Thirteen things I'd like to buy before school starts
1. One of those pocket charts to identify which stage of Writers' Workshop a student is at. This thing.
2. A new desk chair. Because you know what? Yes, I'm a teacher, and I think I'm a pretty good one. And guess what. I SIT DOWN SOMETIMES. I always run across teachers who think that if you sit down during the day, you're a crappy teacher, but I don't believe that. I believe that I have hallux rigidus in my big toe and my foot is killing me by 10 am, so yes, I sit down.
3. A bunch of storage crates.
4. A nice, bright, colorful, CHEAP rug to put in my classroom.
5. Some comfortable bean bags or chairs for my kids to sit in while they read. Right now they're limited to their chairs or the dusty tile floor - not great options.
6. Nice, swanky clothes to wear to school.
7. Storage containers!
8. Somewhere to put the storage containers and chairs, etc. My room is so weirdly shaped. It's like a triangle, and I have no corners, and no blank walls where I can stack or store things. It's so weird.
9. Staple-free stapler
10. Free blank checks for our little classroom economy thing.
11. Some kind of books on teaching reading and writing. I feel pretty confident in teaching everything else, but I'm about to branch out to something Ive never done before, and it would be nice to have some sort of reference. Everything is so expensive, though!
12. A good way for the kids to keep up with their own materials. They only have so much room in their desks, and they have so many books and things to keep up with. I really don't have anywhere in the room to store their stuff. Most teachers at our school buy those gigantic sized Ziploc bags, but that's not very effective for me. Any ideas?
13. An iPod. Because really, why not?
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4 comments:
1) LOVE pocket charts - and I think this one, especially for your grade level, will be a great resource. Is that a good company for classroom related supplies?
2) I'm ready to chop my feet off at the knees by the end of the day and sit whenever I can during lessons - even if it's for a few minutes. You are not a bad teacher (I believe) if you need to rest your tootsies - and what better way than in a cool, comfy chair?!
3) & 7) Storage is key - or at least this organized, sometimes anal-retentive, possibly OCD organized teacher thinks so! And the brighter, more fun colors, the better :)
4) & 5) This is what I'm most excited about adding to my (as yet to be determined) classroom, as I think it will go a long way towards motivating kids to read (even the little ones), if they can curl up and be cozy while doing so!
6) Um, being a woman, I understand completely - another of my favorite things :)
9) That is the COOLEST thing ever! I'm definitely getting a few!
10) I can't wait to hear how this works in your classroom - I think it has a lot of potential, and I'm thinking of modifying to use with the younger kids to help with understanding concepts of money.
11) LOVE teacher books - I'm definitely a dork and pick up as many as I can. You can never be too knowledgeable as a teacher and there are wonderful ideas contained within the pages.
12) I like the Ziploc bags as reading bags, and even for that, I'd like to find something better. Perhaps get a storage unit with colored bins in it and assign one to each student, let them decorate a name tag for it, and make sure it's big enough for pens, pencils, rulers, markers and the little things, along with composition books and such.
Maybe have a separate organizer/bin to hold textbooks, or allow them to keep only textbooks in their desks. I'm a visual learner, so pictures would definitely help me here :)
13) I heart my iPod. It's fantastic and I don't know how I lived without it for so long. Yes, go!!
Yeah, we get quite a bit of stuff through Carson Dellosa. I don't know how their stuff compares to others price-wise, but the material is good. The website, however, is ridiculously slow.
I think something like this would be great for storing student materials, but it's really expensive and I have nowhere to put such a thing.
That's what I had in the classroom I subbed in - and what I was talking about in my comment for #12.
No room for such a thing? How small is your room?
And as for working there, I've actually thought about teaching in the South - are they looking for 1-3rd grade teachers at all? ;)
Well, my room has an odd triangle shape. One wall is full of cabinets, shelves, and a bulletin board. The second wall is more cabinets and a white board, and the third wall is a bulletin board and a chalkboard. That's all I've got, and unless I want something jutting out into the middle of the room, there's nowhere to put it. It's awfully small, too. I don't know the dimensions, but you get the idea. Having a triangle shaped room really cuts down on space!
My school hired three 2nd grade teachers and three 3rd grade teachers just this year, so I'd say probably so! :)
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