We could all use some fresh new teaching ideas right!?!? I don’t care how long you’ve been teaching when you come across a newish, brilliant idea you know you get excited – c’mon admit it!
I wanted to share a few that work really well for me – these ideas have saved my sanity over the years and I hope they are helpful to you too!
PENCIL POUCHES
This teacher hack has worked beautifully so far this year and I’m thrilled with it. I got rid of pencil boxes! For real folks! On my supply list I put down pencil POUCHES! Why you ask!?!? Well… if you have been teaching for any amount of time you know the struggle. A child bumps a pencil box and the entire class jumps up to ‘help’ pick it all up. Sweet, yes…necessary no! It’s more of a headache to have 22 students up collecting #allthethings. Pencil pouches don’t fall as much, they are much quieter when they fall and they don’t spread #allthethings every which way. They fit crayons, pencils and a small sharpener and scissors what more do you really need? Seriously give it a try ~ it’s been a game changer for me.
CONES
This has been a life saver for me! I started this several years ago and it’s been awesome. Whenever a child leaves the classroom they take a labeled cone and place it on their desk. I used to ask everyone where Johnny was when I scanned the room quickly. Now I just look at the desk and know immediately who’s out of the room. ALSO it reduces the questions for bathroom use. If one of the restroom cones is gone they can’t ask to go. It’s a wonderful, cheap and easy to implement hack that you’ll love. ( I purchased the cones at Dollar Tree )
TEACHER EDITION STORAGE
I got so tired of finding places to store the TE’s I use most often. They looked cluttered stacked on my desk and when I set them down on a counter I was frustrated that they weren’t easily accessible. So, I brought in a desk file organizer from Target and it stores my most frequently used TE’s perfectly. Once I use them and am done with them I put them right back in the organizer. The stay put and look organized on my desk. Also, it’s so easy to trade out TE’s for my Wonders ELA program ( I store the rest of the TE’s in a cabinet )
CRAYON/ COLORED PENCIL STORAGE
Ok, let’s be honest. In August/September kids come in with sharp pencils and brand new crayons. Give them a few weeks and 1/2 of the crayons are broken or lost! #truestory
So about 6 years ago, I put my no homed or broken crayon collection into these drawers. I use to hear kids say who has a brown crayon they can share while they were working on a project. Now, they just quietly walk up to my storage spot and put out what they need. They have been trained to go right back up and return what they borrowed and my storage for them hasn’t diminished once. It’s organized, easy to access and cheap because the collection is either from old crayons, donations, broken ones, etc.
DOORBELL
This one I’m sure you’ve heard of…it’s been a popular one the last several years. Purchase a wireless doorbell from Amazon – plug it in and watch the magic happen. This doorbell is amazing because it has like 50 different bell tones to choose from so it makes it very easy to get and keep the kids attention. Hearing different tones keeps them on their toes. My students know to freeze when the doorbell goes off. I can easily carry the remote in my fun teacher apron which leads me to my next hack.
TEACHER APRON
Teachers are busy people, we wear a lot of hats and need about 10 more hands then we currently have right!??! This teacher apron from Hadar’s – ( Miss Kindergarten ) mom is wonderful. I’ve had it for about 7 or 8 years now. I put my keys, my phone, hall passes, pencil, etc. in it. I bring it out when we teach PE or have recess duty and it has everything I might need. I even wear it in the classroom for easy access to stickers, grading pens, my reading glasses etc. It comes in so handy AND most importantly it’s SUPER CUTE! You can find her here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ILoveTeaching
COOL DOWN KIT
I just created this kit this past summer so it’s new for me to implement this year. I have the RSP cluster this year which I haven’t had in about 12 years. I thought having a cool down kit might be helpful for any of my students. Several times over the last couple of years this kit would’ve come in handy. I’m hoping it can meet the needs of one of my littles if they become super frustrated or anxious about something.
HELPER OF THE DAY
This may not be your cup of tea and that’s okay! But let me tell you I had student ‘jobs’ for years. Every Monday morning I would waste lots of instructional time moving kids around for their jobs and naming them off. NOT ANYMORE! I have one helper every single day with an easy clip rotation and cups to keep me or a substitute organized….this helper picks ONE classmate to help them and they do IT ALL. They are paper passers, door holder, line leaders etc. I use to have to say like who’s our door holder? BUELLER, Bueller???? If the child was not paying attention or paying attention but forgot ( happened a lot surprisingly ) I would be standing there and someone else would volunteer to help so we could move on. When the child that really had that job realized they weren’t doing it they would be all upset. Recognize that problem??? Well, you can thank me now because that problem has now been eliminated. My helper of the day and helpers helper has NEVER forgot to do any of the jobs and they are totally on it all day. They realize they have to wait another 23ish days to be the main helper again so they work really hard. Simple little hack but saves tons of headaches I promise!
Hopefully these back to school classroom hacks will make your life a little easier this year. Happy teaching xoxo
