School Supplies

I guess it's a bad time to mention we spend 5k a child per year on avg.

For 5k I bet mine would teach himself.

Oh and 1 week in I'm sure the school will have your kids selling magazines or wrapping paper.

So much for free public education. You get what you pay for.

I just don't see the need for all the supplies they have to buy, and one main question - why do different schools require different supplies for the same grade level ? Are they teaching different subjects ?
At any rate, when I was in grade school, all that we had to provide was #2 pencils and notebook paper (not spiral bound note books) in the lower grades, but once in high school, we did use the spiral bound notebooks for notes, and whatever pencils or pens we needed. No need to buy glue sticks, baby wipes, or whatever else they have to have now.
Teachers kept a roll of toilet paper for use if a kid had a runny nose.
Kinda makes you wonder what they are teaching .

PR, my own kids were constantly having to sell stuff for the school to the neighbors. I got sick and tired of it, so I found out that there was very little profit , around 5c / dollar that actually went to the school. I went to the school, and told the teachers, and principal that under no circumstances was my kid to come home with a bunch of junk to pawn off on the neighbors. They didn't like it, but they didn't have to sell anything else. (that was in the lower grades, I don't believe they had to deal with much in upper grades)

If you think $66 is bad, just wait until they get to college. Its ridiculous.

Those baby wipes are used to wipe down your child's desk everyday to keep your child from getting sick so much during the school year and keep parents from having to take off from work and complaining to us about their kids getting germs from each other because we don't keep the rooms "germ free". As far as teachers who use to keep a roll of toilet paper in the room for kids to blow their nose on-do you know what we would have to do get a roll of toilet paper in our room from the custodians? They keep that stuff locked up like fort knox. It takes an Act of Congress to get a pack of paper towels for the kids to dry their hands on. I don't know about the other schools in Lauderdale County but at Rogers we were told to cut our list down to the bare essentials and we have. I have also already spent $400 our of my own pocket to get my classroom ready to start the school year. This is buying supplies that were not put on the supply list but we have to have because we are starting a new reading series so I do know what parents are going through but do understand that some us have tried to cut it down and are purchasing things our self.

b67, First I want to say that I think school teachers are the most underpaid, and lest appreciated professionals around, so thank you for your service.
Lieing Bob Riley has doubled our property taxes to make up for the lack of money because our citizens voted down the lottery which was supposed to be for education. With all that money rolling in, why in the name of Ben Franklin are you having to spend $400 of your own money for supplies ? You should be able to show up with whatever note books you personally need, and a can of disinfectant spray if you are Monkish about germs , your knowledge and school supplied books and do your job.
Actually, the toilet paper WAS supplied by the teacher back then as I remember it.
Just my rant, sorry.

I know for a fact that in Sheffield a good half of the kids never bring any supplies in. I assume the reason our list is so long and that we are not supposed to name label the ones we buy is because we are providing other peoples kids with supplies as well as our own kids.

quote:

Originally posted by SaltyDog:
I know for a fact that in Sheffield a good half of the kids never bring any supplies in. I assume the reason our list is so long and that we are not supposed to name label the ones we buy is because we are providing other peoples kids with supplies as well as our own kids.

Exactly! That is a real problem for me as well. I think that it is extremely ridiculous for the school to say we can't put our kids' name on their supplies. I know it's unfortunate that some folks can't, don't or won't send their children with the proper supplies. I hate it for the kids. Personally, my kids will take their supplies with their names on them. The lists are supposed to be what ONE student needs, not enough to share with those who didn't bring supplies.

Now, having said all that, I know that there are some who honestly can't afford to buy all the supplies. I would gladly take ONE student, who is of meager means, and buy their school supplies. I think most people, with the ability to do so, would do the same. Just don't ask me to bring supplies for every kid with deadbeat parents.

b67. Who is wiping down the desks with the baby wipes? if you are, you are crazy! You have a minimum of 4 years and ,probably, more of professional education. you should not have to be the housemaid. I also do not believe that a daily swiping will do much good. Research has shown that the dirty male's kitchen counter is more sanitary than the persnickerty old maid's because she just swipes the bacteria around the whole counter. (This is off subject, I know- could not resist.) If the kids cannot do their own desks, let them go! I am sure you are a good teacher and care, but enough is enough! Do they eat at the football game - how ab out their hands?

I totally agree regarding buying supplies (and labeling them) for my child only.

One year my daughter's teacher had on her list 2 packs of yellow #2 pencils. The first day she took up ALL of the pencils and put them in a pencil holder on her desk for everyone to use. Needless to say, in less than a week, they were all gone. From that point on, I sent pencils for my daughter to keep in her desk ONLY.

