Hey teachers

[Mkrop]

If I was in your case, I would send in what I could. If the teacher or priest had an issue and took of marks for supplies, we would would be having a discussion.

I did try about the pens but she was having none of it, it was her way or the highway. I asked her why they had to be that pen and she never gave a reason except that it was what she wanted....she was the strictest teacher DS ever had in all areas of her class....I am hoping she retires by the time DS10 gets to 7th grade

And with the cards, I was this close to sending the priest an email asking if he realized how difficult this was and how it detracted from the real meaning teaching young men to send nice cards to infirmed nuns but I remembered this was HS and an email from mommy was probably a no-no

 

[luv2sleep]

Oh where I live we got the list months ago. The teachers have to get together and decide what they are going to request for the new year. I know they couldn't meet up until the first day. My SIL said they could not get the list out together until they were actually in their classrooms for whatever reason.

Btw, our teacher didn't care what color the folder was.

 

[1Mouse2RulethemAll]

I can actually explain the blue erasable pens. You can't photocopy blue pens in black and white and you can check for a colored copy by trying to erase it.


Posted from DISboards.com App for Android

 

[Turn the Page]

I've spoken with managers at two of our local stores (not as a direct complaint, but in passing because we're friendly anyway) and the explanation I got from both is that they don't have local control over those things. Corporate sets the timetables and promotions.



Things have changed, though. I don't remember any teacher, ever, demanding a binder be a certain color or specifying plastic folders instead of paper or insisting upon a particular brand of crayons. When I was a kid I loved school supply shopping - as a writer, even back then I had a thing for notebooks and pens and such, and I loved picking out cute folders and fancy-cover notebooks and the right Trapper Keeper. None of my three kids have been in a single class that allows that stuff, which totally sucks the fun out of it IMO - all the teachers around here specify plain, solid colors. Most want binders, notebooks, and folders to be color-coordinated by subject, though some are more flexible on that than others, and even fancy pencils are a no-no.

Heck I STILL love back to school shopping for myself.....but in grad school they let us pick out our own stuff lol.

As far as the fancy pencils, I recall when DD was starting kindergarten the teacher specifically said no fancy pencils, only plain. Of course pencils weren't on the list anyway but she felt the need to specify that we weren't to buy our kids fancy ones. I think the reason for this is the kids no longer keep the supplies, their parents bought, at least not in DD's school. What happens is all the kids (and by all I'm guessing half) bring in the supplies from the list and the teacher collects it all and throws it into a communal pot and its passed out to the kids as needed meaning if I bought DD fancy pencils with ponies on them she wouldn't actually get to keep them they would likely go to some other child and then DD might get upset because some other kid is using the pretty pony pencil she picked out while she is using one with a truck on it or something like that.

 

[cheerful chickadee]

I don't mind waiting for the elementary list but this year my DD brought her list home on the last day of school. All they need is crayons, smock, pencils, the usual cheap stuff.

On the other hand....my son is in high school and they always wait to give them their list in the first few days of school, you know at the point when the school supplies are picked over and they're starting to put Halloween candy in their place. The point in time when all the 1" binders are gone or they're no longer on sale and now cost $6 each. Last year I was tempted to buy a few binders before he started, good thing I didn't buy the ones on sale because his teachers all asked for either 2" or 3" binders.

FWIW my son has had at least one or more teachers per year who require specific color folders, notebooks and binders. By time he gets the list we end up having to search the whole town for those things. Pretty annoying, as if we have nothing else to do in the eveings than to go from store to store trying to find a green 2" binder with inside pockets plus a matching green 5 subject notebook or folder with prongs AND inside pockets. ay yi yi!

 

[thedonduck]

I can actually explain the blue erasable pens. You can't photocopy blue pens in black and white and you can check for a colored copy by trying to erase it.


Posted from DISboards.com App for Android

This is what I was going to say. In college (5 years ago), I had a couple of English professors start to require us to handwrite our essays in blue pen. We were given the reason that too many students were starting to pass off papers as their own (copy print from the internet) or they were photocopying papers/notes from other students to use on their test.

Requiring blue at least forced the actual student in the class to WRITE everything they wanted to turn in or use in class. Yes, you could still pass off work as their own, but at least they had to make some sort of effort.

Rumors have been swirling in the education field (at least in my classes and in my discussions as an educator) that there may be a move away from the computer typed papers at least in the college-level.

(Brings up a side note of something people probably never thought about with the invention of and popularity of the computer, etc.) Times are a changing, right?

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Our school sends home a supply list by team, but the only way you know which team a child is in before school starts is to log in to the home portal website and check the student's schedule.

As for teachers sending things home, you are assuming they have a roster. I bet they don't.

 

[Turn the Page]

Our school sends home a supply list by team, but the only way you know which team a child is in before school starts is to log in to the home portal website and check the student's schedule.

As for teachers sending things home, you are assuming they have a roster. I bet they don't.

