We know that most teachers absolutely love school supplies. We also know that many of them don’t have it in their personal budgets to spend oodles of money on buying all the things they need for those super-crafty classroom projects.
GOS is here to help. If you’re a school administrator, principal, or buyer for your district, you don’t need to spend a fortune to give the teachers in your school a helping hand. If you’re a teacher yourself, you should let your school know about the supplies you need to start the year.
Most of the things on this list are pretty inexpensive. We know that the majority of schools and school districts can’t afford to buy every student an iPad. The bulk of the stuff on this list is well under $20.
Additionally:
Here’s our list of the 16 must haves for the classroom (along with a couple of fun surprises!)
We’ve purposely left off some of the more obvious ones: we’re assuming you know that kids need pencils and notebooks because you don’t expect them to do their homework in chalk. This list points out some of the teaching supplies you may not necessarily consider essential.
1. Staplers
When you need a stapler meant to endure kids pressing it for days (or even years) on end, look no further than our EasyPress Full Strip Stapler. When you’re stapling away, you don’t want a stapler that you need to mash and bash. A durable, easy-to-push stapler is a
2. A Good Old-Fashioned Clipboard
The great thing about clipboards is that they’re a cheap way to help your teachers do just about everything—from making classroom seating charts for the new year to filling out grade reports. You can even hang them by the door of your classroom for little Johnny or Suzy to fill out when they’re ready to take the class pet home for the weekend.
3. Teacher Stamp Set
This makes a great gift to hand out to teachers on the first day of school. Long gone are the days of drawing smiley faces on student papers. With this stamp set, your teachers can give their students an enthusiastic “thumbs up” instead. When we were in school, we would have received far too many “Needs Work” stamps.
4. Better Than Paper Bulletin Board Roll
Ask any teacher how much they enjoy tearing off sheets of paper to hang on the walls. Not one enjoys this exercise! With the Better Than Paper Bulletin Board Roll, you can give your teachers a paper bulletin board that they can easily wipe off and reuse.
5. Manual Pencil Sharpeners
We’re of the personal opinion that manual pencil sharpeners beat electric pencil sharpeners hands down when it comes to the classroom. You don’t need batteries, and you’ll build your students’ little wrist muscles at the same time. The sharpeners shown below also sharpen crayons as well.
6. Dry Erase Markers
You need to stock up on dry erase markers for the classroom. Why? In the history of humankind, we have never known a dry erase marker that didn’t dry up minutes after you begin using it. We’re not putting down our own products: GOS has the best dry erase markers on the market. We’re just stating a known fact. Your teacher supply list should include plenty of packs of dry erase markers for their supply closets.
7. Classroom Activity Timers
These days you can use your phone to time students’ activities throughout the day. But using your phone in this way is also a great way to drain your battery. Our classroom activity timers countdown the minutes until it’s time for students to put down their pencils on tests and other assignments.
8. Bin Storage Organizers
Have you ever looked closely at your teachers’ desks? Colored markers everywhere. Pencil nubs scattered. Binder clips floating in their coffee. Your teachers need to be organized, and equipping them with these handy bins for their desks is a great way to help.
9. School Year Planners
Unless you think your teachers just show up everyday with lesson plans stored in their frontal cortex, you know the importance of a good school planner. The planner shown below folds out into a two-page spread for ease of use, and features an inspirational quote about teaching on every page—a great first day of the school year gift for your teachers.
10. Sticky Stars
Do you remember when you were a kid, and you received a star affixed to the top of your geometry test. It made your day, right? Well, as much as things have changed, thankfully some things will forever remain the same: add a packet of sticky foil stars to your teachers’ back to school welcome basket. Every student needs to experience the joy of a gold star on their paper.
11. Clear Plastic Storage Bags
Not the most exciting thing you can buy your teachers for their classrooms, but an absolute necessity. Teachers use both plastic sandwich bags and gallon-sized plastic storage bags for a variety of purposes: keeping game pieces in one place, storing colored pencils and markers,, and much more.
12. Disinfectant Wipes
This one should be obvious, right? In any elementary school classroom in America, a child spills something on the ground or their desk every 3.9 seconds on average. Add boxes of disinfectant wipes to your teacher supply list for the classroom closet.
13. Binder Clips
Sometimes it’s the simple things we miss when filling out teacher supply lists. Two words: binder clips. Why not paper clips you might ask? Well, have you ever tried to hold 150 student papers together with a paperclip? Ask any teacher, and they are sure to let you know the benefits of binder clips compared to your traditional paper clip.
14. The Academic Wall Calendar
All your classrooms should come equipped with an academic wall calendar. Teachers can mark their students’ birthdays, holidays, and other special events. As far as must-have teacher supplies go, wall calendars for the classroom make sure that your teachers and students have a successful and fun year.
15. Post-It Notes
Post-It Notes are a given for the classroom, but we want to challenge some of the conventional wisdom here. What’s the absolute worst thing about Post-It Notes? They peel and come off the wall, right? GOS sells Super-Sticky, ruled Post-It Notes to solve the Post-It Note problem that has plagued us since the beginning of human history.
16. Bluetooth Speakers: (Not A Must Have)
Okay, this one is a total splurge, but how happy would you make your teachers and students if you outfitted each classroom with Bluetooth speakers at the beginning of the year? We’ll just go ahead and characterize this as a NOT must have, but you’d be everyone’s favorite principal if you gave your high school students music throughout the day.
GOS Supports Our Teachers
We know it’s tough to be a teacher these days, and the one thing we can do to make the job better is ensure that you, your teachers, and your students have the right supplies to excel.
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