And, I do recognize that there are legitimate needs out there, and that kids can't force their own parents to buy supplies for them. To that end, I contribute every year to my local church's school supply drive. But what I send to school with my child, I expect to stay with my child.

A school in the Athens area asks each child to pay $30.00 at the beginning of the year and that covers everything the kid needs for that year.

I do not wipe down each child's desk they do it themselves by no means would I expect a costodian to come in and clean my room. I have to do that my self before I leave each day plus take home all of the days work that I didn't get done during the day. Also, if lying Bob Riley would put all of that property tax money toward education I wouldn't have to spend from own pocket but until the higher ups start thinking as highly about education and the public do as well and do vote the lottery as Florida has where my sister teaches and they don't have to do all of this the teachers here in Alabama will still be spending out of our own pockets! Do you see other professions do this???? And then we the articles like the ones in today's paper getting the big pay raises some without the education to back it up...

I also will say this the 2nd grade teachers at my school were very careful with our supply list. We even took it and priced everything. If the parents bought the store brand items everything on our list could be bought for $20-$25. I think that is very good for a child's supplies. We do allow them to put their names on their items.

quote:

Originally posted by nwbama:
If you think $66 is bad, just wait until they get to college. Its ridiculous.

Amen. Fall tuition for my son will be $2,293 plus books, another $450-$500. That is ONE semester. Start saving while they're in second grade or at birth!

So many times I read/hear "back when I was in school...yadda, yadda" which usually ends with all we used was a notebook and a pencil. Welcome to education in the 21st Century. We are now required to teach in multiple learning styles and apply more hands on activities. Activities require supplies.

Here's something that worked well for me in the state next door where teachers had 1/4 of what they do here. I required each student to bring one supply. First period brought pens/pencils, second colored pencils, third and fifth a pack of computer paper (we had to supply our own for tests and handouts), eighth had several items to choose from like markers, scissors, glue, or clay. No student was out more than $3 and I had enough supplies for our various activities. Individually they had to provide a binder and paper.

Excellent idea. Perhaps you could pass it on?

Our classes in the 6th and up (high school) that change classes do that but it doesn't work in elementary where you are in the same room all day. But I will say that I do not EVER expect one parent to provide supplies for children who do not bring their own. I provide them or sometimes we have churches who adopt us to provide supplies for those children or we have had stores to "surprise" us with extra supplies. Most of the time it is up to the teacher to provide these for those children - I would never add extra supplies to the list to cover those children. The supplies on our list are for one child.

quote:

Originally posted by b67:
I will say that I do not EVER expect one parent to provide supplies for children who do not bring their own.

That's commendable, b67! You obviously don't work for Sheffield City Schools tho'.

I was at the Wal-Mart one day last week and heard a mama telling another mama that she wasn't buying one darn thing for her kids for school. I was minding my own business but that made me stop and listen! They were over by the school supplies and this one lady was telling the other not to buy any of it. She said that the state is supposed to provide her kids with a free public school education so she wasn't paying no fees, sending no pencils, nothing. It made me feel really bad for those kids. I reckon she will take all the handouts that people will give her but get all bent out of shape when she's expected to do something for herself and her kids!

Well, I'm glad to know I wasn't just imagining that I was buying supplies for other peoples kids...

My middle daughter just graduated high school so this fall I will have two in college. I spent many years at the start of a new school year at Walmart buying their school supplies. Some years it wasn't easy, but you know its coming so you save. I do know though that there are those parents who don't buy supplies and just let their children depend on others. I could never do that to my kids. Theres a program in this area called Give a Kid a Chance that I've worked with for several years. Families have to sign up and meet certain requirements and children receive clothes, shoes, school supplies, a mini physical, see a dentist, a haircut and theres food and christian entertainment. I work with the Doctors that donate their time doing mini physicals. We also check for lice and if we find any we give them treatments to take home and instructions on how to use them. What gets me is the parents that come in dressed to the nines jacking on their cellphones and won't even put it down to hear what we have to say about their children. Of course on the other hand are those that are so appreciative that it brings tears to my eyes. School supplies are expensive though and I do wish that there were more programs that offered assistance.

Any school that I have been associated with has provided supplies to students who did not have them, all they had to do was ask the counselor. It is sad that some will not even provide the basics for their child. I'm sure it is very unpleasant for the child.

