Let me start by saying that teachers, as a general rule, are expected to buy a LOT of supplies out of their own pockets. It's ridiculous actually. I can't imagine someone with a similar career (think lawyer, doctor, upper management) being told to do their jobs without any supplies. "Oh, Dr. Awesome, you have to buy your own surgical tools. We don't provide those here. If you are a really good doctor, though, you won't even need those tools to begin with!" That's kinda how I feel as a teacher sometimes. But I suck it up because, despite all that, I love my job.
1. The most expensive item you just need in your classroom is this:
It's called an Ipevo Point 2 View. It's a very handy, very small document camera. It is amazing. And it's only $69.00. If you don't have a document camera at your school and you are told there is no money for you to get one, then you should buy one of your own. It really did change my teaching. Or at least it used to....until some little ungrateful brat not-very-careful teenager broke mine. Seriously wrenched the thing off the stand and then somehow got it to LOOK like it was still attached and working. And never freaking fessed up to it. I'm still so mad thinking about it. Technically I'm supposed to get a big document camera for my new classroom this year, so I'm not going to buy a new Ipevo unless I have to. But you should. Because there is seriously so much you can do with a document camera.
These next two items are classroom management tools that I absolutely love. They are very inexpensive and they help teach my students procedures in a concrete way.
2. Call Bell
This little baby is less than six bucks and it really helps me in the classroom. Even if I weren't a diminutive female teacher, I would still use this thing. I use it to get the students' attention. And I use it so often the kids know that when they hear the bell they should stop what they are doing and pay attention. I use it the first day to reinforce this idea to them and then it just seems automatic. It's great when the kids are doing group work and there's no way I would otherwise be heard over thirty noisy teenagers. Who likes to raise their voice, right?! My students are so ingrained to look up and listen when they hear this thing that if one of my students walks by and hits it, they STILL all look up at me. LOVE.
3. Timer
Similar to the call bell is the timer, which I use to time all sorts of activities. It keeps me honest. If I say the students only have five minutes left for reading, then gosh darn it, they only have five minutes left! Teachers have only so much time to cram everything they need to do into a lesson, so this little device, at less than $3, is a lifesaver!
4. More of an organizational item than anything, the next thing you absolutely must have is a giant case of these:
Page protectors. The most awesome way to make a worksheet into an erasable activity ever invented. Let me start by saying my school does not own a laminating machine. And taking stuff to Kinko's or Staples can get expensive. This is an inexpensive way to "laminate" stuff. I also use them to create curriculum binders for each of my units. I save all the notes, handouts, worksheets, tests, quizzes, and keys in these and put them all into a binder for posterity (aka so I remember what we did the next year). You can't have too many of these in the classroom. I seriously buy two or three of the 'economy' size boxes of page protectors at the beginning of every school year. If you want to have your students use a worksheet, but also want to save paper and use that worksheet again the next year AND you plan to have the students grade it themselves, you can put the worksheet in a plastic sleeve, use a dry erase marker, and voila: reusable, wipeable worksheet. PS--if you have the students clean off the sheets right after they use them, you can get quite a few activities out of a set of these.
5. And the last thing on the list is an item that blew my mind when I saw it in the store. I am a nerd for school supplies, but these little babies made my teacher-heart leap with joy, excitement, and wonderment. What kind of magical unicorn pooped these things out??? I am talking about.....
These are erasable gel pens. And no, they do not suck. You probably remember those 'erasable' pens from way back, the ones with the crumbly erasers that never actually worked, leaving your paper smeared and covered in holes. NOT with this product! These pens have a rubber end that, because of friction (thus the brand name), erase completely. These are the ONLY things I use in my paper grade book/attendance book. I can't name how many times I would mark a kid absent only for him or her to walk in the door fifteen to thirty minutes after class started. Or how about those kids with zeros who finally get in their missing work two months later (more about being required to take late work from kids at another date). With my handy-dandy erasable pen, I can fix that. Plus, since it's not pencil, I don't have smeary pencil lines all over my grade book. They are kind of expensive at 6 for $10.50 and the pens don't last as long as I would like (probably because I use them all the freaking time), but I won't go back. You can't make me. These are the kind of pens I hide in my desk, refuse to let my students borrow, and pray that the company doesn't stop making.
So there you have it. Five items I have a strange addiction to that only fellow teachers can truly understand. What items could you not live without in your classroom?
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