I got a pencil for a Christmas Gift!

I'm a 5th grade teacher and I got an INSANE amount of gifts this year - a total of over 30.  It was nuts (I am new to the district and was in a very poor district in the past).  Anyway, I got lots of candles, cookies, hot chocolates, etc.  but you know my favorite gift.  

A pencil.

I have a student whose dad lost his job and I know the family has very little money this year for Christmas.  So many kids walked in with big gift bags for me - he walked in with a little tiny pencil wrapped in ribbon and tape.  I unwrapped it and it was an OAKLAND RAIDERS pencil.  He took the pencil from his collection of NFL pencils, because he know the raiders are my favorite team.  A student who actual gets me something from the heart is so much neater than any candle. 

Btw, second favorite gift: an apple ornanment the kid and his dad made last night.  It does not take money to get people the best gifts.  It takes time and love. 

Just wanted to share my spirit of Christmas story!

omg how sweet!  Thank you so much for that story.  You just made my whole holiday season with that one!

God Bless and Happy Holidays!

Teachers are the best!

~H~

thats the best story ever.

That is unbelievably cute and goes straight to the heart of what christmas should be about.  Thanks for sharing :oD

That is so awesome.  It's so great hearing stories like these!

Totally cute.  My 2nd grader's class had a pencil exchange this year.  What a great and affordable idea!

Awesom!

A pencil exchange...how cool!

Aw that's so sweet! I think one of the best gifts I ever gave a teacher (as far as "sentimentality" is concerned) was a big tin full of wax apple ornaments in 5th grade. just red apples, of different sizes. because this teacher was obsessed with apple-type decorations for her classroom. and I made it my goal to count all of them. so I even counted how many were in the tin and wrote it on there. it was cute, and my fifth-grade mind thought it was so clever. that's honestly one of the few times I can remember giving one of my teachers a gift with actual meaning. once I got into upper grades it just became a Dunkin Donuts gift card and some scratch-offs.

actually, I think one of the best gifts I've given teachers was a bottle of wine (; but that's for entirely different reasons. and it's also okay because my mom was a teacher at the school, so it was like a gift from her too.

Thank you for sharing...  My family has no money for Christmas this year (not even enough for a tree) and it can become depressing when everyone talks about going off on vacation, or their new electric guitar/TV set/car/etc.
Stories like this help me remember that expensive gifts.. really don't mean that much, and that I don't have to be unhappy. =) It's not like I'm losing anything.

What an awesome gift from your student.  Thank you for sharing that.  (sniff, sniff).  Merry Christmas to you! 

Thank you. I'm glad that you shared this story because it was touching. I figured this was a thread was started by someone ranting about a stupid pencil  gift. >_< I was gonna pipe in with " It's the thought that counts! What kind of pencil?! " Lol!

^Refreshing thread.  Happy Holidays!

I figured this was a thread was started by someone ranting about a stupid pencil  gift. >_< I was gonna pipe in with " It's the thought that counts! What kind of pencil?! " Lol! 

I wonder how many people come in thinking that.......

You made my day, thanks!

^5

Use it to write out your thank you notes and tell him how lovely and thoughtful it is or how touched you are.

Awww that's awesome! And nice to know how appreciated a simple gift like that can be....

I remember my 5th grade teacher, he was my favourite teacher of all. I gave him a present of a perfect peach, and a poem I wrote for him about how peachy keen I thought he was, along with a bunch of bad puns. It was nothing like the high-end presents the other students gave, it was a private school so lots of rich kids. I think he loved it, he wrote me back a cute thank-you note with a bunch of bad puns of his own :)...I still have it 27 years later.

 Lol! I bet lots of people ' wondered ' coming into the thread. Or maybe not. I'm just used to reading a lot of the ' worst gift ever ' threads.>_<  Or " PLEASE, Give ME ADVICE on what TO GIVE?! There is nothing out there for UNDER a twenty bucks!!! GR!!!! "

 I <3 small gestures from the heart. Don't mind me though I'm sappy! Heh

That's sweet, one of my students made me a card.  merry Christmas! Kids are the best.