Tweetybird: You saw and heard what I deal with on a daily basis. They send those kids to school without anything to start school with-even with all of these free programs. A teacher friend of mine was telling about her church was having a parent night for anyone to attend and they would give free school supplies to the students- But some -hate to say it-lazy parents won't even make the effort to attend that for their child's benefit. They will not send snack money or pack a snack (yes we still have snack at school) so therefore you feel sorry for that 7 year sitting there without anything to eat or drink so who winds buying extra when she buys her groceries? I do- but it's not the child's fault. Like you said the mama comes in talking on a cell phone that's not the free one that I've got and the manicured nails etc. but she's not doing one thing for that child she brought into the world and that she's drawing the check for.

I also volunteer with Give a Kid a Chance. We have over 900 children registered this year. With this many families there will always be people who get the help that don't really need it, but it's worth it to get to the ones that really do need the help.

We appreciate all that you do. I have had students in the past that have told me that they had been to you. You do a great job! Thank You!

quote:

Originally posted by b67:
Tweetybird: You saw and heard what I deal with on a daily basis. They send those kids to school without anything to start school with-even with all of these free programs. They will not send snack money or pack a snack (yes we still have snack at school) so therefore you feel sorry for that 7 year sitting there without anything to eat or drink so who winds buying extra when she buys her groceries? I do- but it's not the child's fault. Like you said the mama comes in talking on a cell phone that's not the free one that I've got and the manicured nails etc. but she's not doing one thing for that child she brought into the world and that she's drawing the check for.

I remember my Mom wearing the same clothes year after year so us kids could have a new wardrobe every year. She said it was because she didn't grow like we did and she didn't need new clothes. I also remember her giving me that one big chicken breast while she ate a tomato sandwich. She made the biggest fuss over how yummy it was, too. It's so sad to see the way some "parents" are raising their kids. I use the term loosely. A few years ago I wondered what would happen when the Gen-X's (the ME FIRST generation) started having kids of their own. Now we know. They didn't change a bit.

I think it is awful that teachers have to spend so much out of their own pockets to get their classrooms ready for the school year. Elementary teachers are the real backbone of our school systems because they teach the fundamentals. Their classrooms are the ones that need the most supplies because they have to move briskly from one activity to the other in order to keep the kids engaged. I admire their organizational skills and dedication. If you go into an elementary classroom without a game plan, the kids will eat your lunch! I know they'd have me babbling and crying before lunch on the first day.

My husband teaches high school kids at a private school. His supply list for all his classes is 'pencil or pen and paper', but this is because he gears his class toward helping the kids learn to listen to a lecture and take notes. So many of them get to college and expect the teacher to give them a 'handout' with all the test information on it. He wants them to learn to listen for the main points.

His friend who teaches in the next classroom does ask for Kleenex, this is enough for both of their classrooms for the year.

I think the teachers at our school are very conscious of the fact that the parents are already paying tuition and they are as careful with their lists as they can be. Our PTA gives each full time teacher $175 for educational supplies each year. Do public school teachers get supply money? I think parents would be glad to pay a supply fee if they thought it would be spent in their child's classroom. It seems that there would be less duplication of items if the teacher could take the fee money and buy the right amount of pencils and crayons instead of having each child bring a package of each item on the list.

We do all pay a lot toward public education, whether we use it or not. I believe there is enough money RIGHT NOW to get all the baby wipes and kleenex and crayons the kids could ever use. Any time there is a bureaucracy, there is waste. And the waste is not at the classroom level, either. The system is top-heavy. Let some bigwigs take some slight pay cuts and give that money to the teachers and see what they do with it.

I feel really sorry for the kids whose moms refuse to send supplies with them to school. All this does is embarrass the kids. If a family can't afford all the supplies at once, I'm sure teachers wouldn't mind having the things brought in over a period of time.

Each teacher in Alabama is alloted several hundred dollars a year for supply money. This is if she can keep it out of the principal's hands! Office use of the money can be reported to the state. I will add that buying workbooks will eat up your supply money! Every time a child writes a complete sentence and uses the proper punctuation he is learning composition skills. This might be called multi learning? A spelling workbook is beyond my ken! The hardbound spelling book has the same type excercises - where is the notebook paper?

Thank you to the teachers that do everything you can for the students. You are underpaid and underappreciated.

I too remember mom and dad doing without so that my siblings and I would have what we needed and sometimes even something extra...those were some good memories...

quote:

Originally posted by earthmomma:
Each teacher in Alabama is alloted several hundred dollars a year for supply money. This is if she can keep it out of the principal's hands! Office use of the money can be reported to the state. I will add that buying workbooks will eat up your supply money! Every time a child writes a complete sentence and uses the proper punctuation he is learning composition skills. This might be called multi learning? A spelling workbook is beyond my ken! The hardbound spelling book has the same type excercises - where is the notebook paper?

