It's that time of year again, and time for my annual rant about community school supplies. I know that some of you think they're the greatest thing since sliced bread. I think they're the devil. This is why.
I think for very young children Prek-1st it's a good idea to have community supplies because their not developmentally ready to keep track of all those materials. Once they get to about 2nd grade though they need to learn to be responsible for their own belongings and become more independent.
I'm not a parent yet but I would hate having things I bought used by everyone in the class. I always took excellent care of my things, even in preschool and kindergarten. I still don't let people borrow my teacher things. I have cheap supplies for the kids who forget things. They don't get to use my nice things.
I agree that items bought by parents should not be taken and used by the community. But I also think it's kind of ridiculous to state that if a parent doesn't provide individual supplies for a child it is the responsibility of the school or teacher to provide a personal set for the student to use that they own and are responsible for (and will lose instantly). I provide any materials my students needs in terms of writing utensils, whiteboard markers, glue sticks, etc. I fully expect that enough parents don't buy these things that it will become a headache in class should we ever need to quickly use them, or that parents have bought them and kids have lost them. Now if a student has their own personal set of items that they would rather use instead of mine, I'm all for it. One less student using up the life on my supplies. But if I have to weigh between getting class moving and offering community supplies or fighting battles with materials every time we need some supplies, I'm going to go the easier route every time.
My daughter's teachers have always done community supplies. As a parent it really doesn't bother me. They periodically send home notes about different materials they are running out of and I just send in a few more items throughout the year. I have always taught self-contained special Ed and we have always done community supplies. That's probably why I have never really cared either way.
Having taught forever and raised three children, I have never bought my children fancy supplies to use at school. Fancy supplies were used at home. I always encouraged my parents to buy the cheaper supplies so we could use them as community supplies. Fancy supplies that were sent to school were sent home to be used for homework. I have always added a note to the supply list to let the parents know about my policy before they purchased their supplies. Additionally, the penny sales each year added to my stock of supplies for those children that didn't bring supplies.
I tried community supplies 2 or 3 times and definitely notice a HUGE difference in the amount of times kids are sick when we do vs when they have their own supplies.
I totally get where this is coming from, but have never seen community used supplies not be the same. When I had to buy supplies as a student, the lists were annoyingly specific - 1 24 pack Ticonderoga yellow pencils, 12 pack standard color Crayola crayons, etc. I get why. I can't imagine, as the author describes, having kids argue daily over who gets the nicer scissors. I also have had students who steal, and it seems like individual supplies could be an additional source of conflict. While I've taught in a few settings, I am mostly a "new" teacher and have never managed first day supplies, and am not sure which way I would prefer in my classroom. I also took great pride in my supplies as a student, so I see both sides. I will probably try individual supplies this year. The germs factor may have won me over.
I agree with that-also for me mostly it's a matter of not wasting time. We have no desks-it's all tables so there is no place to keep pencil boxes. If I keep them on a shelf then it takes time for them to all get their every time we do an activity (not to mention taking up precious shelf space). It's also much faster for me to sharpen pencils by going through a basket than opening each individual box-for the sake of having a working pencil sharpener I have to do it myself. I have used community supplies every year I have ever taught Kinder and have never had a problem with germs being spread more. They use the same manipulatives all day-I really don't see the difference between that and crayons. I can Lysol a basket of pencils much more easily than going through and taking individual ones from their pencil boxes.
I do "community" supplies for things that don't get used everyday-construction paper, looseleaf, dry erase markers, sticky notes etc. Pencils, markers/crayons, scissors, etc. are all the students own. I think community supplies make a lot of sense in the younger grades.
I don't know any teacher in my school who collects ALL supplies for community use. My kids keep most of the supplies they've purchased in their desks for personal use (and many of them are happy to share that perfect purple colored pencil or marker with a friend). However, the supplies that get 'used up', I collect. We ask for 3-4 gluesticks, 4-6 post it pads, 20 pencils...kids generally can't manage all of that inside their desks...even in well managed classrooms, they'd open all 4 gluesticks over the first few times they need one resulting in drying out, unusable glue...post its become accordions, origami, secret notes and sketch pads.. so it's prudent to collect such items and tuck them away, replacing as needed for kids who need replacements. So technically, this isn't 'community supplies' but more of an organization, management thing. That said, kids with personalized glitter pencils or heart shaped post its by all means keep them for their own use.
