I assure you: if I, a teacher, am tired of other teachers fleecing their friends and community members, so are others. I am not estranged from the idea of having a wish list on Amazon: as a classroom teacher, I developed a unique list that I placed in the margin of this website. Anyone willing to contribute to the cause was able to point their browser in that direction to find ideas that would support our classroom, and I made it a point to have items from a variety of price points on that list for people of varying incomes to purchase if they were so inclined.
However, I don't think I advertised that wish list other than to put it there and make it available, or to refer to it when someone asked what they might do to help out. These constant social media requests for friends and relatives to fund a wish list or to adopt a classroom and match the funds of a corporate sponsor on a site like Donor's Choose can get to be too much. And in some cases, they may even get to be astronomically high-priced projects that just aren't necessary for doing the job.
I never found myself lacking the funds to purchase just about everything I thought could enhance my classroom. Between the district's own allotment and the PTO/PTA's generous support, I seemed to have what I needed, and then some. Oh, there's always something shinier that appeals to me out on the horizon, but it might just be something that I could put off until next year. No reason to spend my own cash or beg my relatives for money. I learned that with a little creativity, I might be able to replicate what I needed out of the school's butcher paper supply. Maybe that's a result of growing up in Central Oklahoma, where I always heard about things being held together by bailing wire and duct tape (and if it needed to be loosened up, WD40 was the way to go).
The constant requests for donations, however, make us look desperate, and I can only imagine that our friends get tired of buying markers and glue when they could actually donate to a cause that supports rehabilitation for homeless people or foster care for orphans. There are many causes to donate to in this life without buying wobbly chairs for kids who wobble too much already. And besides, there is just something about professionals asking for handouts that seems unseemly.
However, I don't think I advertised that wish list other than to put it there and make it available, or to refer to it when someone asked what they might do to help out. These constant social media requests for friends and relatives to fund a wish list or to adopt a classroom and match the funds of a corporate sponsor on a site like Donor's Choose can get to be too much. And in some cases, they may even get to be astronomically high-priced projects that just aren't necessary for doing the job.
I never found myself lacking the funds to purchase just about everything I thought could enhance my classroom. Between the district's own allotment and the PTO/PTA's generous support, I seemed to have what I needed, and then some. Oh, there's always something shinier that appeals to me out on the horizon, but it might just be something that I could put off until next year. No reason to spend my own cash or beg my relatives for money. I learned that with a little creativity, I might be able to replicate what I needed out of the school's butcher paper supply. Maybe that's a result of growing up in Central Oklahoma, where I always heard about things being held together by bailing wire and duct tape (and if it needed to be loosened up, WD40 was the way to go).
The constant requests for donations, however, make us look desperate, and I can only imagine that our friends get tired of buying markers and glue when they could actually donate to a cause that supports rehabilitation for homeless people or foster care for orphans. There are many causes to donate to in this life without buying wobbly chairs for kids who wobble too much already. And besides, there is just something about professionals asking for handouts that seems unseemly.
