What New Teachers Should Know About Buying and Finding Teaching Supplies

Each school year, teachers pay hundreds of dollars of their own money on teacher supplies. While each school and school district does offer a fair amount of petty cash for teachers, they are often on their own for the cost of potentially expensive teacher supplies.

Some teacher supplies are obvious, such as a lesson book, grading pens and chalk for the chalkboard. But there are other items that students and parents might not be aware of when it comes to teacher supplies. These items include things such as markers and craft items, paper for quizzes and tests when teachers run over their semester allotment, and, of course, classroom materials.

In general, it is expected that teachers bring in items to the classroom to help illustrate a particular story or lesson plan. For example, a French teach might bring in French bread to help the students learn about French cuisine. And English teacher may want students to read through examples of old English. While all teachers do have a set spending limit that the school is willing to cover, many teachers will dip into their own pockets to help cover the cost of these teacher supplies. After all, most teachers care more about assuring that their students understand a lesson than they do about a few dollars. However, those few dollars can certainly add up.

Here are a few tips that can help teachers reduce the amount of money they spend on teacher supplies:

Share: Many teachers purchase the same items for their classrooms, such as markers and paper. It's possible that you can share these items with other teachers in your section so that everyone keeps costs low.

Change the plan: Teachers don't get paid enough to continually buy their own teacher supplies - that's for sure. Therefore, if you are tight on cash, change the lesson plan a bit so that you don't have to purchase anything. Also, see if students can recycle materials that they may have used in another class, such as materials from an art class. If teachers combine resources to maximize supplies, they may be able to each save a little bit of money out of their own pockets.

Teacher supplies can be expensive and tedious to continue to purchase year after year. If you are a teacher and find that your budget for teacher supplies is severely restricted, talk to your supervisor about alternative options or about raising the spending level. After all, your students' education could be at stake.