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.
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.
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?
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.
This is such a cool palette you can make with materials you usually have on hand. Also, it tends to make less mess!
Always keep losing your stickers? Try a binder ring, hang them on the wall and make sure you never lose them again.
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.
Everyone knows glitter is a teacher’s nightmare! Next time try using salt shakers to control the sprinkling.
Nail polish a great way to mark pairs of electronic deviced, such as USBs and mouses. It makes sense!
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.
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.
Have kids draw on a blackboard using water. This way they practice their fine motor skills and they don’t make a mess.
Use an old coffee pod holder as a stand for play-doh. Very practical and useful!
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.
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.
Keep a bunch of activities that early finishers can do, so that they don’t get bored.
You can create individual storage space for each student, by arranging carbboard magazine holders as shown in the picture.
Repurpose your old straw dispenser and turn it into a pencil dispenser. Doesn’t it look fancy!
If you think whiteboard erasers are too boring for your classroom, you can use fuzzy socks instead!
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.
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.
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.
Marker sets can be easily kept together if you use duct tape around them. That’s a good idea!
Keep paintbrushes in a great condition by soaking them in hair conditioner. That should work!
Always set the sules of the class at the beginning of the year and be consistent throughout.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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).
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.
Use some old trophies as temporary rewards for hard-working students. See how motivated they will be.
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.
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.
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!
Hand out quiet toys to students who need to fidget with something in order to concentrate.
This might not stop all students from giving you stuff, but at least you’ll know where to put it.
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.
A tried and true trick to help a student calm down is to give them a bunch of pencils to sharpen.
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.
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.
Bucket seats make for extra storage room which teachers always need! Plus, they provide fancy seating!
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.
Therapy animals can work wonders with your students on tough days. You should definitely try it if you have the chance.
Cut down on plastic in your classroom by using highlighting pencils instead of highlighting markers.
Recycle cereal boxes by making board games and other lesson materials out of them.
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!
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
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.
