50 brilliant hacks teachers swear by in the classroom

Teaching is a profession that requires lots of love and patience, but also a significant amount of your bank account every year, because as everyone knows, teaching is the only job where you steal things from your house and take them to work.

So this year, in order to save money and time, you can try the hacks fellow teachers use so that everyone’s happy in the classroom.

1. Tissue Dispenser

During the flu season, you can buy an under-shelf tissue dispenser so that kids don’t touch the tissue boxes and spread the germs.

Instagram: @undefined
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Instagram: @undefined

2. DIY Tissue Box

Make your own tissue box by using a candle holder and toilet paper. You just take out the cardboard from the center and pull the paper out. Genius, isn’t it?

3. Reading Guide

Use laminate strips and highlighter tape to make reading guides that will help your students focus on what they’re reading.

4. Vertical Storage Space

A shoe organizer seems ideal to store the kids’ headphones or anything really. The possibilities are endless.

tinasteachingtreasures
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tinasteachingtreasures

5. DIY Palette

This is such a cool palette you can make with materials you usually have on hand. Also, it tends to make less mess!

Smart School House
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Smart School House

6. Sticker Holder

Always keep losing your stickers? Try a binder ring, hang them on the wall and make sure you never lose them again.

7. Easily Group Students

Use colorful stickers to group students at each desk. This way, when you want a number of students to do something, you can call them by color.

owlwaysbeinspired
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owlwaysbeinspired

8. Glitter Shake

Everyone knows glitter is a teacher’s nightmare! Next time try using salt shakers to control the sprinkling.

9. Pair Them Up

Nail polish a great way to mark pairs of electronic deviced, such as USBs and mouses. It makes sense!

10. Ink Seal

We all know that when we write on plastic, it tends to go away very easily. So here’s a trick: seal the ink using clear nail polish.

The Learning Tree
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The Learning Tree

11. Marker Tip

By using velcro you ensure you won’t lose your markers, at least not as often as you used to. Plus, if the tip points downwards, they will last longer.

lucky little learners
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lucky little learners

12. Water Drawing

Have kids draw on a blackboard using water. This way they practice their fine motor skills and they don’t make a mess.

Kingdom First Homeschool
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Kingdom First Homeschool

13. Coffee Pod Holder

Use an old coffee pod holder as a stand for play-doh. Very practical and useful!

14. Paper Covers

Use dry-erase paper covers to save printing paper, plus time and money. This way you can use the same exercise many times with different groups.

15. Reward Beads

If you’re tired of giving hard-working students the plain old stickers, you can level up your game by giving them a set of “smart beads” to wear for the day.

Middle School Frolics
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Middle School Frolics

16. Now, what?

Keep a bunch of activities that early finishers can do, so that they don’t get bored.

Tuned Into Teaching
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Tuned Into Teaching

17. Storage Space

You can create individual storage space for each student, by arranging carbboard magazine holders as shown in the picture.

18. Pencil Dispenser

Repurpose your old straw dispenser and turn it into a pencil dispenser. Doesn’t it look fancy!

Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives
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Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives

19. Colorful Erasers

If you think whiteboard erasers are too boring for your classroom, you can use fuzzy socks instead!

20. Keep Them In Place

Toothbrush cases are a great idea for those of you who want to make sure kids won’t be losing their pencils all the time.

Instagram: @thebrightsunflower
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Instagram: @thebrightsunflower

21. Silent Hand Signals

Do students raise their hands or call your name for various reasons and interrupt the lesson? Here’s an idea of silent hand signals you can teach them at the beginning of the school year.

First Grade Fresh
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First Grade Fresh

22. Pencil Grip

If some children still haven’t figured how to properly hold a pencil, you can ask them to hold a cotton ball or small rubber between their ring and pinky fingers.

23. Marker Sets

Marker sets can be easily kept together if you use duct tape around them. That’s a good idea!

24. Paintbrush Hack

Keep paintbrushes in a great condition by soaking them in hair conditioner. That should work!

25. Class Rules

Always set the sules of the class at the beginning of the year and be consistent throughout.

