Back to School time means stocking up on school supplies for your kids.
When I was a teacher there were always items I wanted to add to the School Supply list, but never could get up the courage to include.
Ear Plugs. Sure, during the first few days of school, the honeymoon period, the kids are quiet and well behaved, but the weeks leading up to Christmas vacation and Spring Break, ear plugs for teachers are almost a requirement. Earplugs block out overall noise and eliminate hearing repeated questions like, “Can I use the bathroom?” and “Does this need to be done in complete sentences?”
Hand Sanitizer. Bottles, gallons, buckets, whatever quantity you can find. Lets face it, kids are disgusting. Classrooms are filled with nose pickers, scab pickers, scab eaters (yep), cough in handers, post-potty non-hand washers and free range sneezers. After all that nastiness, they pass up their papers to the teacher and he or she gets to touch every one of them.
Band-Aids. Everyday someone needs a Band-Aid. Eventually I had to enact the, “No blood, no Band-Aid,” rule in my classroom.
Tylenol. Helpful for those Friday afternoons when students are a little out of control, or after you have told the same kid to stop talking for the 500th time in a row.
Snacks. For the teacher.
Porta potty. Teaching is one of those crazy jobs where you can’t even decide for yourself when you get to pee. When that three minute passing period time arrives, you battle it out with a dozen other teachers in need of a bathroom. Porta pottys. Problem solved. A Porta-Potty could also double as an effective timeout room for misbehaving kids.
Mini fridge. A mini fridge in the classroom would eliminate mysteriously disappearing Diet Cokes, sandwiches, and leftovers in the staff fridge.
If you’re feeling extra generous this year, as you fill up your shopping cart with folders and colored pencils, buy your kid’s teacher a box of snack crackers, a extra bottle of sanitizer or even that Porta-Potty they’ve secretly been dreaming of.
Enjoy the last few days of summer!
-Pete