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Here, the teachers are required to have classroom libraries and they do not get any funding from the district or school to stock them.
That seems very, well strange, to me. Even here in Colorado where school expenditures are much less than in PA (in general now), teachers are not expected to spend their own money on something like that. How are these libraries supposed to be funded? If that were the case, I would be happy to donate a book or two. Education Spending Per Student by State
That seems very, well strange, to me. Even here in Colorado where school expenditures are much less than in PA (in general now), teachers are not expected to spend their own money on something like that. How are these libraries supposed to be funded? If that were the case, I would be happy to donate a book or two. Education Spending Per Student by State
In my experience, a common way to obtain books for classroom libraries is to put out donation bins at Scholastic book fairs. Also, classroom parents take up collections for book purchases and school PTOs make grants for the same purpose. Yep, even here in CC.
Frankly, I have never heard of that, other than perhaps of a teacher donating a book. I don't recall a lot of classroom libraries from my kids' ele education. They had library time where they went to the lib. to pick out books. The teacher may have had a shelf of books on pertinent topics.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magritte25
Here, the teachers are required to have classroom libraries and they do not get any funding from the district or school to stock them.
The size of the classroom library depends on the grade level, but in my area, most lower elementary teachers are expected to have classroom libraries of several hundred books. They have "book in a bag" programs where children take a different book home each evening and their parents read it to them or they read it to their parents (or read part to the book for 15 to 20 minutes).
This can be extremely difficult and expensive for new teachers to get started. Usually they purchase used books from garage sales and second hand book stores and "beg & borrow" books from more established teachers. Often teachers that are retiring will donate all or some of their books to new teachers (at least in the schools where I was a teacher).
In my former district you would be marked down on your evaluations if your classroom library was not sufficiently large and at the correct reading levels for your grade. That always seemed wrong to me as the district did not provide money to buy all those books but the teacher needed to provide them herself/himself.
Student still went to the school library once a week for a bigger variety of books.
When I retired (after 30 plus years of teaching) I had close to 1,000 books in my classroom library and personal library (books related to various themes and lessons that I was teaching throughout the year).
This is all very interesting to me. I do not recall ever being asked to pay for such library books, or see any donation bins at the book fairs. Maybe our district actually did pay for those books.
This is all very interesting to me. I do not recall ever being asked to pay for such library books, or see any donation bins at the book fairs. Maybe our district actually did pay for those books.
The book fair donation bins have been around in my district since my kids were in elementary school, so it's been at least a decade.
Here, the teachers are required to have classroom libraries and they do not get any funding from the district or school to stock them.
That's odd. When I was in elementary school, only kindergarten had a classroom library, and it was mostly a collection of Dr. Seuss and "learn to read" books. All other grades went to the school library on their designated day as a class; the day was determined by grade level. I don't know where money and/or the books for the classroom library came from, but the school library was funded by the district.
The schools get lobbied by the sellers of supplies, to increase the required purchases. Everyone, except the students and their families, profits from this.
In 33 years we never once had such lobbying at our school for school supplies.
The schools get lobbied by the sellers of supplies, to increase the required purchases. Everyone, except the students and their families, profits from this.
This is all very interesting to me. I do not recall ever being asked to pay for such library books, or see any donation bins at the book fairs. Maybe our district actually did pay for those books.
At least in the schools that I am familiar with, while teachers were allowed to post "wish lists" during book fairs for books for their classroom library we were told never to ask parents for other book donations. We teachers always assumed that the district did not want the parents to know that they expected the teachers to pay for their own classroom libraries.
But, different schools & different school districts may handle things in other ways. Maybe your district did purchase the books for the classroom libraries or perhaps the PTA/Home & School Association provided funds to buy books.
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