Andrea Germansky, First Grade Teacher

Schaeffer Primary

First of all, I’d like to thank The Education Partnership (formerly Storehouse for Teachers) for all of the opportunities they have given to my school and other schools in need. As a newer teacher, it’s been very difficult for me to find the supplies and resources to provide my students with the best, well-rounded education that I dream of. During graduate school, I found a passion for working with underprivileged students. The first grade students I work with have so much to offer the world and can be the kindest, sweetest, and most generous children you can meet. Unfortunately, choosing to work with underprivileged children also has proven to mean that you work with an underprivileged budget.

At Schaeffer Primary, we aren’t given the resources and funding that other suburban schools around our area receive. To give my students the best education I can, I need to pay for a lot on my own. My first year alone, I spent more than two of my paychecks paying for markers, special paper, rewards and gifts for the students, activity books, and other things my class needed. Needless to say, it wasn’t easy explaining to my mom (who was very excited that I found a teaching job) that I had worked over 50 hours a week for an entire month and was still broke.

Working within such a tight budget, my students are often forced to do without. As an exciting activity for the students and a formative assessment tool for me, my students use white erase boards for spelling and math. The students get so excited and immersed in the activity because it is so different than writing with pencil and paper. Last year, our markers ran out of ink and we didn’t have enough money in our budget to buy new ones. A lot of my students were forced to start doing their work on paper, which wasn’t as effective or as fun. My students were so thoughtful and giving that some of them even offered their marker to other students and used paper instead. I felt terrible for my students because I knew how much working on white boards meant to them. It was something they looked forward to every day.

Then, Storehouse for Teachers gave every teacher in my school a box of supplies. I wanted to share the excitement with my class, so I opened the box of supplies with my entire first grade class. As I pulled each supply out of my box, my class cheered and became so excited about how we were going to use them. Just as I got to the bottom of the box, I pulled out two packs of colorful white erase markers. My entire class went crazy and I even had three of my girls start to cry. We were able to have the entire class use the white boards again, which meant so much to them. My class was so grateful they asked right away to write a thank you to the generous people who gave them so many things.

This year, I’m still forced to have some students sit at a table and do paper work during our computer lab period because of our unreliable 10 year old computers. In math, I tried to teach a lesson about centimeters without the availability of rulers or tape measures. I very unsuccessfully tried to Xerox rulers for them, and I’m still pretty sure if you asked my students what a centimeter is, they’ll tell you it’s a type of bug.

While I give my students everything I can, it’s still difficult to provide my students all they deserve. It’s thanks to Storehouse for Teachers and the people and businesses who support Storehouse for Teachers that make giving the students the education they deserve possible. I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart and look forward to everything the future has to offer my students and my school. With so many dedicated and caring people, I know the future is bright.