High School Teacher Gift Ideas End of Year You’ll Be Proud to Give

Teaching in a high school can be a sanity-shattering job, and to boot, high school teacher gift ideas end of year lists seem to be the last thing parents and students ask from Santa.

Parents, more than anyone else, should appreciate high school teachers and shower them with gifts all year long. Try seating next to a group of teenagers for 10 minutes. You’ll agree with just about everyone else it’s an excruciating experience. High school teachers are 100s of utterly annoying teens with no interest in what they have to say. Just ask any of the smartphone-carrying, bubble gum blowing, future adults if they know what’s going on in class.

Most of them will tell you there are other more exciting things in life other than what the Chemistry teacher is scribbling on the blackboard.

But high school teachers put up with teens and their frustrations. They do it without downing a whole bottle of vodka like most do after a particularly rough patch at work. So, all high school teachers out there deserve a medal and end of school year gifts. In fact, every Monday of a school day should be declared Teachers’ Appreciation Day, and parents and adolescents should bring gifts that teachers actually want to school.

Okay, enough hating on teens, and truth be told, a lot of aspiring adults in our high schools are not all that annoying. Sure, there are those moments when hormones are bound to act up, and your respectful teen ends up doing something that seismically disarranges a parent’s life. The teen phase is part of growing up. And if you’re to be honest, you were not always the household darling while you’re a teen. The best we can do is understand them, and appreciate the teachers who gracefully accept to mold our youths.

And it’s not easy being a teacher to an adolescent. Here are several real-life stories of the kind of challenge high school teachers put up with on a typical day at the office. Hopefully, these experiences will serve as valid reasons why you should be looking for end year teacher appreciation gifts.

#1: He’s Not Looking for Self-Respecting Women

A teacher, in an unnamed high school, happened across one of her teen students at the school’s parking lot. Mind you, it was in the morning.

The student was driving a Mustang with a new set of truck nuts (they’re exactly what you think). The teen rolls down the window and asks the teacher what they thought of the car, presumably hinting at the obscene accessory.

Being a good teacher, she thought this would be the perfect time to instill some good sense into the young man. She said, “I think no self-respecting woman is ever getting in that car.”

“That’s OK, miss. I’m not looking for self-respecting women,” was the incredulous answer she got for her troubles.

#2: Zip It!

A substitute teacher was trying to get a class of teens under control. No matter what he tried, the situation seemed to only get more out of hand. To be fair to the adolescents, the teacher’s fly was down, but someone should have told him that, like us normal humans do.

When he yelled at the class for the incessant laughing, one student went, “Yeah guys zip it!” Needless to say, the laughter didn’t stop and he didn’t teach much in that period.

#3: You Misspelled Presents

During a religion class, a teacher asked his class of middle school teens what their idea of God was. One of them volunteered the answer, saying God is always around and watching them. Almost as soon as he was finished, another middle schooler shot up and replied, “Like Santa.”

Being the non-confrontational teacher, she turned around and wrote ‘Constant Presence’ on the board. Immediately she was finished, the same teen jumped up and quipped, “You misspelled presents!”

The whole class, including the teacher, burst out laughing, effectively ending the lesson.  

That just about summarizes a typical day for most high school teachers. Between trying to keep their class under control and putting up with insolent remarks, teachers excel at their work spectacularly well, according to the numbers. According to recent trends, 80% of all high school students graduate, and 69% of them enroll in college.

Such results are worth more than the traditional cheap teacher gifts in bulk you always shop for at the end of the year, wouldn’t you agree? And moreover, teachers achieve these amazing results even when faced with adversity, and an education system that is falling apart at the seams making them totally deserving for the end of the year thank you gifts.

It’s for those few reasons that we present these gift ideas for teachers sure to make any end of year special. More than that, these gifts tell that special teacher how important in your child’s life.

High School Teacher Gift Ideas End of Year You’ll Love Giving Out (And Teachers Will Love)

So, what do you give to someone who’s worked hard all year long to get your teenage daughter or son where he is today? What can be worthy of someone who has spent every waking moment trying to show your child their true potential and equip them with the knowledge and skills they’ll need to unlock that potential?

We’ve scoured the depths of Amazon to find a few presents worthy of being gifts for high school teachers. While you’d expect most of the items here to be big-ticket items, they’re not. That’s because appreciating someone with a gift isn’t about spending big. It’s all about showing your gratitude. It is the thought that counts. And we have some pretty thoughtful gifts you’ll be proud to present and teachers will be delighted to receive because they are gifts that teachers actually want.

You won’t find mugs here mostly because teachers have plenty of those or knickknacks and ornaments that can be regifted or let to collect dust in the arctic. What you’ll find are truly considerate end of the school gifts for your teachers.

We’ve also taken the time to categorize the gifts since it’s the end of the year, and most probably your high school teachers will be doing one or more of these activities.