A few days ago, (another math teacher) asked if anyone had a spare overhead bulb lying around—our department budget is kaput, there is no food in the cupboard.
Today I come to you, hat in hand, asking if anyone has a black #15 HP ink cartridge that I can have. If trades need to be conducted, I saw some Kleenex, some notecards, and some whiteboard erasers in our department storage locker.
Teachers are by nature hoarders, but I still had a few reply that they had such cartridges and one sent one over to me immediately. And while that's great, isn't it sad that I had to send such an email in the first place?
6 comments:
It's funny how you mention teachers as hoarders. Our previous dept. head would never let us know our department budget. We bought our own paper, sometimes supplies and often such basics as pencils and kleenex. Lo and behold, when I got to take over, I found out that we had a very nice budget. I also found out that the previous teacher spent money on a couple of very nice cameras, which she took when she chaperones a group to Europe. Every day we find another hidden treasure. And what's galling is that much of it is stuff that we, the other teachers, paid for out of pocket. I do understand the shortfall. I wonder how the districts will be able to justify the significant outlay for technology baubles when there aren't any books, no paper, and half the time you can't get on the network due to technology issues.
We have to get computer printer cartridges from our on campus tech person. I usually don't have any problems with/from her, but others do.
I usually stockpile paper and have been slowly gleening reusable paper from my filing cabinets ( I run stuff on the clean side of the paper for use in class....things like small quizzes, a copy of the lesson plan for absent students, copies of notes for my students to copy ( they are seventh graders and some have issues with seeing stuff on the whiteboards....).
From what I hear, its gonna get worse, much worse.
Can you beg for classroom supplies from your parents?
Yes, our PTSA is very good about that kind of thing.
"Sad" isn't exactly the word I'd use.
Printer ink, possibly the most expensive fluid on the planet.
No, I think "sad" is a pretty good, one word, description of the situation. "Inevitable" also figures somewhere in there but if I were limited to a single word "sad" would be that word.
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