Workbooks are considered classroom supplies and not textbooks?!?!

I agree with you about the spelling books. I remember the spelling lessons in our spellers. We wrote the words in sentences, and then there were a few more activities with the words. I think each lesson was about three pages long. There were 'blanks' in those books to show us where the spelling word would go in the exercises WHEN WE COPIED THEM on paper. Woe unto you if you wrote in the book! I can remember the few times we did get workbooks, we all would keep asking, "Can we write in the book?" I guess we thought it was a trick.

Principals actually hijack teacher supply funds? That makes me queasy.

One unidentified system had the hardback speller furnished by the state. They also had the workbook! Write these five words in alphabetical order. Puh-leeze! Notebook paper, anybody? Write the defintions to these words. Huh? Notebook paper anybody? Yes, in some school systems the individual teacher's supply money is raided for use in administrative functions. A Question about this is in almost every issue of the AL Sohool Journal.

HomeSickGirl: Thank you so much for the compliments to elementary teachers. We hear so few of them sometimes. All of you are talking about not using workbooks and using notebook paper to copy from the textbooks-wasn't this thread started because someone was complaining about the amount of money they had to spend on school supplies? Who has to buy that notebook paper????? Also, the state has cut the the amount of textbook money that is being spent per student this year-but do the parent get this information-no. The teachers are the ones who get fussed at from parents because we have to charge for a spelling workbook and grammer workbook. I wish everyone received the AEA journal so they would know how much funding is actually cut. Our teacher supply money has been cut $125 this year and principals are not allowed to ask for any of this money to be waved for general purposes.

Elementary teachers would get a lot more complements from me if i didn't have to listen to them complain all the time about how much they have to do with so little, how they have to take work home, etc. My teachers always took work home. It was a given. And they didn't get paid nearly what teachers do these days or have the benefits. One school I am familiar with is FULL of unhappy teachers that do nothing but walk around all day looking like they stepped in something and whining to any parent who will listen. A word to ill tempered teachers who want to retire and don't for whatever reason- LEAVE. Find another career. Our kids don't need the attitude. Some of you even TELL the kids you don't want to be there. And b67, this was NOT directed at you. You sound like one of the true great ones. I just had to rant. Sorry.

Thank you-I was beginning to get worried. We have a lot of great elementary teachers where I work. We might complain on "bad days" to each other but NEVER to parents. That is so unprofessional. We've been working for the last couple of weeks getting our classrooms ready. Those little ones will be here next Friday.

SaltyDog: By the way I like your Never interrupt an Adult... "I always say never interrupt an adult unless you're bleeding, dying or throwing up. (That's for the classroom).

Another cute little saying is one that my mom (retired teacher) used to put on the "new school year newsletter" thing she'd send home the first day of school:

If you promise not to believe everything that your child tells you happens at school, then I promise not to believe everything that your child tells me happens at home.

Hope everyone has a great year!

I like that one also. I have a print of that. I bought in in the mountains. Actually I think my mother bought it for me after she helped me file notes from parents one day and she decided that I wasn't just a teacher but a doctor, nurse, therapist, couselor because of all the things I had been asked to do or not to do in parent notes.

b67:

I am the wife of a high school teacher. He sometimes brings home tests to grade, and if he assigns some sort of project, of course he has that to contend with. And he spends time working on lesson plans, of course.

But he often says he knows that he doesn't spend anywhere near the amount of out of school time working on school things that the elementary teachers do.

I have a lot of respect for elementary teachers, and I will always love the two kindergarten teachers my sons had. They taught my sons to read, and as far as I am concerned, this is the most important skill a person can have. If you can read well, you can learn anything.

I would think that this would be the aspect of early childhood education that would be so rewarding...the obvious learning that goes on. At the beginning of the year, a child can't read and at the end of the year he can. He comes in knowing how to count to ten, he leaves at the end of the year adding and subtracting. Amazing.

I do know how to read and do basic math, but when I think of teaching someone else to do those things it seems like a daunting task. I did homeschool my kids when they were older, and I was thankful to be able to say, "Read this and we'll talk about what you've read."

One of my sons is 20 now and an avid reader and my 15 year old has begun to look for things that interest him. He has discovered those paperback Star Trek novels and is plowing through them. It's not Shakespeare, but it's reading!

And we have elementary school teachers to thank for this.