Bartlesville Teacher Uses Birthday Money To Enhance Learning Environment

There's just a month left until school starts and students aren’t the only ones getting supplies.

One Bartlesville teacher said she plans to use her birthday gift money on things for her classroom, and other teachers are doing the same.

If you look in history and leadership teacher Lyndsey Stuart’s classroom at Bartlesville High School, you’ll see things along the walls that tell you what you're learning.

"You wouldn't want to be in a classroom for an hour staring at blank walls," she said.

And all of those things she bought on her own. She said she spends about $500 of her own money every year, her birthday money.

Last month Stuart posted on Facebook that she would use her birthday gift money on her classroom, and she did, but she's not the only one.

Stuart said several of her teacher friends spend anywhere between $300 and $600 on their classrooms.

This year Stuart is a new classroom, so she's had to put it all back together. The district provided some paint, but she did the painting.

Someday she hopes schools will have enough funding and she won’t have to take it upon herself.

"A lot of my friends have left the profession, and I hold out hope that someday we will be adequately funded," Stuart said.

Stuart said she gets just $80 per year from the district for her classroom.