The teacher may not but surely the office does. I know changes can happen at the last minute but for the most part the office should know who is going where.

 

[thedonduck]

I can actually explain the blue erasable pens. You can't photocopy blue pens in black and white and you can check for a colored copy by trying to erase it.


Posted from DISboards.com App for Android

This is what I was going to say. In college (5 years ago), I had a couple of English professors start to require us to handwrite our essays in blue pen. We were given the reason that too many students were starting to pass off papers as their own (copy print from the internet) or they were photocopying papers/notes from other students to use on their test.

Requiring blue at least forced the actual student in the class to WRITE everything they wanted to turn in or use in class. Yes, you could still pass off work as their own, but at least they had to make some sort of effort.

Rumors have been swirling in the education field (at least in my classes and in my discussions as an educator) that there may be a move away from the computer typed papers at least in the college-level.

(Brings up a side note of something people probably never thought about with the invention of and popularity of the computer, etc.) Times are a changing, right?

 

[Turn the Page]

This is what I was going to say. In college (5 years ago), I had a couple of English professors start to require us to handwrite our essays in blue pen. We were given the reason that too many students were starting to pass off papers as their own (copy print from the internet) or they were photocopying papers/notes from other students to use on their test.

Requiring blue at least forced the actual student in the class to WRITE everything they wanted to turn in or use in class. Yes, you could still pass off work as their own, but at least they had to make some sort of effort.

Rumors have been swirling in the education field (at least in my classes and in my discussions as an educator) that there may be a move away from the computer typed papers at least in the college-level.

(Brings up a side note of something people probably never thought about with the invention of and popularity of the computer, etc.) Times are a changing, right?

In undergrad I would normally take a water bottle or something with me when I took exams. Some of the profs were really anal about removing the label from said bottle. I never could figure out why, I just thought they were being really anal. I found out (in my last course of my undergrad career) that the reason is because kids remove the label from their bottles, write notes on the back, then reattach it to the bottle and they can read the notes through the water. Who knew?

I never would have thought of that. It occurred to me then, and still does now, if the kids that come up with this stuff spent half the time studying as they did inventing new ways to cheat they would be acing all their classes.

 

[Colleen27]

Heck I STILL love back to school shopping for myself.....but in grad school they let us pick out our own stuff lol.

As far as the fancy pencils, I recall when DD was starting kindergarten the teacher specifically said no fancy pencils, only plain. Of course pencils weren't on the list anyway but she felt the need to specify that we weren't to buy our kids fancy ones. I think the reason for this is the kids no longer keep the supplies, their parents bought, at least not in DD's school. What happens is all the kids (and by all I'm guessing half) bring in the supplies from the list and the teacher collects it all and throws it into a communal pot and its passed out to the kids as needed meaning if I bought DD fancy pencils with ponies on them she wouldn't actually get to keep them they would likely go to some other child and then DD might get upset because some other kid is using the pretty pony pencil she picked out while she is using one with a truck on it or something like that.

That might be part of it, but the explanation I've gotten from the teachers at my girls' school is that they've gone to electric pencil sharpeners and the foil/plastic outer layer on the fancy pencils is hard on the sharpener. That never occurred to me because we have old-fashioned metal Xacto sharpeners in our office and workshop, but it does make that specific requirement make sense.

 

[Turn the Page]

That might be part of it, but the explanation I've gotten from the teachers at my girls' school is that they've gone to electric pencil sharpeners and the foil/plastic outer layer on the fancy pencils is hard on the sharpener. That never occurred to me because we have old-fashioned metal Xacto sharpeners in our office and workshop, but it does make that specific requirement make sense.

Oooh, that's a good point. I never thought of that either.

 

[Piper]

Our district sent out a generic list for each grade level. It was NOT really the things the kids needed, but what someone in the district office thought they needed. I hit the back to school sales and bought sets of supplies for both my morning and afternoon classes. Then I sent home most of the things the district required for the kids to use for "homework."

Yes, I spent a lot of my own money....but I had exactly what I wanted the kids to use. (We were not allowed to ask parents for additional supplies and it was usually only a couple of days before school started when the principal saw fit to give out class lists to the teachers!)

 

[kirstenb1]

This thread makes me grateful for our elementary school!!! They post the supply lists 3 wks before school starts. We started back this past Monday. To my surprise, Walmart was already depleted. And we're on a border---most Virginia schools, those east of us, don't start back til after Labor Day. I see it like this----there's no good reason to not post a list that contains 80% of the basics, at least. As a parent, I surely don't mind getting a last minute list issued the first week of school. However, serioulsy, how hard is it for an elelmentary school to say we need xxx crayons, pencils, glue sticks. marble composition (or handwriting tablets), coloring pencils, markers, and 1 inch binders?

We also had Clorox wipes, kleenex, and Expo markers on the list.