I understand where the author is coming from which is why the only things in our "community" bucket are yellow #2 pencils and extra bottles of glue (sometimes students will come in with a pack of 5 glue sticks, or 3 bottles of Elmer's glue, so I leave them with one and take the additional ones and place in my cabinet). I also collect things on the supply list that are meant for the teacher like dry erase markers, chalk, construction paper, post-its, and folders. (we ask the children to purchase 3. I let them keep one. The others go into the cabinet so that when they inevitable tear during the year, I have an instant replacement) "Special" pencils, scissors, glue, crayons, folders, pencil bags, sharpeners, etc, all stay with the student in their desk. I'm not sure how to teach kids to be responsible with their school supplies. It's something I need to work on this upcoming year. My teammate used to punish kids for abusing their supplies and the "desk fairy" would come around the reward those who took good care of them. I'll probably try those things.
Our supply list for community items is pretty specific, such as a plain yellow folder with pockets. Students keep their crayon box in a cart at the end of the table, but a community stash of crayons, highlighters, and pencils in the middle of the table is more convenient. The students are taught that the stash in the middle of the table are "tools" and not for play. I say they are tools because our math practice sheets often ask for the kids to use a specific color crayon. We highlight in our reading and writing. We do not use this items for play or free time. If they are given a coloring sheet or need to use their scissors and glue they get out of their box.
When I send home a supply list, I ask parents to label certain items, and specify that anything which isn't labeled is going to be a community item. It would be my expectation that parents would make sure the "good stuff" was one of the labeled items.
And for what it's worth, my reasoning behind making items like rulers a community item has absolutely nothing to do with wanting to cover for students who can't afford one. It's because I know how often certain items are used in the classroom, and don't want my students to waste valuable desk space on an item used only sporadically during the school year.
The only community supplies my kiddos use are pencils. I don't understand the concern over community supplies being germy, necessarily, though, since, as another poster commented, they share books and manipulatives all day long anyways. I teach 2nd grade and like for the kids to learn to be responsible for their own materials, plus they take their art boxes to Art with them. Also, I allow the kids to keep their own items they bring in, but I provide any supplies not brought in. As a parent, if I HAD to purchase supplies and knew they were going to be sharing it wouldn't bother me.
Hi, I think it is very good to bought community supplies for younger children to encourage a feeling of equality and sharing. I agree no one wants to share their own supplies with others, but community supplies will be really very helpful for children.
My "supply list" is: A school uniform, comfortable shoes suitable for running and climbing, and a backpack. Also, a water bottle is allowed but not required. This year, every kid came in and sat down at a desk that had a pink pencil box with a box of crayons and two pencils in it. I spent about $30 at Target on everything. I also spend about $15 more on glue sticks and to replenish my fleet of scissors. I keep a giant tub of markers for when we need them. I also keep the scissors for when we need them. I don't give them anything to keep in their desk that we don't use EVERY day. If they want to keep their own scissors and markers, fine. My principal provides a steady supply of pencils and paper according to California law. The only "community" supplies I'd ever consider would be things like tissues, wipes, hand sanitizer, or paper cups. At the end of the year, I'll probably have to replace about half a dozen pencil boxes and scissors. All leftover crayons will go into a giant tub. Every 5th year or so, I don't buy crayons for the kids and just let any kid who doesn't have them use crayons from the tub.
I am not a fan of community supplies (other than hand sanitizer & Kleenex). I gave each student a "tool box" (which was really just a pencil box) and inside their tool box was: 1. box of crayons 2. two pencils 3. large pink eraser 4. dry erase marker & eraser 5. scissors 6. glue stick I kept their colored pencils and markers in my supply closet with their name on each package. I felt that the kids were much more likely to take good care of supplies if they actually belonged to them (versus sharing with the rest of the class). Again, this was just a personal preference and it worked well for my students and me. Disclaimer: The school supplied the aforementioned materials. We are a Title I district and receive a lot of funds to purchase these things. The only thing we ask our students to bring is a backpack.
