Gone are the days when penmanship actually meant something. LOL, I remember the blue machine they used to use as a "copier" when I was in elementary school... one copy at a time. This was more the point of my vent... why the high taxes when we still have to supply very specific brands AND still pay another 30 or 40 for student fees?
My son had dry erase markers and highlighters on his list for K, along with about $45 of other very specific supplies, of which most were communal. The markers were not for the teacher, they also had to have a sock for erasing, so I think they had individual wipe off boards. We use a lot of dry erase markers. My boys have two wipe-off boards each, plus many wipe-off books. It is perfect for the car, playing writable games, and cuts down on paper. I put mazes, writing practice pages, etc. in plastic sleeves and make inexpensive wipe-off books that you can change.
Ah the supplies lists. They used to drive me crazy! Every year, they would ask for ziplock bags, gallon sized. Seems like a small thing, but my kids could NEVER tell me what they were for, since apparently they never noticed the teachers using them. I totally get that some kids come with supplies and some don't. I also understand that classrooms aren't getting enough money to run their classes- totally get it! BUT BUT the lists should be sort of... need in one section, donation in another. Your child NEEDS 2 pencils, but if you want to donate a box that would be great. I think, honestly, the thing that used to make me the MOST angry was the individual pencil sharpeners LOL. Not so much the cost (which was silly-low) but that the kids were missing out on my favorite in-school leg stretching activity: they weren't even allowed to get up to sharpen a pencil. I remember the school supplies along costing about $50. But.. that's not counting the amount we had to pay for the new wardrobes (torn, stained, outgrown in a few months... and that's IF they were even still the right season). Winter clothes including ski pants, several pairs of mittens (since they were constantly getting lost), several hats, new boots, new coat every year (and shame on you if the zipper broke before payday!). Then there were the fundraisers of stuff like Yankee Candles (which I don't buy) and my poor brainwashed kids who just HAD to sell $100 so they could get the $2 something-or-other. And lest I forget, there is the year the school took SPRING pics of my dd (after we had already bought fall ones) and although I didn't return the order form, sent them home anyway (with my excited little girl) and tried to BILL me the $50 for them. The countless bookfairs, set up near the door to make any penniless children feel like jerks, the x-mas sales set up in the library with class trips through (again, making penniless children feel terrible). I joke now that they were trying to turn my kids into sales people. It really was something every.single.week. My sister's dd had a teacher who demanded my sis buy crocs for in-class wear. She said sneakers were unacceptable :roll:
I have a few times now refused to buy certain supplies...like dry erase markers (the teacher that year was honest and said they were NOT for the kids *pfffft*), when I knew it was not for the kids. Call me mean, I don't care. As a previous teacher I knew what I was getting into when I started teaching. I knew that MY supplies were coming out of MY pocket. It's an unwritten rule. It comes with the territory! I NEVER asked parents for my own supplies. I simply passed out a donation wishlist along with the school supply list. I never had a problem with supplies, because parents appreciated the HONESTY and the fact they had a choice. Charity should NOT be mandatory! I am a lot more charitable when it's on my own terms...not when I'm expected. Adding the teacher's items on a school supply list is NOT the way to go about supplying the classroom, IMO. I get that some parents can't afford to buy supplies, but that's what charity programs are for and it's the parents responsibility to talk to the principal about it then. Not to sound harsh....but it's not my problem, nor should I be expected to fund someone else's supplies just because I can afford them for my own child.
Ha! The first year I taught in PS (2nd grade), I started a week into the year so I didn't get to make the supply list. It was made by the teacher who had been there the previous year. All the kids had those little individual pencil sharpeners and they drove me nuts! The kids would sharpen their pencils and then either spill the shavings or purposely dump them out to play with. It was a huge mess everyday, so I sent them all home. At parent/teacher conferences, one of the moms let me have it about the sharpeners. It was on the list and her child WAS going to have his at school. I explained that I wouldn't allow him to use it in the classroom because of the mess and because the school sharpener worked much better anyway. She said that was fine, but he WOULD be keeping it in his backpack. It was a matter of principle. It was so funny. She didn't listen to a word I said about he son's progress academically. She was just waiting for me to be finished and ask if she had any questions or concerns. :roll:
Well, SURE!!! I mean, being able to have a small pencil sharpener in his backpack.... What could POSSIBLY be more important than THAT?!?!
I agree our taxes are very high here and they still have a list from here to bun egypt for the children to bring. What is so funny is I been sub teaching or I was last year in the schools around here and I seen the teachers supplies they had cupboards stuff full with kleenex, pencils, crayons. ( I mean stuff can't close doors) What they need to do is put a list out where these kids bring this and these kids bring that. Where do you need over 100 black dry markers.... wow I think the list need to be up dated and done differently.
I like the idea of sending a letter out before school starts. "Due to budget limitations, there are certain items that the school doesn't supply for the classroom. While you are out buying school supplies, would you be willing to buy some things to donate to the classroom? Here is a list of needed items: "
You know when I was in school our supply lists looked NOTHING like the lists today! The only complaint my father ever had was the teacher who couldn't be bothered to put his supplies on the list and we've have to go out the first week of school and buy new stuff because I didn't have what I needed for his class. Otherwise my list was simple, and in the early grades (K-3) ALL I needed was a backpack and a lunch box. Every single crayon, pencil, marker, pen, piece of paper, and eraser was supplied by the school. First Day of school was the day the teacher passed out our "starter" kit and we labeled everything. Of course if we had a preference we were always allowed to purchase our own supplies, but it wasn't necessary. I actually preferred the tan tablets with blue lines that the teacher passed out to the classroom, so I never bought paper on my own, but I liked having "pretty" pencils so I brought my own pencils. Jackie, I agree with that. It would be much more reasonable for the teacher to do that and even suggest that instead of donating supplies the parents could just donate money to help with the expense. This way the teacher gets exactly what she needs, and the parents don't feel obligated and they don't have to spend extra time shopping to search out the specific teacher supplies. I personally would have no problem giving a teacher a gift card for staples to purchase supplies for the classroom instead of spending 30 minutes looking for the items she needs, this way she gets exactly what she likes AND she can earn teacher reward points.
