I thought car & gun hobbies were expensive... Wife just got a teaching job!

[many944s]

Ok, so I thought my hobbies were expensive! As far as hobbies go, I suppose they are, but my wife just got her first teaching job teaching first grade at a brand new school. Since they just built the school, she isn't taking over an old classroom, so we got to buy EVERYTHING needed for putting together a classroom... I had no idea! Thankfully my mom taught for years before becoming a media specialist, and one of my wife’s friends just retired last year from teaching kindergarten, so that helped. Of course to make things worse, classes start tomorrow (Tuesday), tonight is the open house, and she was hired on Saturday! Needless to say Sunday and today were extremely busy days. I don't want to see bulletin board boarders, contact paper, or Scotch foam adhesive squares for a LONG time

It's kind of frightening to walk the halls and see the rooms of some of the teachers that transferred from other schools in the corporation. There are more decorations and books than you can shake a stick at! Knowing what it cost to just get my wife’s room to the point it is, I can't imagine what kind of investment some of these other teachers have in their classroom supplies!

We were keeping our fingers crossed that there may have been a new-teacher stipend to help off-set the cost, but just this afternoon a representative came around asking if she was interested in the $1000 LOAN program that would later be deducted from her paychecks...CLOSE!

Oh well, I'm not complaining at all! It's a second income, and she loves teaching, so I am behind her %110! It's no wonder it's tough for schools to get good teachers though! I think when all is said and done; it's almost a break-even job! At least until you have been there long enough to get a couple of raises and have a stockpile of room supplies. I truly salute quality educators! Not that I had many when I went through school, but they are out there!

Sorry for the rant,
-Nick

[id10t]

The good news is that when you file taxes, as a teacher, you can deduct a lot of this. Heck, as an adjunct CC instructor I got to deduct my laptop I bought last year...

[lendaddy]

Is this sort of like a mechanic buying their own tools?

[Scott R]

This drives me nuts, wife is a 1st grade teacher and we buy a new classroom each year. Then later in the year it switches to office supplies as the budget dries up.

[Rikao4]

don't some of you pay taxes for this stuff...

Rika

[legion]

Originally Posted by Rikao4

don't some of you pay taxes for this stuff...

Rika

Yes, but most state governments suck up the "education" tax money and restribute it back to the districts. Of course, they keep a sizable cut for all the layers of bureaucracy and regulation they introduce.

Oh, and congrats to your wife Nick!

[rouxroux]

Does she need a "care package" of stuff? I've got boxes and boxes from 20 years of teaching.

[dd74]

Nick - congratulations to your wife.

Is it just a given that teachers stock their own classrooms out of pocket?

What happens when a teacher can't afford to buy the items needed for a classroom?

I imagine teachers for middle and high school don't have to spend so much on decorations, but what about, for example, an English teacher? Does he/she have to buy all the books for the class?

[Les Paul]

My daughter teaches grade school art in OKC. She had just gotten back from vacation on a Friday night and was called at home by her principal. To make a long story short the janitor had left her classroom door open and it had been broken into and more or less destroyed. By kids. 30k+ in damages. Come to find out by students at the school she teaches at. And they are allowing them back in school and she has to teach them. Who didn't like art as a kid? It boggles my mind. She left an area on the ceiling about 5x8 that had the letter V in multicolors that she says she is going to point out how certain thugs destroyed her room and this is the only remaining evidence and V for vandals. She says it will be several more months before she is even partially reimbursed for all her losses. It is a school with 90% minorites. And of course the arts are the first areas they cut so from year to year she worries about the viabilty of her job.

[azasadny]

Nick,
I know what you're speaking of, my wife is a 5th grade teacher and she spends her own $ to outfit her classroom and help some of the kids who don't get supplies from home. I never say anything about it because she lets me buy car stuff, drums, guns, etc...

[stomachmonkey]

You would think that our taxes cover the "basics" for kids in the system.

