There are predictable times of the year when teachers treat the art room as their supply closet. Before winter break is one of them. It starts innocuously, with a knock on the door and a request for 25 sheets of green construction paper. Maybe you owe that teacher a favor or happen to have some perfect sun-faded green construction paper you want to get rid of anyway. Then it happens again and again, except it is scissors, and then it’s glue, and you no longer can keep track of what material is where and worry you’ll never see those supplies again. If you don’t stem it quickly, you will have no supplies by winter break, and Santa will not be restocking your closet. There goes your holiday spirit right along with your art supplies.
I have been there, my friend! I also have some suggestions for combatting what I will call The Great Holiday Art Supply Room Heist.
Organize your department. If you have colleagues, meet and develop a department plan at the beginning of a school year because we know as art teachers that borrowing isn’t only a holiday occurrence. If you make decisions alone to turn down a request for a supply, you are just sending the problem to your colleagues. This should not be a game of hot potato. You may decide collectively that the art department won’t be handing out supplies. Or maybe you have a great budget and will set aside a classroom set of scissors and markers for borrowing. You must also decide where teachers can pick them up and how to track the materials. One art teacher created a “community shelf” near the door where teachers could quickly and quietly pick up materials the art program made available for their colleagues.
You can also recruit your students to help as well. They know what materials you have, even where you have them. They are often the ones showing up at your door with the request. If you want to discourage The Great Holiday Art Supply Room Heist, let students know art supplies are for art classes and that they can’t take materials for other teachers.
Preventative strategies As a former art department chair, I used to write a note in my calendar. I would dust off my annual December email to all the department chairs, asking them to remind their department members to plan lessons and order supplies rather than look to the art program to supply their last-minute needs. Everyone is reminded that we order the supplies we need and value our uninterrupted time teaching our lessons. Even if you are a department of one, this strategy can work for you. Work with your administration on an email that can go out to all faculty to help reign in interruptions.
It’s okay to say no If you don’t have a giant budget or even a budget that covers what you need, you can say no. No, your supplies are ordered for use in the art room for the art curriculum, and it just doesn’t stretch to include other departments. Sorry, not sorry. You can certainly point them to local art suppliers like Michaels. Put up a sign, send an email, or discuss it in a faculty meeting.
Secure materials This advice is not just for the holidays. If you quickly trip to the office on your period off, close and lock your room. Talk to the custodians and ask them not to let others into your room. I know I have unlocked my classroom in the morning to find it used to make dance decorations, with paint and dirty brushes left out, now dried and ruined. It’s disconcerting and shouldn’t happen.
Do you have more than one entrance to your classroom? Can you not always control who comes into your room? Locks on cabinets can be very valuable, particularly for those supplies that are most popular. I also have a cabinet with labeled totes. However, I found it best practice not to label the bins with scissors and glue sticks. Why make it easy for them to find those in-demand items?
Communicate! Holidays or not, I communicated specific ground rules with my colleagues. Don’t send students. See me in advance when I am available after or before school. Be polite, but be firm to your fellow teachers. Setting the ground rules for what works for you on your terms is okay. When I give out supplies I have an excess of, I tell the teacher it’s a one-time event and not to give others the illusion that my art room is a supply cabinet.
It doesn’t hurt to involve the administration in decisions. As department chair, I added it as a talking point for a department chairperson meeting. We all agreed that teachers should let their department chairs know what they need when budgets are being developed, and teachers could then order what they need rather than disturb art classes. Even if you’re not a department chair, it doesn’t mean that you can’t discuss a problem and look for support from your administration. It doesn’t mean you’ll always get it, but you’ll never know if you don’t ask.
Experience can be the best evidence. One art teacher shared a story about being observed, and her class was interrupted five times during the period. The principal who was observing asked if this was normal, and the teacher said it was. The principal put an end to the borrowing.
Create a system We already discussed some systems earlier if you’re in a situation where you can be generous. One teacher created a sign that she would hang on her door that said, “Creativity in progress, come back later.” She also made sheets with paper sizes and materials needed and a little envelope so teachers could leave their requests without interrupting class.
Some schools have a teacher supply closet. When I went to a school with one, I couldn’t believe there was a place where I could get a stapler or staples if I needed one! I was in heaven. If your school has one, encourage the school to stock it well, and then your job is to point students and teachers there. Of course, there are many caveats- is there someone whose job is to run it? Is it well-stocked and restocked as needed? Is it readily available to teachers? Other schools keep supplies in the mail office, and the school secretary hands them out.
How do you solve the problem of supply borrowing? If you do loan materials out, how do you go about it?
