School teachers in the California Central Valley are underappreciated. The lack of appreciation for these teachers has been manifesting over years now.
Elementary school teachers spend a lot more on the classroom than high school teachers. Kids in the first grade for example are more hands-on learning than high school students, having a first grade teacher make the decision to purchase more supplies and other items for the classroom, such as toys, treats, rewards, etc.
“I buy pencils, crayons, glue sticks, erasers, pencil bags, ziplock bags, markers, copy paper, books, puzzles, toys, educational games, rewards, treats, and snacks for kids that don’t have them,” says a first grade teacher.
While given supplies directly from the school, sometimes it takes a long time for teachers to receive those supplies. It can go from a few days to quite possibly weeks to get them. The teachers in both high school and elementary school get a budget to spend on supplies, but they have different amounts. High school teachers get a budget of two hundred dollars; elementary school teachers get a budget of one hundred dollars. Despite getting a budget from the school district to spend on supplies, elementary teachers clearly spend their own money on more supplies that the budget cannot afford for them.
After interviewing both high school and elementary school educators, the consensus is that elementary school teachers purchase a more supplies and miscellaneous items for their students; while high school teachers purchase what they need for the classroom and assignments and maybe some rewards.
While high school teachers only need to purchase what normal school supplies for the classroom like paper, pencils, highlighters, with the exception of other rewards, such as snacks for example, certain grades in elementary school need to purchase more “supplies” to ensure the students can still have fun while learning since they are obviously younger than high school students. Items like comforting toys for when they throw tantrums, candies and other treats they can receive when they do their work and not just mess around, educational puzzles that help the child’s motor skills, are a few examples of what teachers feel are items needed in the classroom.
Often teachers are spending their own money to replace items damaged or broken by students. It is a hassle for teachers to purchase these supplies and items for the classroom and have to over-purchase supplies just because certain students don’t know how to respect the teachers’ property. More money spent, more items purchased, more items destroyed leaves a majority of teachers spending their own money on school supplies.
The number of students also determines the amount of supplies needed for the classroom. It mainly varies on the amount of students in the classroom. For high school, there are 1-6 classes for each teacher, each class can vary in size. For elementary school, teachers only have one class of students, varying up to at least 31 students for one class.
Over time, the money spent in the classroom becomes a very large number for teachers. Teachers are willing to spend money on their students, but do we really need this to happen? Increasing teacher spending budgets, providing more school supplies, and replenishing that supply during the year are ways to help offset the out of pocket spending teachers are faced to do year after year.
