51. When Students Misuse or Destroy Classroom Supplies: What to Do

When students don't use classroom materials correctly (or with care), it becomes harder to teach. Getting your class to "play nice" with the supplies you have in your room (many that you have bought with your own money) can feel like a game you can't win before the holidays or in the lead up to Spring Break. What do you do when your students misuse or destroy the supplies in your classroom? Listen to this episode before you head back to the classroom - it may save you from having to pull a crayon out of a pencil sharpener!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Being a teacher isn't what it used to be. The good news is you don't have to figure it out on your own. If you're looking for truth, inspiration, and tips for success, in the classroom and beyond, you're in the right place. It's time to turn the page to the future of the profession. This is the next chapter for teachers podcast. Hello everyone. Welcome to the next chapter for teachers podcast. I'm Erin Spinagle, and this is episode 51. We are continuing our March Madness series. Last week we talked about back talk, student behavior, the choices they're making that maybe aren't so great as far as how they're responding to you in the classroom. This week's episode, you could call it why we can't have nice things. You could call it supply versus demand, but we are talking about when kids misuse or are disruptive and destroy classroom materials. So supplies at this point in your room might be running low. You have more than likely put a lot of money into your classroom at this point in the year. It happens. I know you might get a student allotment for materials, but we know that teachers do end up putting their own money into their classrooms as well. And this is the time of the year when kids start to get a little more careless than what they have been with keeping track of their own supplies as well as how they use the ones that are in the classroom. And we know that we need stuff to finish out the year. We're doing our most our most intensive teaching. We've got big stuff to go over, and then you're running low on paper, or somebody broke a bunch of pencils and just threw them in the trash. This can also be how the kids are treating their own supplies at this point. They're just like everybody's on the fritz. We just start not making good choices with the materials that we have to do our jobs. So we need to teach the kids, but we need them to take care of our stuff because that stuff has to last us not only through the school year, but in a way, and for some things, we'd kind of like it to last forever, at least another school year or two as well, depending on what it is. And I know that you're teaching the kids, or I hope you're teaching the kids, how to handle things correctly. I know I have a rule in my classroom. One of my three rules is clean and care. We clean up after ourselves and we take care of things because I, as an art teacher, I have 600 plus kids that need to use the materials. And if they're not taking care of the things, one particular one class or another, that means nobody will have those materials if that behavior continues. So I really stress the clean and care and the responsibility of everybody to do their part to use things in a responsible manner. But that doesn't mean that things still happen. Doesn't mean I don't step on an oil pastel or pencils don't end up on the floor or in the trash or worse, things happen and we've got to correct the course because we need this stuff. And it's important to teach kids responsibility and how to use things that aren't theirs. We want the kids to use the materials that we provide to them, but we have to do our part to use them in a way that allows them to last. So let's get into this. What are we doing here in March when our supplies are being treated like they are not that important or in dis or they're dispensable? Well, I like to group things into three different categories as far as misuse of supplies or destruction of supplies. So, or three buckets, if you will. Put them in these buckets, and there's different ways of handling each situation. So here's bucket number one. I'm just gonna cut right to it. I barely made it to the microphone this weekend, and I know that I'm tired and you're tired, and we're ready to start this week, so let's get to the things that can help us get through it. So the first bucket or the first category are that thing the things in your classroom are wearing down. At this point of the year, the materials, whether it's pencils, paper, resources, books, they've been used all year long. And they might be getting running low or they might be quality-wise running on borrowed time just because they've been used a lot. And we want the kids to use the stuff that we have there for them to practice with and learn. But, you know, as time goes on, they're going to get a little raggedy. So it's not necessarily that the kids are being bad, but they might not know how to use the things correctly because they are more fragile, and kids by nature are not gentle with everything. It's just that they don't think about that as they are, especially the younger ones, when they are using things or putting things back. They're kids. They're learning how to do this life thing, and they're not so sure what to do when the book is hanging on by a thread because the spine is a little weakened at this point and it's flapping in the breeze. Or they're not sure what to do with these teeny tiny little stubby crayons. Can't we still color with those? Do they still work? What are we? Can we do we throw them away if I get I've got kids asked because I'm like, oh no, no, no, they're still good. Broken crayons still color. So how do we handle this? Well, I like to demo for the kids how to use things when they are not in the best quality shape. And like, as an art teacher, and I know not everybody's an art teacher that listens to this, but I my classroom runs on supplies. That's how we get things done. So I like to use the supplies even when they are nubby and stubby and a little grungy because they still they still work, they're