Post your crazy school supply item here.

[kandb]

Where we live, teachers make $75K plus a year for working 185 days. If they have to buy a few supplies, I am not feeling too bad for them.

 

[CatNipRules]

My son is going into 10th grade. The thing that irritates me most of all is that, on the first day of school the teachers ask for all this crazy stuff. Then, by the end of the year, most of it is unused. i spent over $100 on school supplies last year and most of it went unused.....

 

[bedillamouse]

My kids go to private school and they are in elementary school but we just got an email today and all high school kids must have an iPad....now that's an expensive item on the school supply list!!

My face when I saw this email was ....

 

[sritter78]

Where we live, teachers make $75K plus a year for working 185 days. If they have to buy a few supplies, I am not feeling too bad for them.

I have never met a teacher that only works what they are contracted for. I bring home work every night, every weekend, and have been working a lot this summer. My DH is also a teacher.

 

[littleelf]

I see I'm not the only one with these items but the one that bugged me the most was the ream of colored paper. A few years ago it appeared for the first time on my K and 3rd graders' lists. I think the district must've cut colored paper out of the budget and all the teachers panicked and asked for it. Well, that would mean each of my kids should've eventually brought home 500 sheets of colored paper that they used in class--a handout, a worksheet, flyer home to the parents, homework, something, right? I saw probably around a dozen sheets of colored paper used by my kids all year. And they bring everything home-there's easily 6+ sheets of paper in their folders every night.

For the past two years, they haven't asked for the colored paper again. Every teacher probably has about 20 reams sitting in their closet, I figure. Except now this year my youngest is going into 3rd and brings home the list asking for a ream of colored paper. I'm not sending it in. Took me 6 years of experience to know enough not to send it in, though. It's expensive--I got it through work for around $7 but it's normally twice that in stores.

Now I've got one going to middle school and I'm supposed to be buying 4 1.5 inch binders and one 1/2 inch binder. Well, I got 2 1.5 inch so far but I'm finding it hard to believe that she will be using them all. I know it's one per subject, but they will hardly fit in a locker and will definitely not fit in her bookbag. I'm going to have to buy her a golf cart to haul everything around--she also plays the drums.

My other pet peeve is twistables. They start requiring those in 3rd grade. Why? An 8-10 year old can use a regular crayon without breaking it. In 4th grade they wanted Twistable colored pencils. Those are hard to find on sale. I finally got buy one get two free at Toys R Us. She used one, I have one for #2 next year, and gave one to the collection our church does for supplies. But my older DD has them still in almost pristine condition so I could've used them for DD2.

As for communal supplies, they don't do it as much after the first couple years here, but my DD still manages to come home with her pencil box filled with exclusively pink and purple markers in varying brands and thicknesses. I guess they trade, even though we've labeled individual markers at times. For pencils, one year they had PaperMate EarthWrite brand on the dollar rack at Target. They sharpened and erased as well as Ticonderoga, and it was the only year she didn't run out of pencils. They were blue, green and red, not yellow, so it helped her keep track of them. I think most of the loss is not due to theft but just carelessness on DD's part. And I think the janitors just sweep everything into the trash at the end of the day. I'm going to try to find those pencils again this year.

 

[littlebit0863]

Reading these posts, I'm REALLY glad our school district just requires us to buy supply bags through the school. I will take the give $25 and be done with it option. Until my kids get in middle school, that is.

 

[MM27]

Where we live, teachers make $75K plus a year for working 185 days. If they have to buy a few supplies, I am not feeling too bad for them.

Wow, what an obnoxious statement.

It is not my job to supply children with school supplies, unless they are my children, but I do because I teach in an area where many kids don't have access to them. My salary has nothing to do with whether or not I should buy supplies.

 

[LaurenM]

As an elementary school teacher, I am totally loving this one

 

[BubMunkeyBles]

My kids go to private school and they are in elementary school but we just got an email today and all high school kids must have an iPad....now that's an expensive item on the school supply list!!

My face when I saw this email was ....

I'd probably cry.

 

[Friendly Frog]

I don't want to take this too far off topic, but the reason I don't think seniors should have to pay school taxes is because I think at some point enough is enough! Too many seniors have to give up their homes because they can't afford the property taxes after retirement. This will be worse in the future if they pull social security ( and few have any retirement anymore) .

BTW, I have no children and pay school tax, but at some point I think enough is enough.

 

[KiwiMouseGirl]

A family friend of mines Daughter who is at intermediate school (American equivilent of junior high I believe? shes around 12?) was told that to attend school she MUST have an Ipad.....A FREAKING IPAD! Im 18 and don't even have an Ipad...what happened to school computers, or even a laptop! rediculous!

 

[dontthrowsand]

A family friend of mines Daughter who is at intermediate school (American equivilent of junior high I believe? shes around 12?) was told that to attend school she MUST have an Ipad.....A FREAKING IPAD! Im 18 and don't even have an Ipad...what happened to school computers, or even a laptop! rediculous!

