I just spent $100 on my class for next year and it's only July 16! (We start Aug. 24.)  This does not include the money I've spent on  crayons, pencils, ect. that I want to give as gifts during the year.  I get them now because they are so cheap.  

The kids come with supplies the first week (most of them do) and many of those supplies come from the local Salvation Army.  After that, it is a struggle to get more supplies from home.  No money, they say.  And, for many this is true, but there is also are also messed-up priorities going on in many homes.

We ask for one box of tissues from each child so they can share with the class and we can blow our noses all year.  These,of course, run out in January when we need them most and we use rolls of scratchy toilet paper for the rest of the year.  Are tissues provided in our federal prisons?  (I must ask that of my prison-guard brother sometime.)

After so many years of teaching, I just spend and try not to think of it.  I, and most other teachers I presume, do it as our mission in life---something we do out of love.  But, we do not brag about it---only God, my husband, and the IRS know how much I spend extra each year.

Still, it is not right that our schools are this way.

Yeah, I spend money throughout the year on school stuff.  I don't like waiting until the last minute to do things, so I also buy some supplies and organizational materials during the summer.

I have to say, though, that each teacher in our district gets $275.00 to buy classroom supplies for the year, and I spend most of it on construction paper, books, pencils, crayons, markers, folders, and office supplies.(all consumables)Once in a while I spend some on a game or manipulative, but the money gets used up pretty quickly. I usually run out before the year is over, so I do have to buy some items to make it to the end.

Until last year, I bought everything I needed for science, but our district bought one Foss Kit for each grade level to use. Unfortunately, my grade level has 6 classes, so once we split the materials in the one kit, there wasn't enough for every student. I made up the difference myself, but at least it saved me some money.

No, I'm not ready for Fall yet.  I don't know, honestly, how much I spend.  But it's too much.  I do try to get things over the summer that are on sale now that I know I'll need for gifts or extras when we get to the halfway point and everyone's crayons and pencil top erasers have been demolished or have disappeared.  I also tend to get pedagogy types of books/things I want to read about or research.  There just isn't time for that during the school year.  

Our district does give each teacher $200 - $250 for supplies.  I tend to order as many consummables as I can and save my money for things that I want that will last and can stay "mine" (i.e. my listening center, mailbox, books).  As time marches on, I spend less in that area because I've been accumulating what I want.  

What does cost me the most is stuff that I like for the kids/for the class that districts just don't see fit to fund.  Like my classroom library.  We are all supposed to have them, but there are never funds to buy books.  Like supplies to make Mother's Day gifts or Christmas gifts.  Like planting soil and seeds and things for science.  Like birthday crowns.

It adds up.

As far as what the kids provide, we do have a supply list that we ask parents to purchase and I feel it's extensive.  Back when I was a kid (well it still works that way in my home district actually) the school provided pencils and erasers and crayons and notebooks.  If you wanted a pencil box or markers or something, that was different.  Now, the school doesn't provide those things so we end up asking parents to send in pencils (one of my pet peeves being when I get a bunch of boxes of pencils that are all duds), erasers, glue sticks, composition books, etc.  It's a lengthy list and I personally hate asking because some of my kids just don't have families who can afford it.   It feels like a hardship.  I try to keep some "extra sets" of that stuff handy so that those kids have good supplies all year, too.

~Tangerine