Advice Basket

• Before your student teacher moves on, pass on the gift of experience. Put together a basket of all the resources you wish you'd known about when you started. Buy a copy of a book that helped you or the planner that keeps you organized. Include a package of tissues with lotion and a box of vitamins to help ward off the colds that any teacher is bound to catch. Include a handwritten note with a few pieces of advice for him.
  
  

Tote Bag

• Create a personalized tote bag for her to carry around all her teaching materials. Design an image on your computer and print it out on iron-transfer paper. Cut out the design and iron it onto a plain canvas tote bag, following the directions on the paper's package. You might also have a gift company make a bag with her monogram or enlist children to make a one-of-a-kind bag. Buy fabric paints and pens and let children write their names or draw pictures.
  
  

Memories

• Student teachers may feel overwhelmed at the end of a placement or question whether they did well enough. Give them a confidence boost by having children write letters or draw pictures. Ask each child to fill one page with lessons they enjoyed or memories they have with the student teacher. Compile the pages in an album or scrapbook. Seeing how much children learned from him will reassure the student teacher than he is a skilled teacher.
  
  

Relaxation

• Student teachers are usually college students or have just graduated, so not only are they new to being on their feet all day but they likely don't have much money and are tired from taking exams. Help her relax and rejuvenate with a gift certificate to a spa or local nail salon. She'll feel energized and ready to get back in the classroom after a massage or pedicure. Male teachers may not want to go to a salon, so buy them a foot massager to enjoy at home.