I am in my last semester before student teaching and some of my teachers have been telling us to save things to reuse like plastic containers, glass jars, toilet paper and paper towel rolls. Is there anything else you suggest I should start saving? And what do you use these things for? Help!
I never had room to save things like that, however the one thing that I did look for and save were quality children's books at yard sales and flea markets. Those have been very valuable to me.
I agree with brigidy.... I would start of collection of children's books. As far as materials, I would ask for donations from parents when it comes to projects in my classroom or when I know I need something, I would collect what I need.
A lot of that stuff is used for early childhood arts and crafts. Personally I wouldn't save much until I knew what grade I was teaching. I might save some magazines (ones that don't have anything children can't view) but otherwise, a lot of that stuff you can collect AFTER you get a job and AFTER you know what grade level you will actually be teaching. You can ask parents to help you collect these things. At the beginning of your first year you may not know too far ahead of time what exactly you want but as you get better at the job, you can plan ahead and ask for donations. Sometimes you can even shoot an email to the department for some of this stuff and other teachers will donate them too if you need it (especially for things like toilet paper rolls). Magazines were a bit harder for me to collect for some reason.
It won't hurt you to save stuff but I wouldn't worry about it too much either. Lots of stuff can be recycled. Even egg cartons are good for paints. But none of it is absolutely necessary up front.
Agree with pp. You can collect "stuff" whenever. What you will need to search out is items that directly contribute to teaching subject content, such as reading books. Start looking for those first The other, extra stuff will be able to come later.
