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- The average teacher spends $530 out of pocket to set up their classroom and maintain class supplies throughout the year.
- High school teachers rarely send home lists of classroom wants and needs. That doesn't mean there isn't plenty they need.
- I came up with a list of what almost every classroom needs, based on my experience as a high school teacher. You may be surprised to find out that simple items like pencils and tissues are in short supply.
When I was in elementary school, I remember my parents buying tissues, cough drops, and other supplies for my teachers every year. My mom was your typical class parent, chaperoning field trips and going to PTA meetings. As I got older, teachers stopped asking for help, but it's a little-known fact that high school teachers actually need help stocking their classrooms. I know - I was one. In my six years as a high school teacher, I never had a parent buy a single supply for my classroom.
Teacher salaries aren't glamorous, and when you add in the cost of setting up a classroom and maintaining supplies, their take-home salary shrinks even more. In a recent survey, Scholastic found that the average teacher spends $530 of their own money on their classroom every year.
People are often shocked to find that simple supplies like pencils aren't always provided by the school, and if pencils aren't provided, you can forget about tissues and hand sanitizer. Of course each school is different - some provide any supply you can think of, some provide a select few, and some provide next to none.
Given that almost every teacher spends at least some of their own money, I've come up with a list of school supplies that all classrooms can use. The supplies on this list are extremely inexpensive, but they add up when high school teachers are providing for 100-plus students. Pitching in a box of tissues or a few pencils might not seem like much, but it means a lot and really helps.
For every product on this list, you might want to check with the school to see if it's already provided. On the other hand, just the simple gesture of helping a teacher out makes them feel supported, so if you can spare $2 on a bottle of hand sanitizer, it definitely won't go unused.
Here are some inexpensive products you can buy to help stock a high school classroom:
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