For teachers without classroom budgets, a donation provides the bare necessities for a classroom.
Danielle Blumhoefer teaches special education at Maple Lake Elementary. Her classroom needs are basic, but still amount to many out-of-pocket purchases.
“As a special education teacher, I don’t have my own classroom per say, so I don’t have a classroom budget,” she said. “My budget is whatever I can afford out of my pocket.”
Resources for Danielle’s students makes a world of difference, but it doesn’t come cheap, no matter how basic the items may seem.
“On average I spend well over $2,000 a year on my classroom just buying these basic supplies that I need,” she said. “And I buy it all for so many reasons. I buy it because I don’t want my kids to have to worry about not having a pencil, or paper, or a snack or anything like that. It’s just one less thing they have to worry about when they come to school.”
It can be frustrating spending so much money on such basic supplies, but every purchase makes a difference in Danielle’s classroom. When she receives a donation, she immediately sees the impact on her students.
“I think my kids see a difference when I don’t have to micro-manage the supplies. I don’t have to worry about it because I know that instead of 50 pencils, I have 100 pencils,” she said. “Less stress on the teacher, in my opinion, means less stress on the kids.”
To help Danielle supply her classroom with pencils, paper, notebooks, binders and snacks, donate to her classroom page on AdoptAClassroom.org.
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