I'd rather a teacher tell me most of the list, while Walmart still stocks it, and have to deal with a few last minute items, than have the entire list waitlisted til the first week of school.

For my 10th grader, I understand they wait to tell the kids. The stores were out of binder tabs, so i guess they'll have to wait. Every thing else, I could find.

I do have to say I was shocked at how depleted our Super Walmarts was. I don't know what all the Henrico/Richmond parents are supposed to do to find supplies. In the past, I remember there being more supplies at this time of year.

 

[StephMK]

That might be part of it, but the explanation I've gotten from the teachers at my girls' school is that they've gone to electric pencil sharpeners and the foil/plastic outer layer on the fancy pencils is hard on the sharpener. That never occurred to me because we have old-fashioned metal Xacto sharpeners in our office and workshop, but it does make that specific requirement make sense.

This! Those cute pencils are horrible on pencil sharpeners! Plus they are usually difficult to sharpen and break easily. I know parents like to send in what they can find but it is easier when kids all have the same color for certain things.

In my district, kids are given their supplies. It's so nice to go into a class and when the teacher says to get out your writing folders, everyone pulls out their red notebooks. Then if I have a kid who has not gotten ready, I easily know we are looking for the red one.

 

[mom2rtk]

This is what I was going to say. In college (5 years ago), I had a couple of English professors start to require us to handwrite our essays in blue pen.

Oh man. My freshman college student son is doomed to failure if his school asks him to hand write ANYTHING. Fingers crossed his school doesn't go that direction. I told him he'd make a great doctor with that handwriting..... too bad he doesn't want to go that route.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Wow. In my district (I'm a teacher) we technically aren't allowed AT ALL to ask for supplies. Crayons, folders, you name it- all purchased by the teacher. Some things can come out of our supply budget but most of us pay for the students' items ourselves. My principal said we as a team could send home a donation request sheet. Out of 30 students exactly 4 brought their own crayons. Guess who had to buy the rest? And this is in a middle class community of very nice homes.

So be glad that you don't have to pay for all the school supplies for an entire class! It's a tremendous cost and it sucks.

 

[iheartdisney]

I am SO grateful that our school supplies are supplied by the district and we don't have to go through this drama!
Each teacher will ask for classroom supplies at the beginning of the year and throughout the year as they start running low (printer paper, lysol wipes, dry erase markers, etc.) and they send a list of what you should have at home so your child can do their homework (duh) but that is it. No "5 red folders, 3 blue folders and a dozen glue sticks" lists.

This year my oldest is in 5th and her teachers asked that we provide a binder to keep all of their various notebooks and papers together, and that her scissors are terrible so it would be helpful if the students brought their own in.

Personally, if we did have to go on a school supply scavenger hunt I would rather do it while the kids are in school. Who wants them there to pick out the fancy stuff? Our kitchen was almost empty last week because I HATE taking everyone to the store!

 

[Jedana]

Last year, the teacher wanted 10 large glue sticks, 2 boxes of crayons (24 ct Crayola), 72 pencils (all sharpened), 3x3 sticky notes, 5 composition books, 3 packs of loose leaf paper, 2 packs of markers (one thin, one thick, washable), 2 packs of colored pencils...and so much more. DS had to have it in by the end of the first week (would lose points if not).

ETA: got the list the day before school started.

At the end of the year, I got back 2 boxes of crayons, 48 pencils, 2 1/2 packs of loose leaf paper, the thick markers, 1 box of colored pencils and 6 glue sticks--all unused.




This years list for DS (4th grade)

5 composition books (one for each subject)
1 spiral bound wide rule notebook
wide rule loose leaf paper
graph paper
crayons
2 sharpened pencils (daily)
scissors
2 red pens (daily)
nylon zippered pencil bag
crayons
2 1 or 1 1/2" binders
5 folders--with pockets and prongs--red, blue, green, yellow, purple

wish list includes tissues, hand sanitizers, wipes, candies, paper towels, copy paper. I'll send these in mid year. They only have so much space to store stuff, and most of the class brought in all theirs already (and yes, I did let the teacher know to tell me when she needed these items).

At least it was posted online this year, on the school website. It only asked for 2 comp books, but the teachers asked for 5 (one for each subject).


The school does the color coordinated folders--starting in Pre-K. The red is always math, the blue is always English, the green is always take home. Each year adds a different color--yellow is for science and purple for social studies. Next year, we add orange--for what, I don't know. For the younger set that can't read, telling them to get the blue folder is easier. For the older set, they are trying to teach them organization.

After the first year of running around trying to find those colors, I learned my lesson. The next year, I bought extras in each color, even the ones we didn't need yet.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

It's not cute to withhold your required school supply list until after school starts.

We have the option to pre-order school supplies.
Last year I ordered DD's supplies online for $40. On walk-thru night they were handed out.

I still have to shop for DS. Hes a freshman in HS this year. He'll get his list on the first day.