Ten-YearTeach's Blog

Ah, September...time to go back to school.  It's almost as if the entire world (at least here in New England) just flips a switch on Labor Day and suddenly declares that summer is over.  As if on cue, temperature (usually) drop from the 80s and 90s to the 70s, the nights become so cool and breezy that you have to dig out a blanket, the air takes on a crisp quality...  Even our economy makes a marked shift in preparation for a much-anticipated burst of consumerism...  Enter the Back-to-School sales!

I have to admit, I'm a huge fan of back-to-school sales, with their buy-one-get-one-free packs of pencils and their 2 for $1 packages of filler paper.  I know many teachers who save their pennies (some quite literally) all summer, then start collecting sale flyers in August so that they can go store-hopping to get the best deals on those items which will supplement the school-purchased supplies.  (There is a common misconception among those who have never taught in a public school system that the school/district provides teachers with all the materials that they need or want for their classrooms, everything from markers to binders to colored paper and bulletin board borders.  For those of you who have been in education a while, you are well aware that school budgets get tighter with each passing year, and that, at the very least, many of the more fun or creative supplies you desire must be purchased out of pocket.)

The stores - and the education departments at colleges and universities across the country - think that they have a clear understanding of the "essentials" not only for students but for teachers as they head back to school.  They remind you to get an ample supply of pens, pencils, and erasers; crayons, markers, and color pencils; staplers - and staples to fill them; tape of the transparent and masking varieties; paper clips and rubber bands in an assortment of colors and sizes; chalkboard and/or dry-erase board supplies; rulers, scissors, hole punches; folders, binders, notebooks, filler paper, index cards - lined and unlined, post-it notes, construction paper, highlighters, pushpins and thumbtacks, glue - in liquid or stick form, and a vast array of correction-making, mistake-obliterating products.  And they're right...all of those things are important, even necessary tools of the trade.

But there are a number of equally useful - nay, vital - items that cannot be found in the back-to-school aisles, and which are unfortunately often overlooked by the ed. departments.  I have discovered the importance of some of these items on my own; others were suggested to me by veteran teachers when I myself was a new teacher.  Some are the sort of thing that make you slap your forehead and say "Of course!  Why didn't I think of that?", while other items make visitors to your classroom ask "What's THAT for?"  At any rate, I thought I would share my list of classroom essentials...

 

(I have tried to group them into categories, because that's what we teachers do...  And, at the advice of friends, I will be posting this in pieces.  Please feel free to make suggestions of your own!  Sharing our collected wisdom benefits all of us!)

 

Cleaning supplies

            I'm sure most folks outside of education believe that classrooms are thoroughly cleaned every night - floors swept and mopped, blackboards (or, in newer schools, white boards) and desks washed, windows cleaned - by the janitors.  The truth of the matter is that, while the trash cans are emptied and the classrooms are generally swept at night by the janitors or the cleaning company hired by the district or perhaps the broomfairy, little else is done regularly by way of classroom maintenance unless it is done by the teacher.  (To be fair, the janitors are often busy sweeping and mopping halls and scrubbing the bathrooms, and their numbers have taken just as much of a hit from the budget cuts as anybody else's.)  For this reason, my back-to-school supply list always has the following cleaning supplies on it:

            * multi-surface spray cleaner (antibacterial ones are the best) - this is great for cleaning desks and tables, windows, spills on the floor, etc.;

            * cheap paper towels - anything has got to be more absorbent than the school-issued rolls of brown paper "towels" that are approximately the consistency of math paper;

            *  dish detergent and a dish sponge - for the requisite coffee/tea mug, as well as the occasional real dishes (as opposed to disposables) that arrive full of goodies for a classroom celebration;

            * Febreze (or other air deodorizer) - for days when the various odors produced by students naturally (body odor, flatulence, etc.) and artificially (perfume, smoking, etc.) are too much to bear.

 

In addition, for those just starting out, you should pick up a bucket and sponge (car-washing sponges work great) for washing the board.  It's highly unlikely that you'll find these in your welcome packet from your school.