Upper Grades Are Awesome
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Upper Grades Are Awesome

26. “I Wish My Teacher Knew…”

Have a jar on your desk along with some sticky notes throughout the year, so you can always find out something new about your students.

Instagram: @pencilsandplaygrounds
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Instagram: @pencilsandplaygrounds

27. Cell Phone Parking Spot

Provide a spot where your students can safely “park” their phones and return them at the end of the lesson in exchange for the respective number.

28. Bulletin Board Hack

Instead of using butcher paper as the background of your bulletin board, you can use fabric. This will help you save paper and it will last longer.

Primarily Speaking
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Primarily Speaking

29. Pencil Stash

A trick to help you lose fewer pencils during the school year is to create an arrangement with magnetic clips in which students sign out a pencil, return it, and erase their name. Simple, right?

Instagram: @misscraftymathteacher
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Instagram: @misscraftymathteacher

30. Tap Lights

Tap lights are a great idea to indicate when it’s okay for students to interrupt. You can also use red and green ones so that they act like traffic lights (red: you can’t interrupt; green: you can).

First Grade Spies
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First Grade Spies

31. Class Economy

Kids can earn class dollars if they behave themselves, which they can use to buy prizes from the class store. Kids who misbehave can be asked to give class dollars back to the teacher.

The Core Inspiration
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The Core Inspiration

32. Prizes

Use some old trophies as temporary rewards for hard-working students. See how motivated they will be.

33. Classroom Keepers

Organize the photocopies and materials you’ll need for each day of the week in a classroom keeper.

34. Questions Parking Lot

Reserve a spot where students can stick notes with questions and feedback, so that you know who hasn’t understood something or has questions.

35. Teacher’s Tool Kit

Stay extra organized by making your own teacher’s tool kit where you can keep all your stuff and know exactly where to find what.

36. File Sorters

Old file sorters can work just as well as an ipad mini station. It’s so easy.

37. No More Annoying Sounds

Just attach open tennis balls to the ends of chairs and desks and you’ll never hear the annoying squeeching sounds again!

38. Quiet Toys

Hand out quiet toys to students who need to fidget with something in order to concentrate.

39. Lost Property Bucket

This might not stop all students from giving you stuff, but at least you’ll know where to put it.

rachelatalldrinkofwater.com
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rachelatalldrinkofwater.com

40. Golf Pencils

Keep a box of golf pencils and hand out to students who have forgotten theirs. They’re inexpensive and you won’t mind losing them, plus students tend not to keep these ones.

41. Sharpener

A tried and true trick to help a student calm down is to give them a bunch of pencils to sharpen.

The Polka Dot Patch
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The Polka Dot Patch

42. DIY Prize-Punch

This teacher made a punch-it wall, so that when a student collects a number of stickers, they punch one of the cups and get their incentives. See how you can make it here.

East Coast Mommy
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East Coast Mommy

43. Homework Organizer

Use a vertical pocket organizer to save room and to make it easier for you to see how many homeword sheets/notebooks you have collected.

44. Extra Storage Room

Bucket seats make for extra storage room which teachers always need! Plus, they provide fancy seating!

room 4 imagination
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room 4 imagination

45. Phone Prison

Phones shouldn’t be out during class, everyone knows that. For those phones that are out without permission, there’s the phone prison!

46. Individual Phone Prisons

Dollar-store zip-loxk pencil bags can be used as individual phone prisons, where students can put their phones themselves to make sure they won’t be using them during class.

47. Therapy Animals

Therapy animals can work wonders with your students on tough days. You should definitely try it if you have the chance.

48. Eco-Friendly

Cut down on plastic in your classroom by using highlighting pencils instead of highlighting markers.

49. Recycling

Recycle cereal boxes by making board games and other lesson materials out of them.

Instagram: @greenteachertess
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Instagram: @greenteachertess

50. Glue Hack

Everyone knows that kids love to waste glue sticks! So next time just soak sponges in glue and have them use those instead!

For those of you who teach, the above might prove life-saving this academic year! The rest of you may have gotten some ideas to even use at home with your kids or nephiews!

In any case, these hacks are smart and good to have in mind just in case. We hope you enjoyed them!

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