Post
by lindorie » Fri Aug 12, 2005 7:33 pm
I am a substitute teacher for one of the larger school districts in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. This is my second year at the same district. It is a fairly affluent district, but there are few extras provided by the schools and lots of things that we consider necessary supplies aren't provided at all or in such limited amounts that a classroom would run out of the items in just a couple of months.
Today I subbed on the second day of school and saw the stacks of supplies that the kids had brought in. Right now it seems like a whole lot of stuff, but let me tell you, by March or April, the teachers will be sweating out whether or not those supplies will last. Unfortunately a lot of the items will be wasted, damaged, or destroyed by the children. In particular this goes for pencils, markers, map pencils, sharpies, highlighters, and dry erase markers. Kids don't take care of them, break them intentionally, mash the points, or take them. I know of kids that can go through 3 or more pencils per day. For some reason they think that they have to be razor sharp and they will sharpen them to nubs within 2 or three days...if they bother to keep track of them. I have picked up pencils off the floor at the end of the day and have gotten as many as a dozen of them. This after the kids have been asked to check the floor and pick up or put away anything that doesn't belong there. I know teachers that actually sign out pencils in an effort to make kids more responsible for them.
As far as post its, actually these have become a very handy tool for helping kids organize their thoughts when in the early stages of writing essays or reports. They use the post its to write down individual thoughts or ideas that they would like to include and put the post its in the proper order. True, we didn't use them when we were kids, but for some students, in particular those that are tactile learners, this technique is incredibly valuable in helping them learn and retain organizational habits. Kids will abuse them, however and will use them to send each other notes, etc so that they don't have them when they need them.
A lot of things have changed in education since we were kids. Some of it seems pretty awful, but different techniques are being used to try to help kids who otherwise have a tough time. One of the big things that I have learned in the past few years is the importance of addressing the way a child learns. Most children are visual or auditory learners. They find it easier to understand what is going on by seeing or watching for the visual learners, or by hearing for the auditory ones. These kids are great at reading, watching demonstrations, listening to lectures and that kind of thing. Unfortunately there is a group of learners that has been largely left out and that is the tactile learner, the student who needs to touch or do in order to learn.
I found out, in my forties that I am a tactile learner. I learned it while studying to become a teacher. I was one of those kids that could ace most tests and figure out almost any subject....except math. I found out that math made so much more sense when I was able to use manipulatives. Finally, at the age of 44, I could do math in my head! The use of post its, index cards, and that sort of thing are to help the tactile learners.
As far as baby wipes vs sending the kids to the bathroom to wash their hands...quite simply...kids don't wash their hands. They run a little water on them, but mostly they talk and get silly in the bathroom. In addition, I can hand out baby wipes to every kid in the class and have them rub their hands for thirty seconds with them and have all 25 kids or more ready to go to lunch in 2 minutes. To send a class to the bathroom, generally you have to do it in small groups or they horse around and never get done what they are supposed to do. That can take up to 10 minutes where I could be teaching. Transitions during the day are a huge eater of time. It should take kids 2 minutes to change from one activity in a classroom to another. Some classes can do great with this, but others can take 5-7 minutes. When you consider that you are doing 5-7 transitions a day in class, not counting going to lunch or specials like p.e., music, etc, that's 25-35 minutes of instructional time that should have been less than half that. Anything a teacher can do to save any of this is valuable.
I don't know of a single class that had a single extra box of kleenex left at the end of the year last year, despite every kid being required to bring in 3 each. There was no disinfectant hand cleaner left, no baby wipes, nothing. It all gets used especially in cold and flu season.
If there was one thing that I could teach a parent or teacher to teach their kids, it would be for kids to never cough or sneeze into their hands. Use the crook of your elbow. It's always there and easy to get to and you never use it for opening doors or touching anything. Between that and using the disinfectant hand cleaners in school, kids could avoid spreading about half the colds and flu in their classes.
If you have questions about how things are used in your child's classroom, ask the teacher. I can virtually guarantee that he/she is not wasting supplies because if he/she is, they will spend more out of their own pocket. They would be crazy to do so. Teacher salaries seem high to a lot of people, but they don't begin to cover the hours they put in. I don't know a single teacher that doesn't put in at least an hour a day at home and several hours on the weekends. Summers off aren't off. Usually they are taking classes or workshops, most paid for out of their own pockets but which are required, or 'strongly encouraged' by their schools or districts. It is only the second day of school today, but most of the teachers I know have been in their classrooms for at least a week and a half. They've only been paid for five of those days and they didn't get paid for the Saturday student orientation at all. Most of the teachers I know, if they figure out how many hours they put in out of the classroom, will figure out that their hourly wage is only a dollar or two over minimum wage....not nearly enough for what we entrust them to do.
OK off my soap box now. I love what I do and pray that I can get my own classroom soon. Subbing is a challenge, but I love it. Its easy to question or complain about things, but spend some serious time in your child's school and really get to know what goes on. It's a real eye-opener.
I remember just needing the basic writing supplies, but now they expect highlighters, sharpies, dry erase markers, scientific calculators, baby wipes, kleenex blah blah blah blah!! 
Thank goodness my mother in law has been shopping yard sales for school clothes for the kids all summer. Really makes me upset. ::sigh:: I know teachers end up spending money out of pocket for school supplies, but it doesn't seem fair that parents are hit with so many expenses as well. (Not to mention book fees, sports fees etc.)!
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I just know that when I was in school back in the day, our list wasn't nearly as long as the supply lists of today, and I believe that we did just fine with the small amount that we did have. I mean, is 500 note cards gonna really make that much of a difference in my cousin's education? I didn't need them in 8th grade, and I really don't think it is imperative that she should either. I'm just saying that I received an education without having to use all these school supplies that kids today are using. So are these kids getting a better education because they use more supplies than I did? In my opinion...no. 
sorry, this is something I am rather passionate about, if you couldn't tell. 