just harder to hold and not as uh easy to put back or to keep track of sometimes. So I like to demo to the kids for or for the kids rather how to use them, how to pinch like the crayons, little pieces of crayons or chalk pastels, so that we can still make good use of them. And there's actually lots of good things you can do with the the stubby tiny supplies at this point in the year, so that they know that they can use things even when they are running low and not in the best shape, there's still a use for them and we can still make good uh time in our classroom or have a good time using them to do our work. If it's something that needs to be taken care of, like a book or a map or a station activity, and it's kind of running on borrowed time, I like to have a care squad in the room. And kids like to help, whether they're five or fifteen, they like to help. And the care squad is there or knows how to fix stuff. So you could have like a basket in your room, and if somebody has used things to the point where they're just it's flopping around or it needs to be put back together, if you anonymously put it in the care box or the care basket, someone, a couple helpers in the room when they have time can go and fix it and you show them what they need. I mean, I usually keep the things that need just to be glued or taped, something very simple. So there's somebody there that understands that are there's kids in your room that know how to fix what's running on fumes. And then sometimes if you have things that the kids are using and they're not intentionally breaking them or doing anything to them, it's just over time, they're harder to hold, harder to use, they're still putting the same gusto into what they're doing. Sometimes you just go for broke and I save some projects or some things in my room that for the end of the year where those little pieces of crayon or pastel, we can use those to complete some things that require a lot of heavy coloring or a heavy blending just to use them and have a good purpose for them before we just have to chuck it and it's no longer good for anybody. But it's also important for us to realize okay, if something is breaking or broken or not in the best shape, is it because it's just we're getting to the end of the year and things are harder to hold or wearing down? It's not necessarily that the kids are doing anything inappropriate to them, it's just what it is at this point. And it's important to have this bucket or have this category when we're talking about use of supplies because not it's not all intentional. Like I said, they're kids, they're learning how to do this thing, and they don't have the same grip and uh ability to put less pressure on stuff, if you will. So there's category number one. Next category, we're gonna get a little more into it here. Uh, it's the misuse, careless use of supplies. This is the most common one as we enter March. Silly season. The kids have been taught all year long how to put things back, where to put things at the end of the day, how to store the supplies in their desk, and they are choosing not to. Or it's no longer a priority. They are focused on other things, like who said what to who at recess, or who did not sit beside me at lunch today. And this goes for their personal supplies too. You will start to see more things on the floor or objects that roll up to you at the board and you're wondering whose is this and nobody claims it and nobody seems to care. So, silly season. Silly season is now. Or if you have uh not experienced, if maybe it's already started for you, or if you haven't experienced silly season, March Madness, you're about to get a real treat here. Real treat here as we enter uh this stretch before spring break. This requires us to do a lot of reteach, and it's no fun to do reteach when you have a lot of things to cover and you don't want to waste class time teaching people how to put their pencils in their zipper pouch or their binder or however you do things in your room. But it's very important because we need that reset, and if everything is everywhere on the floor, working its way to the garbage can because nobody knows whose it is, or it's lost or misplaced, you're going to lose class time anyway if they don't have what they need. So better to just take a step back and reteach how we put things away, how we use the supplies in our classroom. And that's a good way to reset your class just to start the week, to start the day, so that we're focused a little bit more on how we need to treat things in our room. Assume nothing. Just assume that somebody has just blipped out that part in their brain that's about how you take care of your own things or the things in the classroom. Because at this point in the year, we are very all very focused on different things that have our brains going 24-7. But it's important that we still expect them to take care of their belongings and of our, as a teacher, our belongings that they're using in the classroom. Because accountability, that's important. That's an important thing that we need to teach, along with reading, writing, and math. And it's also important to teach them the importance of cleaning up because it's not always somebody else's responsibility to clean up your mess. You've got to do it. I know as a as an art teacher, that's important to me, and as someone who has lunch duty, it's important to me to teach the kids how to pick up after yourself. That's just a basic, basic thing we gotta learn how to do, you know? Now, that helps with silly season and being careless, just reteaching how we're gonna do things, even if it's not fun, even if it's boring, even if they get that look on their face, like, oh my goodness, we're doing this again. But I do understand that you might do all the reteach and all the direction and be as specific as possible for how you want that electric pencil sharpener to be used in your room, and it might be electric pencil sharpener 2.0 of the year. Long story, won't say won't share that on this podcast, maybe. But anyway, there might come a time, or maybe there already has come a time room where you have to limit access to certain materials because they're