions. I went to Myeongdong, Seoul at the weekend and in a Christmasy-looking shop I found a calendar on England (not just London!). 14,000 Won, and I think my coteacher will really appreciate seeing as her son is studying over there now. I've wrapped it up, and will be giving it to her on Friday, when lessons have officially finished.

[waldron1983]

if you are close friends with your CT as I am, I would say a trip to a cozy western style restaurant is a good call. I treated my CT to Outback for 2 racks of ribs. they were great and we had a good time. he really liked the atmosphere and the food. thats always a good idea. cant go wrong with a dinner and a couple drinks.

[twak24]

I renewed my contract (EPIK) back in October.  Over the course of the last year, I've really appreciated all the help & kindness of my (3) coteachers, so I decided to get them all a gift.  I spent a few hours and about 50,000won shopping for individual gifts that each of them might enjoy.  I got one a nice scarf, one a cheap-ish bracelet, and the other some facial treatment from Skin Food (all about 15,000 won).  My supervisor is really rich, and has hundreds of Luis Vuitton & Chanel, etc bags, scarfs, fur coats, on & on... So, I thought I better give her the skin stuff, just as a token, really, since she gets botox every 6 months (she told me, ok. I'm not making assumptions).  No sense giving her a cheap piece of jewellery to toss in the bottom of her box. 

Well, the others really loved their gifts, but she thought hers was less expensive & that I must have gotten confused giving her the 'cheaper' gift.  I must have mixed up the boxes.  She began openly talking about & degrading me all over the teachers' room & commenting about how she could make my life really miserable at the school, if she so chose.  I was told by another friendly teacher, and she concocted a situation where she 'accidentally' found out from me how much everything cost & how I spent my valuable weekend time & money shopping considerately for each of them.  She then related the intel back to the supervisor, who, as I was told, felt like a spoiled princess & ate her hat.  But who knows the real truth, anyway?  I was really worried about my next year at the school.  Really stressful, although it seems to have all gone away by now. 

This happened to me, & I'm not exaggerating one bit. 
Anyway, I had to make an emergency trip home to NY last month.  Results = lots of the presents/souvenirs for the students ... NADA for my coworkers.  I'll never put myself in that position again.  Big lesson learned there.

Remember folks, no good deed goes unpunished...

Thanks for listening to that rant.  I needed it...!

When I was brand spanking new in Korea and at my school for 1 month, I decided to give gifts to my co-tees (6 women) to thank them for helping me to assimilate and for all the admin help etc. I spent a solid amount of time and money shopping for ingredients and then making them special from-scratch real-chocolate cookies. Then I made them all fancy in pretty bags with ribbons etc. Then I popped out of the office to the loo and when I returned a couple of minutes later, they were just giving them away to the random students who came to collect the attendance register or talk to them. I felt so hurt and embarrassed for having given them gifts. I just pretended that I didn't see and sat down at my computer and pretended to be intently busy working.

Aigo.

[minamteacher]

I got each teacher a mug from Daiso with chocolates inside (which they can give away to students). Something functional and not too expensive so they don't feel bad about not giving you anything.

[Munwon]

ferrero Rocher

[Frozencat99]

Our office had secret Santa. I got my co-worker some nice avocado scented facial yogurt, some strawberry Nivea balm, a mug that says "kind mother", a small teddy bear, and a few Christmas ornaments.

[portlandzach]

what about a gift card to a book store a coffeeshop?....that way they can choose a book they actually like!

[jammyb]

Well I gave my coteacher the present on Friday, after all the lessons had finished before Christmas, and gave her strict instructions that it wasn't too be opened until Christmas Day - a great face saver if she didn't like it! I asked her today if she opened the present, which she had (I didn't ask her if she waited from Christmas or not!), and she's going to put the calendar up in the classroom for the students to see. I guess it is her present, so she can do what she chooses with it, I just imagined that she would put it up at her home. I guess that my students will enjoy looking at the pictures at least. :)

How were your presents received by those of you who chose to give something to your coteacher? I am interested to hear.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.