The Las Vegas City Council was on to something awhile back when they allowed residents to pay parking tickets by donating school supplies.
Yowza. That’s a great start to support our teachers.
Tens of thousands of teachers across the globe are worried and overwhelmed. Prior to COVID-19, school supplies were a big concern. Research shows that up to 94% of public school teachers spend their own money on notebooks, pens and other supplies, without reimbursement. The average amount spent per teacher ranges from $250 to $479.
Teachers across the country continue to be overwhelmed with online and hybrid learning. They are also leaving school districts at an alarming rate by retiring or even finding new career paths because of the stress of the pandemic.
What can you do to help? You can check out and support the Teacher Exchange.
The Teacher Exchange is a nonprofit associated with the Public Education Foundation. It’s a think tank that creates initiatives and programs to improve public education.
This program is a vital hub for teachers that supplies free and low-cost supplies for public classrooms.
So far, the Teacher Exchange has
- served thousands of teachers
- distributed 3 million classroom supplies to teachers
- and has donated thousands of backpacks to students in need.
There are many ways you can support the Teacher Exchange.
You can sponsor a teacher or sponsor a school. You can also donate supplies.
The items most needed, include:
- Dry erase markers
- Index cards
- Paper
- Pencils
- Composition notebooks
- Purell hand sanitizer
- “Treasure box” items for student incentive
Sponsors of the program include Caesers Entertainment and Caesers Foundation, Office Depot, Target, Pepsi, Joann Fabric and Craft Stores and Cisco.
The non-profit is working to provide resources to students, parents and educators. Such as technology funds to make sure all students have access to the internet as well as provide quality digital instruction. Also they deliver supplies, books and hygiene materials to those students in need.
Parents are also receiving coaching in both English and Spanish to support them in helping their children with tech tools, such as Zoom, WhatsApp and Facebook and other online resources for parents, teachers and administrators.
For more information about this program and participating in others like it, head to https://thepef.org/teacher-exchange/.
Now with no end in sight with quarantine, teachers have a lot more to be anxious about. What will happen if the quarantine lasts until 2021? How can our system accommodate online learning? What about special education students? What about those children with no or limited access to the internet.
And once those basic concerns are addressed, how do we keep our children engaged on digital platforms when they are biologically not hard-wired that way?
All of these questions are worth noting. And school supplies are still needed.
The Las Vegas City Council voted unanimously to accept new school supplies equaling or greater than the value of the parking fine.
Supplies include crayons, pencils, erasers, pens, dry erase markers, index cards, paper, rulers, paper towels, disinfecting wipes, scissors and post-it notes.
To qualify, the donations must be made within 30 days of the infraction, which must be a non-public safety violation.
The supplies will be donated to Teacher Exchange, a nonprofit associated with the Public Education Foundation. It’s a think tank that creates initiatives and programs to improve public education.
This program is a vital hub for teachers that supplies free and low cost supplies for public classrooms.
So far, the Teacher Exchange has
-served thousands of teachers
-distributed 3 million classroom supplies to teachers
-and has donated thousands of backpacks to students in need.
There are many ways you can support the Teacher Exchange besides paying for parking ticket.
You can sponsor a teacher or sponsor a school.
The items most needed, include:
-
- Dry erase markers
- Index cards
- Paper
- Pencils
- Composition notebooks
- Purell hand sanitizer
- “Treasure box” items for student incentive
Sponsors of the program include Caesers Entertainment and Caesers Foundation, Office Depot, Target, Pepsi, Joann Fabric and Craft Stores and Cisco.
The Teachers Exchange is temporarily closed during quarantine, but teachers may still order classroom supplies online and the supplies will be delivered when schools reopen to the public. Those timelines are not available yet.
Meantime, the non-profit is working to provide resources to students, parents and educators. Such as technology funds to make sure all students have access to the internet as well as provide quality digital instruction. Also the delivery of supplies, books and hygiene materials to those students in need.
Parents are also receiving coaching in both English and Spanish to support them in helping their children with tech tools, such as Zoom, WhatsApp, Facebook and other online resources for parents, teachers and administrators.
For more information about this program and participating in others like it, head to https://thepef.org/teacher-exchange/.
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