just not going to get out of silly season anytime soon. So in my room, when I taught fifth grade, there were things that I wanted the fifth graders to have access to without having to continuously ask me for them. I just would have it out so they could go get it and use it. And with fifth grade, you can do that. They're more independent. But I also had things that I did not want them to have access to because I figured they would play with it in their desk or they would get lost or they wouldn't be treated, it wouldn't the supplies wouldn't be used correctly, and that can vary based on your teaching environment. So there was full access, limited access in my room to certain things. Sometimes we have to put our own supplies that are for the classroom on limited access or things that we must distribute, even if it's not as convenient to us, we've got to do it. I know I always had notebook paper in a tray in the front of the room. So if someone needed notebook paper, you'd go get the notebook paper. It would be right up there. I know maybe if you're a one-to-one device school, maybe you don't use notebook paper like we did back in the good old days. But there were times when the kids would get silly with the notebook paper and want it for origami, which is great in art, but not when you need paper for a spelling test. And they were starting to use the paper for other things that were not for instruction. So I had to put the giant paper tray that was helpful to me. I had to put that in a limited access area so that I was distributing paper for a while until we got done making fortune tellers till that fad passed. Now I want the kids to be creative, but I also want to have paper for us to do our long division. So sometimes we have to do that. We have to just either temporarily or permanently pull things back out of our supply or out of our circulation in our room so that we don't use them all up for things that have no purpose or they don't get damaged. It happens. It's stuff, and instead of getting upset about it, we just gotta accept that you know this is the time of the year, this is the rhythm of the ocean, so to speak. And we we do what we need to do. We teach the kids we have in front of us, and we adjust our classroom for the kids we have in front of us, not the kids we had last year, not the kids that we have our fingers crossed we'll get next year. It's the here and now. We live in the here and now, and we teach in the here and now. So we've got our two buckets there: the wearing down supplies naturally bucket, the careless user bucket. Now we're gonna talk about intentional destruction. Yes. So I am not going to pretend I live in a rainbow lane with unicorns. I know that there are kids that will intentionally destroy things for a lot of different reasons. Because they don't understand the value, perhaps, of taking care of other people's things because they have other things going on in their life, because they are dealing with some heavy emotions and it feels good to stab something. Hopefully it's not a person, because that's not good either, but might be your favorite erasers, or you know, you never know. But okay, there is no excuse for damaging school property or personal property. Your property that you have paid money to have in your classroom so that you can do your job. There's no excuse for that. And we're not going to make any excuses for that. Because we are teaching them how to be contributing, conscientious citizens. That is part of being a teacher. Yes, we want to teach content, but we're teaching them how to be in this world. We're teaching them to become the people that we hope they are when they are adults. And destroying someone else's property, I don't know about you, but that's not the kind of people I want to create in my classroom. Whether it's fifth grade or art. So what do we do? We have consistent consequences. We are firm, we get the administration involved, whatever your policy is for uh documenting infractions. We uh alert and communicate with the parents about what is going on. This matters. Okay, and I think it really matters in this age of social media because kids see on different apps, you know, that it's funny or whatever, someone's trying to make it funny to damage things in schools. I know that was like a fad either last year or the year before that. Kids posting videos of them doing things to school supplies or doing things in their school building that were inappropriate or destructive. And kids see that, they think it's cool, and they think they're gonna try it out. We have to make sure that they know they're they're not trying it out with us. Okay, it's not gonna happen here, it's not allowed. There's a kind of like a reality break. People or kids in particular see stuff on social media and they think, oh, I can do that too. No. Social media reels, that is not real life. That is somebody trying to get likes, and that's we don't like that, and we're not doing that. So we have to they have we have to check them for their behavior. I always instilled, or I still instill it in my classes, leave it better than you found it, and it is not acceptable to leave it worse than that. And if there is a problem where you are being destructive, it needs to be dealt with firmly and consistently because the other students are watching and they'll see if somebody else is getting along with causing damage. This is where this at this point in the year seed seating charts really come in super duper handy because as a teacher where the students filter in and out of my classroom throughout the day, if somebody does something to a table or supplies at that table, it is easy for me to zero in on who sat at that table and when, and I can find them, we can deal with it. And sometimes I get some shocked faces from kids, like, oh, how did you know? It's like, well, seating chart comes in handy. So numbering supplies, if you do that, or just naming them in some way to assign them to a student, that I always numbered things in my classroom when I taught fifth grade. Every kid had a number, and if they had communal supplies or they had supplies that they used that were mine, they had a number, they used