Abstract:

Laura Reasoner Jones discusses an aspect of her teaching life--the cabinets full of project supplies that collect from year to year in her home.

Jones, L.R. (2004). Just say no to Elmer's. Teacher Leaders Network diaries. Retrieved from the Teacher Leaders Network 11 Apr 2008. Link: http://www.teacherleaders.org/old_site/diaries04_05/LJ06_04_05.html

Full Text:

Just Say No to Elmer's

Last spring my brother and sister-in-law came to visit from Florida. They have no kids and live the great life of beach bums on the weekends. Karen viewed my house with its collection of "teacher stuff" with either great interest or concern, I'm not sure which. At any rate, she left to go home with a greater appreciation of her streamlined life choices.

I don't care. I like my stuff. I collect it with the excuse of "you never know," although I have begun to reconsider using that little phrase. Having lots of art supplies, toys and games around comes in handy. My two girls always had the materials at hand for any project they might need for school, although as I look back now, they never seemed to plan ahead for projects. I think that they just assumed that I would have whatever they needed in those magic cabinets in the basement. And they were right.

Take Julie's science project on lighthouses. We were able to construct a working Fresnel lens model out of stuff in the basement cabinet, complete with a small turntable and a flashing mechanism. Her fifth grade science teacher was quite impressed. Julie will probably be impressed only when she has children of her own.

Things got kind of out of hand for a while, especially when the girls were in elementary school. I found that not only were they counting on having the materials at hand that they needed, but we were becoming the house of choice for completing the group projects, using my poster board, egg cartons, shoe boxes, construction paper, Styrofoam peanuts and pipe cleaners to do the job. One little girl said, "My mom doesn't have this stuff. It's too messy." Hmmmm.

I love this stuff. I am pretty frugal. I keep supplies from one year to the next, saving half-finished glue sticks, slightly bent markers, and little Fiskars™ scissors. You never know when a family will need a pair of scissors; I can give this stuff away with no guilt. And my husband is always glad to see the child-size scissors go out the door. When we first got married, he put up with them as our only means of cutting for about six months and then made a point of going out and buying a pair of large adult scissors that he keeps in a safe place. Me, I prefer the little ones.

Staff Development has a fancy word for this 'stuff' issue. They call it "provisioning" and it means being prepared with all the supplies for any contingency. It is a good thing on the performance evaluation. I prefer to think of it as "You never know." This August when we cleaned out Julie's closet before she left for college, we found seven shoe boxes that are just perfect as storage containers for my preschoolers' hundreds of articulation words. We have had a wonderful time decorating them this week.

My stuff habit may be reaching the 12-step stage, however. I save bubble wrap for my kids with low muscle tone in their arms to pop. I reuse old file folders for artic cards and visual strategy boards. I look longingly at Styrofoam peanuts when they arrive in boxes. And I never throw out the little Jell-O™ containers that the South Beach Diet has had me eating. After all, you never know when they might come in handy.

But when Karen returned to Florida and her life of relative simplicity, she left me a little reminder that is making me rethink my habits. On the bookshelf in the office where I store all my office supplies, I found a large note on my basket of 50 half-used glue sticks and bottles. It said, "Just say NO to Elmer's." So I am. Nancy Reagan would be proud.

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