Beautiful Keepsake: Teacher Gift from Students

This book is a beautiful keepsake teachers will remember and cherish for years.

In the fall I found the book Because I Had a Teacher at a small gift shop in North Carolina. I tucked it away, knowing immediately I would have the students sign it at the end of the year as a special gift for my son Elias’s fourth grade teacher. The illustrations are beautiful and the words communicate how we all have felt about a wonderful teacher.

Book Excerpt:
Because I had a teacher, I have whole new worlds to explore.
I discovered that what I can imagine, I can make real.
And now I feel like I can do anything.
Because I had you, I learned to believe in me

Teacher Gift from Students

As the end of the school year drew near, I contacted another teacher asking if she could help me pull off the special gift – having every student in the class sign the book for their homeroom teacher. She happily agreed and over the course of two days all the students wrote a message that began with “Because you were my teacher ______”

This simple statement tied to the book’s theme, which offers sentiments of all the ways a teacher impacts a student.

The kids wrote literal and profound statements such as:

“Because you were my teacher, I learned multiplication” and “Because you were my teacher I got a real imagination and followed my dream”

Having students sign the book created a special keepsake gift from the students.

Elias reported that his teacher loved the gift and, after receiving it, took a few minutes to read the book to the class. The class parent also collected money to give the teacher a gift card to go with the book. This combination was the perfect meaningful + practical gift.

The book Because I Had a Teacher is perfect for gift giving for teacher appreciation week or at the end of the school year. It would also be an excellent retirement gift for a teacher who is retiring.