School Supplies Made Easy: Fill & Download for Free

Don’t assume you’re all that. As a current sophomore, I’ve seen the freshmen get this attitude of entitlement. I saw it as a freshman too. Please be respectful to your current classmates and to the upper classmen.Plan out your courses ahead of time! Many high schools mandate that you get a certain amount of credits in order to graduate, including a fine arts credit. My biggest regret is not taking my art credit freshman year. This matters if your goal is being #1 in your class or for scheduling other courses that require particular courses as prerequisites.If you can, shadow the high school in eight grade. You can observe what the kids are wearing, how they act, what sort of courses they offer, and how the teachers are. In eight grade (public school), I shadowed at my current high school (private) and paid attention to how the students wore their uniforms. This helped a lot when I actually began high school as I didn’t stick out as a freshman. Paying attention to how the school is run and how the kids are acting is essential. After all, you’ll be in this building surrounded by its faculty and staff for the next four years. Make sure it’s a place you’ll love to be at.Have a good relationship with all of your teachers. Teachers will talk about their students to one another and it’s better to have a good reputation than a bad one. Having bad classroom behavior can and will carry up into future courses, and you’ll find that a teacher may already have a prejudice against you without even having met you. Also, having a good relationship with your teachers will help tremendously with college applications (if that is the way you’re going). You’ll need teacher recommendations to get into college. Even if you’re not going into college, you’ll most likely need recommendations for other jobs.Please don’t send nudes. Nudes can (and probably will) get screenshotted and sent around. I’ve seen so many students who’ve sent nudes/received nudes get into trouble with the law. It’s just a bad idea.Unless you’re allowed to carry a backpack, do not bring all of your books and textbooks with you to one class. It’s not necessary and it shows that you’re a freshman. Bring the necessary items and switch out your stuff in between classes.Don’t buy your school supplies right away. I made this mistake. Teachers will give you a syllabus with all of the items you need for each class. If you really need to buy school supplies before school, stick with the basics: spiral notebooks, pens, pencils, folders, and a backpack. Wait on the other items.Please, for your sake and mine, shower. Perfumes and body sprays can only cover so much. Also, please go easy on perfumes and body sprays. A little goes a long way and you don’t want to smell like you’ve marinated in it.This could just be my high school, but please do not walk around staring at your phone when the bell rings. Not only does it show that you’re a freshman, but everyone else has to walk out and around you because you’re walking at the speed of a tortoise.Like everyone else is saying, start driver’s ed as soon as you can. It’s kind of self explanatory but you’re going to want to start driving as soon as you can.Bonus!Attend school functions. Go to homecoming, go to the football games, be involved. You may regret not doing these later in life.Get enough sleep. Your brain can only handle so much. Trust me.Care about your physical health. Eat right and get some exercise. You’ll feel better.Care about your mental health. Cut toxic people out of your life. They’re extra baggage and will only weigh you down.Value your reputation above “popularity”. Don’t do drugs, cut classes, or be rude to others just to make you look cool. It really isn’t cool.Lastly, be kind to everyone you meet. Anyone could be your future boss.Hope this helps! Don’t be afraid of high school, but don’t act like you suddenly run the world.P.S. All of this is coming from a current sophomore in high school. I was in your place last year. Trust my information, learn from my mistakes.

