Went to a pumpkin patch with Pan in Maryland. It was lovely. I think he had a great time sniffing and eating dirt, minus perhaps all the posing for pictures. 😍
I’ve also been teaching a long time and have got supplies like binders, staplers, etc donated to me over the years, so I can often give those away to other teachers and have plenty for myself to use. Maybe I’m not creative enough to need all these extra things. 🤷♀️
I am in a good spot in that the union negotiates ~200 for each teacher yearly to spend on supplies. I can also make requests for more basic pens, paper and lined paper as the year goes on from our school. The one thing I do pay for is Kleenex. Can’t seem to get that from anyone.
I teach older students and I suppose that is quite different from elementary, but I literally don’t need my students to bring a single supply. I provide pens and pencils, paper, binders, highlighters, post it’s, whatever they need that day. They can bring their own if they prefer.
As we get ready for back to school people have been posting supply lists. Some of them are very extensive. Now this is more of a structural school underfunding problem than anything else, but also, some of these supply lists are spendy! I just don’t want supplies to ever be a barrier to students.