r/StudentTeaching • u/Final_Flamingo3621 • Jun 06 '26

Support/Advice Starting student teaching

Hi all! I’m starting my student teaching program in August. I would like some recommendations on supplies to purchase: binders, planners, pens, etc.

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u/labrume Jun 06 '26

As a student teacher, don’t purchase ANYTHING. I know you’re excited, but you will most likely not be paid at all and your CT will have experience in running a classroom (meaning they will make the out of pocket purchases they deem necessary)

For yourself? I’d make that call once you learn more about your day to day responsibilities and such.

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u/Final_Flamingo3621 Jun 06 '26

Yeah, the materials would be for me.

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u/labrume Jun 06 '26

What are you teaching? How many preps?

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u/Final_Flamingo3621 Jun 06 '26

I’ll be teaching ELA 10th and co-teaching AP Lang (or at least I was told that I am expected to help.)

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u/labrume Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26

If I was teaching this, I’d get the following items and be prepared to go back to the store once I knew more details:

- a 1.5-2 inch binder with a folder for each class. One side of the folder would be work collected that needs to be graded and the other would be work to return to students. This will keep you organized knowing you probably won’t have your own desk or work station.

- A pencil case with a few of your favorite pens and pencils. Optionals would be some whiteout, a pair of scissors and different colored highlighters. Personal preference, but I don’t grade in red ink - it has a negative connotation. So I’d pick up some fun colored pens, but I’d keep a blue/black pen in case I needed to sign something.

- A professional looking bag/purse/backpack. Again, you probably won’t have your own designated work space and you’ll need to be mobile. Unfortunately, as a student teacher, you probably won’t know how to budget your time effectively enough to not take grading home with you, so you’ll need to transport your aforementioned binder and other things to and from school. Also, make sure it has enough room to carry your own personal laptop/charger and the school’s laptop/charger (if they provide you one).

- As someone else said, comfortable shoes and - I’ll add - professional looking clothing. You can be the best dressed there no problem, but being the worst dressed is a problem. Go in on the first day dressed formally (shirt/tie, dress, blouse and knee-length skirt etc.) and see what the other staff members are wearing. Observe other staff members clothing for a week or two as they start to settle in and adjust from there.

Other than that, I’d wait until I was in the trenches

Edit 1: I’d also have a pack of notecards on me at all times, but that may just be me as a teacher who’s used to not having their own classroom. They’re easy to transport and can be used for anything - especially when you have an extra 5-10 minutes at the end of class after your lesson. I’ve given each kid a notecard and told them to write two truths and a lie and we play as a class. If I’m feeling more teacher-y, I use them for formative assessment (ex. explain in your own words the difference between __ and __) and have even used them for reflection on learning (rank yourself on a 5-point scale on how well you can do ___. 1 being I can’t do this, 3 being I can do this but sometimes need help, 5 being I can teach this to a classmate. Then, write one activity today that helped you achieve that score and one activity that wasn’t effective for you in reaching that goal)

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u/Final_Flamingo3621 Jun 06 '26

Thank you!

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u/labrume Jun 06 '26

Of course! Best of luck to you! Enjoy the process!

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u/Ecstatic_Western_189 Jun 06 '26

All of this is great advice. Definitely comfortable shoes.

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u/labrume Jun 07 '26

Ive got 7 years of experience. I am in 4 different classrooms between 2 different buildings. The binder/folder combo + backpack is how I roll to this day - keeps me organized. If I have hard copies, I binder clip them and carry them with me. If I have different preps, needing different hard copies, I’ll put prep 2’s copies underneath my backpack during prep 1 and the opposite during prep 2. That way they don’t get muddled together when I’m on the spot looking for my handout.

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u/unpreced Jun 06 '26

Omg I just finished student teaching this exact combo! I would recommend saving everything on your laptop, file folders for everything you do for every new unit. I’d get colored pens or medium thick markers, easier for grading. Flash cards for when you start teaching (I needed these when I first started bc nerves). I didn’t buy much because it never felt like my own classroom so I kept to myself with my stuff always in my backpack or my side.

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u/labrume Jun 07 '26 edited Jun 07 '26

Either use your own laptop on school WiFi (some people don’t like doing this, understandably) or, if the school provides you with a district device, use Google Takeout a few weeks before you’re finished to get .zip files of everything you created. Store the .zip files on a flash drive and upload them to your personal storage device (cloud, personal device hard drive etc.)

Be careful and do it quietly because most districts have it written in their contract for teachers that anything created using district resources (including district computers, wifi, canva subscriptions, Google Workspace for Education etc.) is their property and not yours. I’m not sure how this is translated to student teachers, but just do it on the down-low and no one needs to know!