Holiday teacher gift ideas during virtual learning

Teachers across the country are going above and beyond for their students this year. Teachers are up late making plans that will engage students through a digital platform. They are driving countless miles in their cars to drop off supplies at student’s homes. They are mentoring their own children who are also learning from home. Let’s not forget about our hardworking teachers this holiday season!

Please note that this post contains affiliate links. If you use one of the links to purchase an e-gift card for a teacher (or anyone else) in your life, I will get a small commission (at no cost to you) towards keeping this site up and running. Thanks for your support.

But how do we send teachers a holiday gift in this virtual setting?

Perhaps, you want to thank your child’s teacher for their dedication and hard work during this unprecedented time, but you don’t know how.

I have an idea! Virtual gift cards.

It’s a contact free gift because a virtual gift card can be sent to your child’s teacher via email. Problem solved. And let’s be honest, teachers never really wanted twenty boxes of homemade cookies anyway (no offense).

There are 2 main ways you could go about this:

  1. Send a gift card on your own
  2. Team up with other parents and get the teacher a larger gift card

I went with option 2 at the end of last year.

I teamed up with other parents to get each of my daughter’s teachers Amazon e-gift cards. Once we pooled our gift money we were able to give both teachers (kindergarten) $250 gift cards (which they greatly appreciated).

When I asked the other parents to voluntarily contribute to the gift card via Venmo I also asked them to record themselves and their child saying thank you on a short Flipgrid video. Then when the teachers received the gift card, they also got the link to the Flipgrid so they could see all of the parents and students showing them how much they appreciate them!

This holiday season I’m going with option 1

Teaming up with other parents went great last year, but I knew many of them at that point in the year. This year, being virtual, I really don’t know anyone, so I’m planning to go with option 1 and send e-gift cards on my own.

Amazon e-gift cards start at $25 and go up from there.

Normally we’d get a $10-$15 per gift card, but given the extra work teachers have put in this year, I think $25 or more is complete reasonable.

Amazon is a one stop shop. You can access gift cards from everywhere from Starbucks to DoorDash on Amazon. Here are a few links to make it easy for you!

Amazon e-gift card

Starbucks gift card

OutBack Steakhouse gift card

Cheesecake Factory gift card

Ulta Beauty gift card

If you found this post helpful, you might enjoy these posts too:

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Or Start Here to check out my posts curated by theme.

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A Teacher's Guide

I am a National Board Certified educator currently teaching in Virginia. I have taught the following: English 9, 10, 11, and 12 (on academic, collaborative, and honors levels); Dual Enrollment English; Mass Communications, Yearbook, Newspaper, and Communications Technology. I have experience in five different school systems, four in Virginia and one in Maryland. I served as my school’s 2019 Teacher of the Year and was a top five finalist for the Teacher of the Year for Virginia Beach City Public Schools. I am passionate about recruiting and retaining quality educators in our public schools. Let me help you find your path to changing lives through teaching!

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