Back to school, fools.

It's August!!!!  You know what August means, don't you?  BACK TO SCHOOL BABY.

In the summer people always teachers the same questions:

In June they ask, "Are you so excited to be done with school?"
(Answer:  YES!)
In July they ask  "So what have you been doing with your free time all summer?"
(Answer: Whatever the hell I want!)
In August they ask, "When do you go back to school?"
(Answer:  How dare you?)

I kid, I kid.  I actually look forward to going back to school.  Summer vacation is like any vacation I go on- I'm so stoked for it to begin, and then by the time it's done I'm stoked for it to be over.  I love summer!  It's a dream!  Especially with a child- we get to play and swim and read and eat snow cones all day!

But sometimes summer can be hard too.  The house is always messy because we're home so much more. (Unless we're at the pool or camping or going on a trip which all lead to more messes.)  There are weeks straight of 100+ degree weather. (July in Utah about did me in this year!)  Days melt into each other.  I start to feel lethargic and non productive.  Suddenly it's 2:00 in the afternoon and I've gotten nothing done.  So by the time mid August rolls around, I am happy/ready/excited to be back in the classroom.

As a teacher I get to see from the front lines what goes on in a school and what is needed in a classroom.  The sad truth is that there will is never enough funding in education.  We read the same texts year after year partly because it is just monetarily not feasible to bring in new books every year.  This year I got spoiled at my school and got brand new whiteboards that move so that you can have several layers of writing on the board and not have to erase and rewrite all day long.  It's a teacher's dream!  I love my new white boards!  Thank you, principal!  Do you want to know how much said whiteboards cost?  Two grand!

No picture of the new boards, but I do have one of my old board so that will have to do.

And that's just one thing of many.  I'd love to supply all my students with new notebooks, binders, and pencils on the first day.  My heart aches when they come up to me and say, "so, my mom gets paid next Friday and then we should be able to buy notebooks, but is it okay if I just borrow paper until then?"  Yes, child, borrow all the paper you need.  My school has a pretty diverse population with kids who have been given everything in the world and kids who have been given nothing.  I'd love to have that extra funding to help even the playing field, even by just a little.

All this to say that there are awesome ways that you can help YOUR school with funding.  I bet if you talked to your son or daughter's teacher about ways they would use extra funding your mind would be blown with all the ways teachers dream of spending that extra money.  Back when I was a kid I used to religiously hunt for box tops.  I collected box tops and popsicle sticks, and yes, I was such a weird child.  (The popsicle sticks never proved to be useful in any form.  The box tops did.)

I literally can not think of an easier way to earn money for your school- buy food you would already buy, clip the box tops off of them, send them in = MONEY FOR YOUR SCHOOL.  And this summer General Mills really pulled out the big guns- when you buy General Mills products at Walmart 1 box top is worth 5 box tops.  FIVE TIMES THE POWER! (Read all the deets here.)

Please take advantage of the 5-for-1 Box Tops initiative at Walmart.  I think we can all agree how important education is, but when we look at the money that goes into schools, teachers, funding, etc, it's pretty clear that the money allotted to education does not equal up to its importance.  It is so easy to shop, clip, and send box tops in and kids love it.  They feel like they are making a difference, too, and I love that it makes them "work" a little for their education- to know that it isn't just some easy gift that comes without cost.  The more they work for it, the more they appreciate it and the more aware they will be of these issues even from an early age.  Go here for all the details and to know from which products you can get the 5-for-1 Box Tops

This post is sponsored by Walmart but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.  

I am so grateful for the companies that support this blog and that allow me to write about things that I am already so passionate about.