the number that was on their desk, and that's how I kept track of who used what. But that is important, you can follow the trail. So those are things we're gonna do as kids are in this time of the year where they're maybe not using supplies the way we would like them to. Let's talk about what we're not going to do when this happens, because it's gonna happen. I'm not gonna say, oh no, that'll never happen. Yeah, it's gonna happen if it hadn't already this year. Here's what we're not doing: we're not yelling. We're not going to expend our precious voice because we are mad that somebody stuck a crayon and hopefully not an electric pencil sharpener. That has not happened to me yet. I need to knock on wood because it's a full moon this week, and it could happen. I would rather it not. But we're not gonna yell because we are not going to expend our precious energy when we are trying to keep our students focused and we are trying to teach and we are dealing with lots of high emotions this time of year. We are not gonna wear down our battery yelling on their stuff. Also, some kids do things that are not nice to our school supplies to get a reaction out of you. They think, oh, this will make her mad that they're gonna get something out of you, and they're expecting you to yell and get mad. Well, let's let's change that narrative, and they're not going to get that from us. Also, maybe someone yells at them at home when they break things and they get attention. They get they're they're looking for that negative hit, and we can flip the script and not give it to them. Sometimes it also means if someone's always yelling at them at home that they're dis this they're uh desensitized to it, so it doesn't have the same impact that we think it's going to. There's obviously here a disconnect between values, responsibility, and self awareness when the kids are misusing supplies. And we are going to keep our own self awareness by not blowing our top. Now, if you do blow your top, it's okay. Alright, because we're not perfect people, and I'm not here to tell you that I'm perfect. So things happen. It's okay to be mad, it's okay to be disappointed. It's okay to tell the kids that you are upset and disappointed. But we are not going to lose our voice over it. Because this beautiful instrument we have in our throats that allows us to talk, it's gonna keep the peace and keep things rolling here until spring break and we can't wear it out. That's what I'm telling myself. So another thing we don't do when the kids are using supplies incorrectly, we don't replace them. And I know this is hard. You're thinking, how what am I gonna do if they use them all up and I don't have them for the rest of the year? Well, we're gonna find an alternative and we're gonna put it on the kids, possibly, to replace it if it's something that they damaged. But it won't fix the issue. If you keep replacing something that's not used correctly, it's going to they're just gonna do it again. And you'll have to replace it again. So you're setting the precedent if you are just gonna fix it, jump in and fix it every time. Sometimes they need to go without something that they enjoy and they need to feel the burn from having done something and had the consequence of not having that available. This is also a boundary that you're setting. And you can even phrase it to yourself or to your students I don't replace things that get broken in this classroom. Maybe that home and they break something, they it gets it gets fixed, or they get another one. You can say, I don't, I don't do that here. Okay, they they're gonna have to deal with the consequences of that. This is self-respect for you, giving yourself the self-respect. And this might, like I said, this might be a wake-up call to them because this might be very different than what happens for them at home. And another don't we don't lose our focus. We are there to teach. That time in our classroom with our students is there for us to teach and do our jobs to the best of our ability. We're not gonna get hung up on why somebody smashed a chalk pastel into the floor and now there are green streaks going from that chair all the way out to the hallway. Not that I would know anything about that or anything, but this is our time to teach, and we have to teach who we have right now, and we're not going to let us let this ding us in our in our purpose because this can affect your morale. Coming into a classroom and seeing that something that you put your money into or that you uh hoped would last you a couple more months and it's on its last legs. It doesn't this does not mean students, how students use supplies does not mean that you're not an effective teacher. You're not that doesn't mean that you're not a good teacher. It just means we have to adjust for the moment. When students are not using things correctly, think of it as you're collecting information. Okay, they're having trouble using this correctly, let's reteach it, let's adjust their access to it, and let's let them live with the consequences of not having it. All right, we just look at things more analytically instead of keep getting our emotions intertwined with it, and we can get through this most stressful period in the school year. So that is all for this week. Just to review, we had our three buckets, our three categories of supply misuse or destruction, the wearing down, the careless use, the intentional. And there's ways to get through them all. And there's ways to handle it in a way so that we are still in control of ourselves in our classroom while instilling to our students how we expect things to be used so that they have those materials to learn. All right, so I hope this was helpful. I hope this helps you get through this most challenging part of the year, and I will be back next week with more to share. Talk to you next time. That's all for this episode of the Next Chapter for Teachers Podcast. If you like what you heard, be sure to rate, subscribe, and leave a review. Join us next time when we turn the page to the future of the profession. Until then, remember to be different, but more importantly, be the difference. And I'll see you in the next chapter.