Not uncommon. I work in different classrooms as a TA and there are 3 classes that require technology. My grade 6s have a BYOT (bring your own tech) program where they can bring whatever they own. They do a lot of group work and projects. My grade 3s all have iPod touches with a class Dropbox account and google calendars. The grade 12 French class has about 5 or 6 classroom iPads that have all the apps ands books they need. If you bring your own, they give you a 15$ iTunes gift card to download all the books and apps.

iPads are cheaper, more portable and more user friendly for kids than laptops. All the kids I work with love the school iPads. I know I love my iPad for university. I handwrite all my notes on there which is more legible than a pen (and my hand gets less tired), I have all my translation resources, references and access to the class websites while in class.

I think you are going to start seeing a lot more tablet based learning as well eBook textbooks and educational apps that are interactive unlike traditional textbook and blackboard learning.

 

[Terry36]

Wow, what an obnoxious statement.

It is not my job to supply children with school supplies, unless they are my children, but I do because I teach in an area where many kids don't have access to them. My salary has nothing to do with whether or not I should buy supplies.

MTE....

I'd probably cry.

I'd definately be taken aback.

 

[Sparkly]

If I was expected to buy a iPad for school I would just drop out! I really hope that wasn't in a low income area because I don't see many people being able to afford one (they're something like $200-300, right?) :O

I don't even have a iPod Touch!

 

[Marionnette]

If I was expected to buy a iPad for school I would just drop out! I really hope that wasn't in a low income area because I don't see many people being able to afford one (they're something like $200-300, right?) :O

I don't even have a iPod Touch!

Apple does a lot of school technology grants in order to get their products into the hands of consumers. They also discount for teachers and students when purchasing an Apple product is necessary.

My SIL teaches in a Catholic school. The diocese was actually given a number of iPads and Apple sent consultants to train the teachers on how to use them in the classroom. Her school is not in what I would consider a wealthy area - blue collar, working class. The iPad is her resource not the kids'. She doesn't see too many families purchasing them on their own, nor will the schools be abandoning their dead-tree textbooks in favor of digital ones. But the idea that Apple has to plant the seed is a good one.

And the new iPad starts at $500 for a 16GB with wi-fi. Sometimes you can find a better deal on refurbs or get a GC with purchase. Those suckers are not cheap!

 

[ilovejack02]

While my DS23 was in schoo,l the local Catholic high schools here , not all but two in particular required laptops .. this was at a time when you couldn't get them as inexpensive as you can now. I don't see the ipads any different . The diocese did have laptops that the students on scholarship could borrow. The same is prob said for the Ipads .

To the pp mentioning teachers making 75k and who cares if they have to buy a few school supplies.
My DH makes works for a large well know gas company, makes quite a bit more than that ... does that mean we need to pay for our neighbor's gas because they can't afford it or are just to lazy or cheap to go out and buy ??
REALLY ?? Are you freaking kidding me , it is NOT a teacher's job to supply you child's supplies .

 

[spacemountainmom]

iPads are cheaper, more portable and more user friendly for kids than laptops. All the kids I work with love the school iPads. I know I love my iPad for university. I handwrite all my notes on there which is more legible than a pen (and my hand gets less tired), I have all my translation resources, references and access to the class websites while in class.

I think you are going to start seeing a lot more tablet based learning as well eBook textbooks and educational apps that are interactive unlike traditional textbook and blackboard learning.

I'd like to know where you shop. My old laptop crapped out last summer and I really wanted an iPad. I was able to buy a more than adequate laptop for far less than an iPad would have cost.

 

[tarheel618]

To the pp mentioning teachers making 75k and who cares if they have to buy a few school supplies.
My DH makes works for a large well know gas company, makes quite a bit more than that ... does that mean we need to pay for our neighbor's gas because they can't afford it or are just to lazy or cheap to go out an buy ??
REALLY ?? Are you freaking kidding me , it is NOT a teacher's job to supply you child's supplies .

Well said!

 

[tarheel618]

Where we live, teachers make $75K plus a year for working 185 days. If they have to buy a few supplies, I am not feeling too bad for them.

"The teacher makes $75K, let him/her get the supplies needed for my child." This line of thinking is what leads to the extreme class list that everyone complains about each year because the teacher is trying to make sure everyone has the supplies needed for class.

Your child, you supply the supplies, that is not the teachers job.

 

[Dizisfun]

My kids are grown so I don't have this problem. But I just thought it was interesting that the teacher has specified BRAND Name items....My grandkids parents do get lists of items specific to their grade, but never have they been told what brand to buy. Also we realize that when they are ask to bring in items in quantity that these items are shared with children that the parents can't afford to purchase school supplies for the children. I've bought school supplies myself when I find things on sale and send them in with my grandchildren.