A new school year signifies a host of beginnings: friendships, classes, clothing, and school supplies, to name a few. There’s something refreshing about tackling a new school year with fresh gear, whether it’s a scientific calculator, a pack of your favorite markers, or a new coordinating set of folders and binders to organize paperwork.
But over the years, school supply lists set by faculty members and distributed to families has shifted from individual basics to asking for communal items like tissue, hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies, and more. New pieces of technology with heftier price tags may even be on the list. The Washington Post cites a study from Huntington Bank that found the average family expenditures for the 2015-2016 school year: $642 for elementary schoolers, $918 for middle schoolers, and $1,284 for high schoolers. College students often must calculate textbooks into their total, pushing their costs through the roof.
Knowing that costliness can become a barrier to education and a strain on families and students, how can teachers help cut down on school supply fees for students and for themselves? Keep reading to learn a few creative ways to optimize education without a corresponding boost in the price tag.
Make Flexible Supply Lists
When you’re putting together your suggested or mandatory written roundup of supplies, leave plenty of flexibility and free choice where you can. Think about the difference between asking for “12 blue fine-tipped ballpoint pens” and “12 ballpoint pens.” It seems like a small change, and maybe you originally had blue in mind as the best color for editing, but it gives students and their families more of a chance to shop around based on price or assemble workable supplies from what they already have on hand.
As CBS points out, families often already have many requisite supplies spread throughout their homes, which is one key way to cut down on supply expenditures. As a teacher, you have the power to give your future pupils wiggle room on exactly what they bring. The difference between grabbing a brand-new pack of materials versus being able to re-use X, Y, and Z from last year may simply boil down to the expectations you set with your written list.
Help Kids Limit Waste
Late summer isn’t the only time that students, families, and teachers feel the pinch. Wasteful practices in the classroom can quickly use up valuable supplies, so it pays to stretch every bit of value out of each item. This begins with helping children recognize positive behaviors they can engage in to recycle, re-use, and make the most of materials. Education.com has a few handy suggestions for stretching resources throughout the year, including using both sides of every sheet of paper, re-using supplies until they’re completely depleted, and crafting an intuitive organization system so supplies don’t get lost. An unintended bonus is that you will be imparting the importance of being extra careful with money and natural resources.
Incorporate the Right Technology
Classrooms are rapidly incorporating tech concepts into their lesson plans, which can be great from a growth standpoint. But these modern gadgets often come with high overhead, some of which may be passed on to families or teachers. How can a teacher stay cutting-edge without upping supply costs for class members?
A classroom response system is an excellent way to keep students engaged with the material by asking questions and allow them to see their collective answers display in real time. Contrary to popular belief, your groups don’t need remotes that are easy to break or lose and costly to replace. Survey technology from Poll Everywhere goes well beyond clickers in the classroom by letting students use devices they already have, like a mobile phone or web browser, to easily join in interactive learning experiences. This is a great opportunity to shave school supply totals by incorporating smarter tech into your lesson plans.
A new school year may be a blank page, but it shouldn’t require a blank check for students to equip themselves with the materials they need to learn. Teachers can help ease the burden on students by using the right technology, keeping requirements flexible, and helping students maximize the value of the supplies they’ve already purchased.
