Ridiculous school supplies thread!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Things I would find ridiculous:

Cauldron
Salad spinner
[/b]Tube socks[b]
Spackle
Rawhide
Pot-filler

Cleaning supplies? Writing and arts&crafts supplies? Cleaning supplies? Happy to provide those.

But socks are used as dry erase board erasers!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why all the complaints?

My daughter's entering 5th; my son starts K. The only K supply was a backpack (no wheels). The rest were donations - glue sticks, wipes, etc.

My daughter's list was extensive. By the time we paid, it was close to $60. But I let her pick out her supplies, which meant she chose some fancy designs.

I don't care. I want them to like school, and shopping for supplies should be fun. She's not in high-farms school. So donations are not an issue.

In other schools, however, less fortunate kids receive donations, as there's usually a bank of supplies.

So if you can afford it, why be so negative? Who cares how picky the teacher is? We're all different - with our own styles. Be grateful your child has supplies and is ready to learn.

jeez

Signed,
a teacher

Did you miss the part where teachers collect it all and redistribute? So some other kid ends up with her fancy designs and she gets a cheapo thing that won't hold up.

That doesn't happen in my kid's school. He packs his own supplies in his school box for his own use, but some of the extras, like glue sticks and crayons, are collected by the teacher so that the communal stock can be replenished throughout the year. But if my kid chooses special scissors or a special set of markers then they stay in his school box for his use.

[Anonymous]

When you're not sure: a binder, a notebook, a loose leaf notebook, a three ring binder, a composition book - what exactly is needed.

[Anonymous]

That doesn't happen in my kid's school. He packs his own supplies in his school box for his own use, but some of the extras, like glue sticks and crayons, are collected by the teacher so that the communal stock can be replenished throughout the year. But if my kid chooses special scissors or a special set of markers then they stay in his school box for his use.

even for K?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids pre-k list is all cleaning supplies: no markers, no crayons, no pencils. Why can the school provide those things, but not cleaning supplies? (Or, worse, they won't be using those things?)

Don't send it in. No way do I send in cleaning supplies and things (and I'm a teacher). If the teachers at that school feel they need to provide things that run out, it's their job to approach the principal / school board with rebudgeting concerns.

omg

As a teacher, I ALWAYS donate supplies to my kids' classrooms.

nice way to support your colleagues

What's a box of tissues? or hand soap?

Eh... I kinda get where she's coming from on the cleaning supplies, but agree asking the principal is silly. When I was teaching (HS), for whatever reason, my department chair would buy Kleenex with part of our department budget, the same money for buying books and pencil sharpeners. The kids got used to it being in the classroom, but no matter how much she ordered, it was always gone by January or February. Students would get all bent out of sorts because the free Kleenex supply was gone and they would get angry with me for not spending my personal money on more. I'm not their mom, I need to supply them with the materials for learning, snot is not my responsibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

That doesn't happen in my kid's school. He packs his own supplies in his school box for his own use, but some of the extras, like glue sticks and crayons, are collected by the teacher so that the communal stock can be replenished throughout the year. But if my kid chooses special scissors or a special set of markers then they stay in his school box for his use.

even for K?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those classroom sharpeners can "eat" pencils. As a first grade teacher, I sharpened them for the kids. It was better for the pencils and cut down on wasted time.

Please, won't someone think of the pencils?!

I always avoided buying pencils made in china. Typically didn't have issues with the ones made in the USA.

I avoid everything made in China, as much as I can. Quality is poor. They don't think twice about poisoning their own children; why would the safety of Americans be a concern to them?

[Anonymous]

book "socks"/covers are useless

[Anonymous]

I have no problem providing cleaning supplies, crayons, whatever the teacher needs. I am not a teacher, but I assume that they know what they're doing and have my child's interest in mind.

The only thing that caught my attention was "earbuds or earphones", then the note at the bottom that supplies shouldn't be labelled because they will be shared amongst the class. Are kids really going to be passing earbuds back and forth? That just seems a little gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That doesn't happen in my kid's school. He packs his own supplies in his school box for his own use, but some of the extras, like glue sticks and crayons, are collected by the teacher so that the communal stock can be replenished throughout the year. But if my kid chooses special scissors or a special set of markers then they stay in his school box for his use.

even for K?

Yes

But it happens at other schools, and that's "why all the complaints", to quote you earlier. Just because something doesn't happen at your school doesn't mean it doesn't happen elsewhere and people want to complain about it..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That doesn't happen in my kid's school. He packs his own supplies in his school box for his own use, but some of the extras, like glue sticks and crayons, are collected by the teacher so that the communal stock can be replenished throughout the year. But if my kid chooses special scissors or a special set of markers then they stay in his school box for his use.

even for K?

Yes

But it happens at other schools, and that's "why all the complaints", to quote you earlier. Just because something doesn't happen at your school doesn't mean it doesn't happen elsewhere and people want to complain about it..

Then talk to the school about it and rationally explain your reasons.

[Anonymous]

My children's school has never redistributed any of their things besides tissues and cleaning wipes. Everything else stays in her pencil case or desk. And we use those book socks every year - each kid has several textbooks.

[Anonymous]

What irks me is the same list year after year so even though the kindergarten classrooms have about 90 scissors in the bin, they will be getting 30 additional ones on the first day of school. Or the teacher's lounge had about 30 bottles of sanitizer with a "free" sign on them yet they will be asking for sanitizer again in the fall. It is wasteful and only because they are too lazy to update their supply lists when asked.

[Anonymous]

Different schools do things differently. Just within Fairfax, I've sent my kids to five different elementary schools over the years, and most of them combined and shared the kids' supplies until maybe fifth or sixth grade. At one school, probably a third of the kids in each classroom couldn't afford to bring any supplies.

I never understood what happened to the scissors each year. Most of the time, the teachers would keep whatever supplies were left at the end of the year. Did they have a bustling black market going? Scissors don't wear out in a year.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and I think the most annoying requests were for five boxes of markers in second grade. Five?

That and teachers putting green and red marking pens on the kids' school supplies list. Seriously, there's no money in the budget for teachers to have red pens? And they go through 25 of them in a year?