Teacher shares ideas on students using their own supplies or sharing as a class

By Jazmine Knight

As parents load their child’s school supplies in their backpack, some may wonder how those supplies will hold up by the end of the year, especially depending on if the supplies are sticking with the student or being shared with the class.

Some families might not have a preference when it comes to classroom items being shared, while others may feel strongly one way.

One Carden Park Elementary teacher prefers students having individual supplies but understands both sides.

“In my classroom, my students use their own supplies, with the exception of pencils,” said Susan Harp, first grade teacher. “My primary focus with school supplies is that students are learning to be responsible for their belongings.”

She wants students to learn to take care of their belongings especially because their parents paid money for the supplies.

“I’m a parent … so you’ve got to take care of those supplies you have,” Harp said.

While she does have extras thanks to community partners that donate school supplies, Harp only uses community supplies when it comes to pencils.

Harp recalls a memory from her first year of teaching where she used a big bucket of pencils where students could grab a pencil whenever they needed. One day she noticed the big bucket was left empty and messy.

“There were like hundreds of pencils in there,” she said.

Afterward, Harp found a strategy called the ”pencil war,” a classroom system where each student starts off the week with a certain number of pencils.

“If they have all of those pencils at the end of the week and their eraser, then they get Titan tickets,” Harp said.

Using the “pencil war” method, students build a habit of knowing where their belongings are and how to be responsible.

For her classroom, individual supplies work better because Harp believes it honors the money parents spend on supplies.

“If we honor the parents, that’s one more way that we build relationships with students,” said Harp. “So they take a little bit more ownership over their own things when they know that mom is paid for that or dad is paid for that.”

Harp does see reasons why teachers may use a community supply system.

“It’s not because we’re trying to waste anybody’s money. It’s there. You know, there’s a procedure, there’s a routine that they’ve had for probably years that’s worked really well for them.”

She said it’s all about efficiency in the classroom so students don’t lose quality instructional time looking for a glue stick.

Parents who have certain preferences when it comes to their child’s supplies should reach out to their child’s teacher.