I have shopped in the same Acme in South Jersey for the last 40 years, since before my 1st kid (of 5) was born. It was down the street from my hubby’s family’s house, so they Knew us Very Well. For example, when our kids went to school for their first years, they each got a small basket with school supplies for their first day at school, because they were so well behaved in the store. Hubby’s family is white; my folks are mutts: some white, African- & Native American - you know, AMERICANS. And the area of South Jersey was near Camden, NJ. Camden is not an easy place to live in- many racial issues - but the area I was in was a little better financially, but close enough that the reputation made them wary of anyone of color THAT THEY DIDN’T KNOW.I dropped off the kids at the elementary school on morning, and decide to pick up some grits for my breakfast. I walked in, said “Hi” to the produce manager, and started to walk up and down the aisles, something I NEVER got to do when shopping with 5 kids (LOL). After the third aisle, I noticed that an employee (we’ll call him Dufus) was following me from aisle to aisle, looking busy when I caught his eye. I didn’t touch any product; I knew what I was shopping for, and didn’t need to check any packages.I looked for the grits; they appeared to be out, so I went to the CS desk to ask when they’d be back in. All of a sudden, Dufus was at my elbow. I asked to speak to “Larry”, the manager. Dufus looked worried at this point.Me: Hi, Larry, How are you? There seems to be a problem.Larry: Hi, How’s the family, and how can I help you?Me: Fine. But this employee (Dufus) seems to have been following me around the store, looking busy when I caught his eye. Have there been problems lately?Larry: (slowly) No…..Dufus, is there a problem?Dufus: No, I was just…I mean, it’s early, and she was… well, we’re right outside of Camden. She shouldn’t be…. I mean, where we are…Larry: Let me stop you before she has REAL grounds against this store. (to me) I’m sorry. He’s a transfer from (insert snobby town 10 minutes away) training for an assistant manager’s position.Me: REALLY? How’s that workin’ out? {smirk in place}Larry: We’ll see this afternoon. IN the meanwhile, let me get what you’re looking for off the truck in back. It’s early, and we haven’t offloaded it yet.Me: No, that’s ok…Larry: It’s NO problem. As a matter of fact, Dufus would be HAPPY to get it for you, WOULDN’T YOU, DUFUS???Dufus: I….I…(scurries off)Larry: It will be paid for as well. I’m sorry. I was told he might be a problem, but we had to try.ME: I appreciate the gesture. Just let {produce manager} know that I don’t want Dufus on pieces. He looks mad.We both laughed, I got my grits, and Dufus was never seen in the store again.

Not about my parenting, but multiple comments about the size of my family.In an early education program for preschoolers I took a couple of my boys to. Parents were supposed to stay and build relationships with other parents of kids in the same age group.We had to go around a circle and introduce ourselves and tell about our family. We repeated this every three months as a new session started.At this point I only had five.My name is Kris and my children are K_____ and M______ that are here, I also have C_____ in kindergarten, and two older boys, E_____ and T______.That's when one young mom leaned over to a friend and said,See? I told you she had a dozen all by herself.Buying toothbrushes. I remember that well. By this time I had 6 at home, one was away at college. Because school was in session, I only had my two youngest with me. They were both in the shopping cart, the littlest in the seat, the other in the basket.Trying to find 6 toothbrushes that the kids couldn't mix up or fight over isn't easy. I was in the aisle quite a while and apologized to a woman who wanted a single toothbrush. I moved farther back so she could reach the one she wanted and she looked at my overflowing cart, and my 2 preschoolers, and asked if I was a foster parent. I was a little distracted by one of the kids and said,No. I'm just picking up some things before the rest get home from school.She paused a moment and asked if they were mine.I said yes, still not getting the questions.Then she backed her cart up and said she supposed people like me had a bunch of kids with different fathers.Yeah, some racism here.I looked her straight in the eye and told her I had 7 children and there were only 4 different fathers. (3 of them were siblings.)The last is another racism incident.We were out of town doing some school shopping. To give you an idea of how isolated our little town is, the closest Wal-Mart at the time was about 150 miles away, and I said in another post, that is the best place to get large amounts of school supplies at an affordable price.We had our 7 youngest with us, and splurged by going to an all you can eat buffet. The oldest 5 were old enough to fish up their own food, and my husband got food for the youngest while helping the second youngest.That left me at a table with the baby and lots of empty seats.The kids started coming back, and I went to get my food while my husband got everyone beverages.A lady came up to me and commented on how well behaved all those children were.I said thank you.Then she asked if they were our foster children. I said no, we adopted them.She immediately stepped back and said something like,I thought you were doing a good thing fostering those children.I repeated they were adopted.She turned to her companion and said they needed to leave. NOW!I guess adopting wasn't as acceptable in her mind as fostering.Rereading this I guess other than the preschool it wasn't as much about the numbers as stereotypes and racism. Funny, until I wrote this the only racism I recognized was the toothbrush lady.