The Teacher's Emergency Kit

It's Monday morning. I'm driving to school, and I'm extra excited this morning because it is PEPPERMINT MOCHA SEASON, PEOPLE! Normally, I ration my Starbucks trips, but it is so hard for me during November and December. And sometimes it's what keeps me going.

So I'm driving. I'm jamming. I have about a 30 minute drive from my house to school. It's inservice day (luckily for me), so I have on a light pink hoodie and jeans. All of a sudden, something magical happens and my coffee ends up all over my hoodie.

To describe my drive to work:

my house

stores a few miles from my house (Starbucks, Target, etc.)

fields

fields

fields

more fields

tractors

a small field

small town where I teach

my school

At this point when I spill my mocha, I am about 15 miles from my house, so I decide that my only option is to turn around and drive to Walmart to buy a new shirt. I am a Target junkie to the core, but to my chagrin, they do not open until 8. I should petition this.

Long story short, I made it to school, albeit a little late, which is why I was lucky it was inservice.

I tell you this story because it is just one more thing that has led me to add to my emergency kit at school. I now have a Spanish Club t-shirt and pair of jeans I don't like or ever wear stashed in my desk.

Here are my suggestions for all you new teachers who aren't sure what to fill your desk drawers with. My bottom desk drawer contains:

- aforementioned clothing

- Advil (hello, best friend)

- cough drops

- hair ties/bobby pins

- deodorant

- can opener (I have brought SO MANY cans of soup with no way to open them)

- hair spray

- slinkies for fidgety students and my fidgety self (you can get six for like two bucks in the party favor section)

- face moisturizer (my face is crusty crust in the winter!)

- spare change for emergency trips to the vending machine

- toothbrush/toothpaste

- perfume

- Burt's Bees lip balm

- old pair of glasses

- contact solution

- candy for myself

- box of nice notes parents, students, and even former teachers have written me for days when I want to quit

What items have you learned to keep in your room at all times? Have you learned something the hard way like I did?