Ya know Jackie, if they did that I would be more than willing to offer something to help them out but for them to sneak it in on their list... that's what blew me away. I did buy the post it notes but I'll be darned if they thought I was going to supply dry erase markers (and this wasn't even for my own children - it was on a friends list of things to buy). :roll:
At the Charter school my kids are at now they are not allowed to have a supplies list. At meet the teachers night they handed out a donation list. I was more than generous because it explained that these are not required. There were simple things like: crayons, pencils, clorox wipes, kleenex, colored pencils, markers, construction paper, etc. I sent each kids with 1 of the pricier items and several of the cheaper items. I love to donate when they are honest about it. It was also nice to know that the school gave each teacher $500 for supplies. It was a double bonus for me too since each donation counts as 1 hour of time to go towards my 40 hours I have to put in each year.
Brenda, Tanner has needed post it notes every year since kindergarten. I don't know about your school, but the kids in ours use them for writing questions for the teachers and marking pages in books and such. This year Tanner needed a FLASH DRIVE! Yes, a flash drive!!! Thankfully it was only 8 dollars. He does go to a school that specializes in technology, but it still struck me funny how times have changed.
Times have certainly changed since I went to school... we didn't have computer time until into grade 8 - when we used the big floppy disks. There was more emphasis on penmaship skills (we functioned quite nicely without technology). I thought for grade 8 maybe the sticky notes were indeed for the students to mark pages in their textbooks without needing to write in them but I don't think that's the purpose of them. The dry erase markers... I know they don't use individual boards so that's just foreign to me... why would 1 teacher need 23 sets of markers (one for each child in the class)? Hurts my brain trying to grasp that one :lol: And for comments to say: NOT from the dollar store (for sticky notes)... what about the low income families who can't afford to buy items at a higher price? Sad really...
When I was teaching in a Christian school, I revamped the supply list to keep it as short and simple as possible. Individual sharpeners were outlawed (what a mess!) I did strongly recommend Crayola brand crayons and markers, but only because the generic brands never made it till Christmas break before they had to be replaced. Everything was encouraged to be labeled and nothing was redistributed. I've never even heard of that practice :0 Now I want to ask the local ps families if that is common practice around here. The only class supply that was shared by all was Kleenexes and Dixie cups. Truth be told, about one year out of every four I would have such a surplus that they would be temporarily removed from the class list until my supply ran down again What's bothering me right now is that there are a few supplies I need to pick up to replenish our own cupboards and I'm waiting for the good sales to hit - but it hasn't happened yet. Oh, sure, the stores are advertising like crazy, but the prices really aren't that much lower than normal. PS starts next week, so I don't know if the prices just aren't going to drop this year due to the economy or if the stores are waiting till the last minute? Most of the families around me have given up waiting and bought everything already. I can't afford to at the current prices, so guess we'll make do with what we have.
Oh, and an eight-pack of crayons ONLY for K and 1st! The 24 size are the ones that go on sale, but are TERRIBLE for those grades! "Use a RED crayon...." Well, there's so many DIFFERENT reds, lol! Very difficult for teachers!
I worked for 20 years in the public system, and where I worked a lot was a low-income area. There were certain students who moved every time the rent came due. What really toasted me was that when they moved out, everything they didn't want was left behind in a pile in the middle of the living room, including all the school supplies and sometimes even uniforms that had been provided by the school they were in before moving! Tossed in a pile. Then when they got to their new school, the new school also kicked in two uniforms (maybe not new but gently used and donated) and a whole new pile of pencils, spiral notebooks, crayons, etc., sometimes even a backpack!!! What really put the icing on the cake is that these same parents often couldn't come to a meeting about their child's progress (or lack thereof) because they were too busy trying to get rich at the casino! Whoever said that about the teacher's cabinets being stuffed full of "needed supplies" but it's still on the supplies list -- I've seen too many times that that whole cabinet gets emptied out just after the last day of school... and thrown in the DUMPSTER!!! Totally new and unbroken packages of STUFF - markers, crayons, kleenex, hand sanitizer, etc.
After having worked in a school, what bugs me is the fact that so much of these supplies are wasted just like you said. At the end of the year the teacher's in our area don't recycle and pack away the unused items, they just give them away or throw them out. If they stopped being so wasteful they may not need to burden the parent's so much. What happened to the days when all you needed was a pencil, and some paper? Do you really need all of these other items to help kids learn? Maybe it's just me, but I think the old way of doing this is sometimes better.
I didn't read all the posts because there were so many. I do agree with motheroftwo though why do they need all this other stuff. And I know in our province the government gives the school $15,000 a year for each student enrolled. If they can't buy simple supplies with that kind of budget then they need a financial lesson! Also I hated when the kids were in school the supply list was sent home, it wasn't specific and then the teacher had the gall to complain about what was purchased because it wasn't what they wanted. Well for pete's sake if they were clear in the first place I wouldn't have wasted money on items that she's going to confiscate and I am out $75 or more! Soooooo glad to homeschool where we can focus on buying the important items like curriculums and school lunches!
