Spend a little for tissues. A little more for gold stars. Maybe get some lemons, bubble gum and elbow macaroni, too. Oh, and what about that cute little storybook?
Sooner or later, it all adds up to anywhere from $100 to more than $1,500 annually, say Anne Arundel County teachers.
"Keeping the kids in Kleenex alone can get expensive. Flu season can wipe you out," said Lydia Smithers, an English teacher at Annapolis High.
"We get four boxes of Kleenex distributed by our department each year. That doesn't last until October."
Tissues, though, are just the beginning.
"Any time you walk into a classroom, all the stuff you see hanging on the walls is supplied by the teacher -- everything except the alphabet strips across the front," said Donna Resnick, a special education teacher at Pasadena Elementary.
She even buys small alphabet strips, laminates them and puts one on each student's desk.
That teachers are spending their own money for classroom supplies is nothing new, but, because the school system has barely increased the budget for materials of instruction, known as M.O.I., teachers are dipping into their wallets more than ever.
In fiscal 1991-1992 the school system's M.O.I. budget was $5.4 million. Three years later, in fiscal 1994-1995, the school system has added only about $250,000 to the M.O.I. budget -- not nearly enough to keep up with inflation and the rising cost of textbooks and other teaching materials.
Jim Goodwyn, lead budget analyst for the school system, said, "We are spending as much as we ever have on M.O.I., but the other problem is that our buying power has been diminished" by inflation.
Superintendent Carol S. Parham has vowed to spend more on instructional materials in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Ken Nichols, an administrator, said the school system does not expect teachers to buy textbooks. "Certainly it's not a practice or a policy," he said. "If a teacher goes above and beyond and purchases something else to help them teach, we don't expect this, but I know I did this when I was a teacher, and my wife does this. If teachers are [buying books], they shouldn't be doing that because we have funds to make that happen."
He said he does not know of a case where a teacher has requested a book and been denied. If a teacher does get turned down, he said, the teacher should go as high as necessary in the system until the request is satisfied.
"I don't know how you get across the point, but sometimes you just have to ask," he said.
Mrs. Resnick, the special education teacher at Pasadena Elementary, said sometimes teachers just have to go out and buy what they need. One year she spent $40 on spelling books.
"I probably spend about $1,500 a year total," she said. "For example, I buy film. I take pictures of the kids a lot, because we have a Student of the Week board, and it's great to get double prints to send home to the parents."
Mrs. Resnick also buys oversize story books, subscriptions to Ranger Rick and Crayola Kids magazines, stickers and apples. She operates a "classroom store," where students can buy anything from pencils to a lunch with her.
"I've also paid for field trips for students who couldn't afford them," she said. "My husband's theory is that if you don't do it, eventually they'll have to find the money, but it's easy to say, 'Don't pay,' when you're not sitting there looking at a child's face."
Ruth Heisey, a special education teacher at Northeast High School, said that waiting for the school system to approve a purchase is out of the question.
"I'm more concerned that their immediate need is met," Mrs. Heisey said. "My kids need their education now, and I can afford to spend a few dollars here and there to give that to them." While she was a long-term substitute teacher, she bought items for her classrooms, or sought donations from businesses. She was hired full-time this fall.
"We don't mind [spending our own money]," said Jeannette Callis Harshaw, a first-grade science teacher at Richard Henry Lee Elementary School. "Spending the money is our choice. I certainly don't have to do this, but my teaching wouldn't be nearly as effective. I can teach about things tasting sour, but they're not going to get the idea as well without tasting a lemon."
Lemons aren't the only items on her shopping list. She's been known to buy workbooks on addition, the alphabet and writing numbers. She even bought bubble gum for a bubble gum party to reward students who had done their homework for two weeks.
"I probably spend $50 a year on stickers because they're such a great motivator to get [students] to do their work," Mrs. Harshaw said. She said she also spends between $250 and $500 a year on workbooks on addition, the alphabet and writing numbers. That doesn't include items for bulletin boards, or the $300 book collection she built with help from the Parent Teacher Organization.
"Compared to what I've heard from other teachers, our school is very well stocked," Mrs. Harshaw said. "But I want people to know what we do. We work very hard, and we get a lot of criticism."
Elementary school and special education teachers agreed they probably spend more on classroom supplies and supplementary teaching items than the average high school teacher. Teachers new to the profession also spend more, gradually stockpiling materials that can be used year after year.
Veteran teachers, such as Elaine Lopes who teaches second grade at Davidsonville Elementary, say they've learned to improvise, and to persuade parents to donate items such as tissue.
"That way I can buy the books," Mrs. Lopes said. "When I was a young teacher, I spent more, but you find ways to get more for your money. I probably spend $200 to $300 a year." Sometimes, she said, she buys things "just to make the students happy."
"They're just little children," she said. "I think TV has taken away some of their childhood. I try to do little things to make it the way you remember it was as a kid. I buy them all something for Christmas, and things that they can use to make Christmas presents for their parents."