Questions for Teachers re school supplies

seeker

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 1:13 am

If you're going with a specific color-coding system, let the teacher just buy the bulk packs of the specific colors. They will probably be able to reuse them for a few years, too; I can't imagine a color-coding program intense enough to go through good-quality highlighters in less than a year (of course junk will always die prematurely. But I recommend the fat Sharpie ones, teacher should get 3 12-packs pretty cheap at Staples) if the teacher teaches the same subject to more than one class that's even more reason to just keep a class set in the school and not give the kids more to buy and keep track of (and then need different colors the next year...)

ra_mom

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 1:21 am

We don't get our school supply list until dismissal of first day of school. Which makes things hard as we are pressured to produce suddenly.
But I guess the good part is that the list is coming from the teacher directly and we buy what is really needed. Never had a supply brought back unused. Yet.

chaiz

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 8:00 am

wifeandmore wrote:

Former teacher of seventh grade here :-)

So that the class can have the same colors as each other when marking techilot, sofiot and shorashim (and I used the same on the board as well)
:-)

Does the entire class have to have the same colors as each other? Is it really necessary to help the students learn?

GetReal

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 8:20 am

In second grade I have posters on the wall - vav in red, beis in blue etc. the color coding matches, and at first the kids glance up at the signs. It helps them learn the prefixes and suffixes. But they used crayons and all colors are easily available. I never did it but I understand the appeal of telling the kids to take out the red folder for spelling or whatever. But this year my daughter in kindergarten needs folders in red, yellow, and purple. Yellow folders are hard to find!

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 8:34 am

glutenless wrote:

Another thing, why do teachers care what color highlighters? One wants yellow/pink/green another asked for yellow/pink/blue. I can see that in a younger grade it might make a difference, but one is for my dd in 7th grade. At that point they're old enough to choose their own color highlighter.

There was one teacher my son had that color coded questions and wanted the answers highlighted in the matching color from the text, which was much easier than the students copying down all the words again. For things like that, specific color highlighters do make sense.

(Otherwise, my kids are usually given instructions to bring yellow and one other color, or whatever.)

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 8:36 am

mommyla wrote:

My son's list was reasonable this year, but I don't understand the "please send $20 for additional supplies" thing. I bought the school supplies, including the 24 pencils for a class supply, and all necessary seforim - $20 will more than cover the one or two cheapo projects that they'll do over the year.

Either buy the supplies or have the parents buy the supplies - why both?

I had a $75 fee with additional items of soap (?!?!), paper towels, tissues, bandaids, pictures, pennies, etc...I really don't know why the $75 couldn't have included a $1 bottle of soap (or less if you're buying family size for the whole class!) and why only this one grade needs to bring it in, as I assume the school provides since none of my other kids have to bring in!

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 8:41 am

seeker wrote:

I assume they are used for homework as well. We had to have a set at home for this reason (and a set in school, which your idea would work for) -- but I hate the teachers asking for money for their supplies they provide. Never has it been cheaper than me bringing in our own.
For some things, I would prefer to pay a premium, if it's hard to obtain or bulky to bring in, but for highlighters/markers, it doesn't bother me so much.

(Just an annoyance: my son's supply list included that 8 pocket folder portfolio thing, you know the spiral bound type, which is very handy for many things, but very hard to find and not that cheap....and they switched teachers and the new teacher has no use for it...and it's not a typical item that I'll probably need any year...)

Barbara

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 9:42 am

seeker wrote:

Do you buy office supplies for your job? Does your boss say, "I don't see why you don't just buy the bulk pack of pens from Staples; you can probably use it for a couple of years."

In any case, there's always the "kids who chew on pencils/pens/highlighters" issue. One year, my son sat next to a girl who always forgot to bring a pencil, and who chewed on them. Every day, she would ask him for a pencil. Every day, she would chew it. Every day, he'd tell her he didn't want it back. Where it went, that she didn't have it the next day, I don't know. But I went through about 100 pencils that year. Thankfully, I bought them in bulk for a penny a piece.

mommyla

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 11:29 am

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

seeker

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 1:46 pm

Barbara wrote:

I'm a teacher, so yes I end up buying a lot of my own supplies... but in any profession, I wouldn't expect the company to provide unusual supplies. Basic pens, white out, staples, etc yes but if I want a specific brand/size/color of pen or highlighter then yes I'd have to buy it myself. But in terms of the teacher providing the highlighters, I didn't mean out of her own pocket necessarily but it could be from the school's supply or budget, or from the "general supplies" fee that everyone is saying they have on top of the list of stuff to bring.

seeker

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 1:52 pm

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

Is this a new teacher or something? Maybe she came from a school that had literally nothing? Soap, bandaids, and paper towels should definitely be part of the school's regular operating budget... This is just weird.

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 2:03 pm

Nope, she actually taught me Wink

I'm guessing that she noticed her students waste the soap and it is supposed to be some way of teaching them to conserve by using their own? I don't know.
The bandaids and tissues all my kids have to bring (well, older kids -- they leave them in the classroom or lockers or whatever for things that don't really require a visit to the nurse's office where there is also stock). Paper towels only my kindergartener and toddler had to bring, not the preschooler in between, and not my older kids.
There seems to be not much logic in this.

And I asked the teacher who asked for 5 rolls of pennies (==2.50 when there are 170 days of school) why so many are needed, and she said that she just copied from the previous teacher. So I put 170 in a bag and saved the extras for next year.

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, Sep 07 2015, 10:21 pm

And yet another question.

Why should a second grader have a BINDER for homework (only)?
1" binder with dividers. She has 1-2 pages in it as well as her homework list. She has to find the right paper in the right section to do. Wouldn't a folder be more reasonable? I assume it is taken out and graded anyway, before being transferred to a regular binder.
It's not even all her homework, since she also has workbooks.

seeker

Mon, Sep 07 2015, 11:18 pm

Yeah so I thought I was so efficient; got mail from the school with a list of fees a while back so I filled out the "worksheet" (basically fee for your kid's grade specifics + schoolwide standard fee + nit checking fee) which didn't list any particular fees for my child's grade, so I filled out the form and wrote a check and put it in her folder in her knapsack to make sure it would be there ready for orientation. And lo, three days before orientation I get a letter from the teacher with THANKFULLY the same supply list but an addition to the fee. So much for being all on top of things in advance. Fixed it now, we're ready, bring it on!