It doesn't in a lot of places.

When my wife was teaching I know we spent a couple of grand a year on simple stuff.

And Len, no it's' not like a mechanic buying his own tools.

It's like the mechanic buying tools for his customers.

[LeeH]

My wife's best friend is a teacher and goes through this. It's just not right. I put a box of my daughter's books on Craigslist a few weeks ago and immediately had a call from a teacher who wanted to BUY my used books for her classroom. I just gave them to her.

[tabs]

FK the Kiddies....Let the parents cough up some dough ray me...its their little rug rats futures that they are investing in....

[tabs]

When CA is $15,000,000,000.00 in the hole and a Teacher has to outfit their own classroom something is wrong with this picture. (BTW I realize U ain't in CA, but it is the same everywhere). Then they fking wonder WHY the school system doesn't work.

[many944s]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

And Len, no it's' not like a mechanic buying his own tools.

It's like the mechanic buying tools for his customers.

LOL!!!
That's the d@mn truth!

Thanks for the support guys! The $$ aspect was something I wasn't even going to bring up with the wife. Sure it sucks, but it is an unfortunate part of the job. I have always complained in the past about paying the "school" portion of property taxes since I didn't have a child in the system yet... Now I'm really honked to find that all those taxes are lumped into the "operation fund".

I'm sure it will get a little better with time. It's just the "oh yea, btw, it's going to cost a couple grand to get everything set up" that's really a punch to the sack.

I already posted a request on craigslist for some cheap first grade reading level books, so we'll see where that goes. Right now, it's just one of those "grin and bear it" situations

[lendaddy]

I didn't know you guys were buying books and whatever for these kids to keep, that shouldn't happen. But in class supplies seems reasonable to me. Why do you give these things to the kids though? I never got anything to keep in school.

[tabs]

Hey I could donate some Hustlers and Penthouses....

[bell]

Originally Posted by tabs

Hey I could donate some Hustlers and Penthouses....

what would mother say? maybe she'll think your dating a stripper and you don't need them anymore

[many944s]

Alot of it isn't for kids to keep, but are necessary for the class overall. All of the books do stay with the teacher, but since the children only go to the library everyother week, there is a great demand for books in the classrooms, especially since the students are now required to read at least 15 minutes a night.

However, the school requires that all students have name tags on their desks with the alphabet, number line, colors, etc... The teacher get's to buy those. All of the welcome packets for the parents are printed on paper that the teacher has to buy, all the classroom decorations including the number line, sight words, pocket charts, cut out letters, fabric backing, borders, birthday signs, calender activity, theme decorations, pencil boxes, markers, colored pencils, folders, (the list goes on ans on)... the teacher buys. Not to mention all of the chalk, dry erase materials, grade book, the teachers don't get a computer to take home, so we have already toasted 2 sets of ink cart's in the HP officepro I use for shop stuff, plus all of the paper it's been printed on.

School it nothing like it used to be!
Gone is the day of 2-#2 pencils, a ruler, a jar of paste, a pencil box, ruled paper, yadda, yadda!
All the students are required to supply is themselves, and half of them don't even speak English. For many of these children, the families can't afford to supply the needed materials, and with "no child left behind" that just makes things even more interesting!

[Jims5543]

When my kids went to public school the teachers always put out a wish list at open house, every year I got the teacher enough printer cartridges and paper to last for 3 years.

I think it sucks that the district refuses to pay for these things, I would love to know where all the tax money goes. Oops that right the administrators all make well into the 100K a year range while the teachers are all in the 30-40K range.

Now that they are both in private school there is no more begging for supplies. The school budgets wisely and besides the teacher being paid well there is enough for supplies as well. All the field trips are included in tuition as well.

Good luck to your wife she is about to see how broken government run agencies are.

Unless she is working in a private school, then I have to wonder why she is needing to spend so much. You state transfers in the corporation and I wonder what that means?