you could always make some cute potholders, coasters and placemats

make some cool Christmas ornaments

http://hubpages.com/hub/Collecting-Quilt-Ball-Ornaments

Thank you craftybear I think I'm going to take the advice of some of the previous posters and go the gift card route but I am thankful for your advice and will probably revisit this post around the holidays for gift ideas for family and friends.

You could do a gift basket with things she likes. At the first of the school year the teachers are given a questionnaire to fill out. these are the questions on it.
Favorite Restaurant:
Favorite Place to Shop:
Hobbies:
Collectibles:
Favorite Color:
Favorite Flower:
Favorite Snacks Snacks:
Classroom Needs:
Then it is given to ever child to bring home. It has been VERY HELPFUL it getting gifts for teachers.

Don't know about anywhere else but accepting cash would be a huge no-no in my district. Don't ask me why it is ok to accept a gift cert. and not cash but accepting a gift is ok, just not cash.

Anything homemade is wonderful! I love getting handmade gifts from my students!! FYI: Please no more coffee mugs, moms! While any gift is appreciated, I think I have enough coffee mugs for my entire neighborhood!

This is the point of view from the districts I have taught in. Cash is always viewed as a bribe for grades. It is sad to say that there have been some teachers, parents and students who have actually been part of this. There is a greater "paper trail" with a gift card so less chance of it being seen as one.

I know some schools send out a teacher "bio" at the beginning of the year. Not all do this although for teachers with small numbers of students it can be really nice. I had 180+ students on my roster on any given day. You can imagine what kind of crazy that can be if we did something like that. I teach older students and gifts are fewer. For some reason, parents think that teachers of older children don't need appreciation. Whatever you do, I think a note from the student is always appreciated. My most treasured gift was a letter from a "problem" student who thanked me for giving him hell for 36 weeks and not giving up. Twelve years later, that note is still preserved in my special portfolio.

My sister has been a third grade teacher for 25 + years. She says she hates receiving the gifts given her. Most are not her taste or style. Believe it or not she does not care to eat out so restauant gift cards do nothing for her.

What she likes is when someone takes time to write her a note about something that she did in the classroom to help them along lifes road or something that made a difference in their life.

Why do we have to give teachers gifts? I never understood it myself.

I never felt I had to give a gift but I like showing my heartfelt appreciation.

I wanted to share this for those of you who might never be enclosed in a roomful of these little people:

I used to take my son, my beautiful, wonderful, firstborn child to elementary school and drop him off. I would apologize to the teacher before school started because I knew it was going to be a tough day. My son was a handful. His grandmother describes him as being born without a "sitter". He's ADHD and we really did let him live but somedays it was close. He's now 25. He wasn't terrible in the sense of bad, he just needed a lot of redirection and patience. He exhaused me and I own him. His teachers weren't paid near enough and they were saints. Every year we had him write a letter to his teacher at the end of the year thanking them and telling her/him what was his favorite part of class. Sometimes those letters were pretty funny.

I recently ran into my son's 1st grade teacher, and it is amazing that she is still teaching 1st grade, this is her last year (44 years in a classroom, she's amazing) and she still remembers him. It makes me wonder just what he had done to stick in her mind so long. I hope it wasn't too painful.

I taught for 39 years, and my favorite gift was the tote bad that one mother made just for me. I love cats, and she made it out of cat fabric. It made me feel so special.

I would much rather have a homemade tote bag than a gift card. I still have gift cards in my wallet that I received as a teacher, and I retired 2 years ago. I still use my cat tote bag. I