So, you are a new teacher and want to know what supplies you should pick up before heading to your classroom?
First of all, before you buy anything, check with your school to see what they will cover. Some of the items on my list were purchased by my school for my classroom. This means that these items will have to stay behind if I ever decide to leave. Also, some of these things may already be in your classroom, so you might want to head to your classroom first anyway to do a complete inventory.
And a quick side note…. I know you probably want your room to be perfect. If that’s your jam- go for it! But just know that all your students really need is you. If your classroom isn’t picture-perfect when school starts, that’s OK. You can update bulletin boards and change things up as the year progresses. I’ll write more about decorating your secondary science classroom later this summer.
But for now, while the back-to-school sales are starting, here are my top 7 secondary science teacher supplies.
Note: I have Amazon links (unaffiliated) to most of the items I use in my room below.
1: Calculators
Having a classroom set or a few extra calculators is SO helpful in physical science. Before the pandemic, very few of my students brought calculators to school because they had classroom sets in their math classes. We have a high-ish population of free-and-reduced lunch students, and my school doesn’t want to require students to purchase expensive supplies. They provided all math teachers with these calculators, not realizing that science would need them too!
The chemistry department (there are 5 of us) applied for a grant and got a classroom set of calculators for each of us. It’s been awesome! During the pandemic, I still made them available, but I put them in baggies, so they were easy to clean (but most kids started bringing their own again).
If your school won’t help you get calculators, you can also apply for a grant OR purchase a bunch of $10 calculators, sometimes you can get lucky at the dollar store. These dollar-store scientific calculators come in sets of 5. I can’t promise they’ll hold up over time.
BONUS: Calculator Holder
It is essential to put your calculators in a safe place. If they are super cheap and you don’t care if one walks away, a box next to all of your other student supplies is probably ok. If you got your calculators through a grant… you probably have to be a little more vigilant. As a stipulation with the grant money we received, we had to emboss our calculators and label them.
I have used a pocket organizer as well as a cell phone organizer for my calculators. You can quickly see if one is missing and remind my students to return my supplies. I will say, the pocket organizer is easier to tell if something is missing, but it takes up a lot of space.
2: Wireless Keyboard + Mouse
I LOVE my wireless keyboard and mouse! There are always way too many cords floating around in a classroom. Removing two of those cords from my desktop helps create an illusion of organization. Bonus! You can use them from ANYWHERE in your classroom! I take my wireless mouse with me when I walk around the room during lectures. I can progress the slides from any location and even switch screens. No more running back and forth for me!
3: Pre-sharpened Pencils
Please don’t roll your eyes at me. They have saved me SO. MUCH. TIME. Pre-sharpened pencils allow students to grab and go quickly. They no longer have to wait for me to pause to sharpen a pencil they’ve borrowed.
Also, I don’t do anything special with loaning out pencils. During the back-to-school sales events, I typically buy a large box of pencils and put some out every quarter. I used to say, “when they’re gone, they’re gone,” but not anymore. I want to ensure my students can finish their work (and not use the “I didn’t have a pencil” excuse). Now I only put out 15 or so at a time and refill it when I notice. I still have over half a box of pencils left from last year.
My students also sharpen the pencils if/when they return them so that the next person doesn’t have to interrupt me to borrow one. So far, this system has been working for me and I hope it works well for you too!
4: Clipboards
I have two clipboards in my room, and I wish I had more. Some biology classes and environmental science classes use clipboards when they go outside. I have only ever taken my physics students outside to do labs… clipboards would have been great!
More clipboards in my classroom would be helpful in so many ways. My students could complete make-up work in the hallway, right outside my door. We could take them with us to the lab and hopefully avoid papers getting covered in chemicals. As I said, I only have two, but both are MINE, and I use them. So if a student needs one, I must take all my stuff off first.
This is something I’m going to put in a request for some clipboards for my classroom this year.
5: Art Supplies
Oh, so you thought you could get away with having no art supplies in secondary science, didn’t you?
Now, you don’t need a ton of things. I’ve found that high school students use glue sticks, colored pencils, markers, scissors, and construction paper the most. You can provide more supplies based on the projects you have lined up. But the above list should get you through most things, AND since they are considered “consumable,” there’s probably a budget for them. Talk to your department head to see if these items can be covered by the school.
6. Planning System
Notice I didn’t say “planner”. I don’t think you need to buy a $60 planner to be successful. You can plan solely on paper, solely digitally, or do a hybrid. I, personally, am a hybrid planner.
I want to have ONE system, but whenever I try to go JUST paper or JUST digital, I miss things. So now I put stuff in a couple of different places.
ALL THE LISTS
I use google keep for lists. ALL THE LISTS. Google keep is not the only list program I’ve ever tried, but it is integrated with all of my google stuff, so it’s been the most seamless to integrate into my life.
CALENDAR
I use so many calendars. SO. MANY. I have a physical calendar at home and the calendar in my planner. I use google calendar for me and the Microsoft outlook calendar for school. Do I want to use this many calendars? No. Am I done fighting it? Yes. I consolidate everything in google calendar, so it’s always with me, but I know I have to check them all.
PLANNER
Listen, most planners on the market are geared toward elementary teachers. They teach a lot of subjects and need that space. As a secondary teacher, you may only have one or two different classes. If you are a secondary teacher with more (my old school had me teaching 6 different classes) a typical elementary-style planner may work well for you.
I have used a lot of different planners over the years. While I’ve been able to make most of them work, I’ve always had issues with the layout. I made my own planner (free on TPT) that worked for me for a while, but I had to keep moving it from my clipboard when a student needed to borrow it (see clipboards above). Mayble I’ll use this again this year. I liked the simplicity of it.
The Uncalendar planner was awesome for me a couple of years ago and returned to it in January 2022. It has some vertical planning space, but the rest of it is for projects, to-do lists, ideas, whatever. It keeps my scattered brain organized.
7. Emergency Kit
Every year, before school starts, I put together an emergency kit. What is an emergency kit? Essentially, an emergency kit includes everything you might need during the day. Specifically, things that, if you forgot them at home, could ruin your day.
I’m not going to lie; I have definitely left the house in the morning without deodorant. I’ve also had to walk through the rain and needed a brush to fix my crazy hair. Left my lunch at home in the kitchen? Yep. Underdressed when the air conditioning was on max in the building. Totally.
You won’t be able to anticipate everything, but having a stockpile of some essentials for you will help ease some pain points. I make a special trip to the store just for my emergency kit and then leave it in my car, so I remember to bring it all in for the first teacher day.
My emergency kit includes:
- Deodorant
- Socks
- Antacid
- Pain reliever
- Cash
- Extra shoes
- Granola/protein bars
- Mints
- Cough drops
- Hand sanitizer
- Lotion
- Feminine products
- Phone charger
- Small first aid kit
- Toothbrush + toothpaste
- Spoon, fork, knife3
- Hairband or clip
- Stain remover
- Sweater
- Change of clothes
- Brush or comb
- Contact solution
- Eye drops
And that’s my list! If you are a veteran teacher, what would you include on your list? If you’re a new teacher, what items surprised you the most?
I think you might like these posts:
The 10 Most Important Things I’ve Learned During My 10 Years of Teaching
The Chemistry Particle’s Guide to Teaching High School Chemistry
How I Design My Curriculum to Help My Students Overcome Feelings of Overwhelm
How to Write a Great Chemistry Final Exam that Matches your Class Goals
