As promised, we wanted to share additional Google and paper-based ideas and for making and tracking family contact. Claire S., an early childhood teacher in Washington, DC, and two loyal blog commenters (thanks Carol and Xuan!) contributed the great solutions below....
Notebook Line Up
We all have grand ambitions at the beginning of the school year to keep our students organized. We diligently mark notebooks, binders, and folders. . . we use our best markers and our biggest labels. . . we buy a fancy 3-hole punch for the writing center. This year,...
Everyday Objects: Blue Tape For $3.87!
We teachers are always trying to make our classrooms more efficient—and less expensive! I recently visited several great schools in Brooklyn where I spotted multiple uses for blue painter’s masking tape. Check out the mileage you can get for just $3.87! You can… Mark...
Contest! Win access to Dash4Teachers App! (Enter by November 9)
Not only do you have students to keep track of, colleagues to meet with, and administrators to manage, but there’s another HUGELY important group of people who require your attention—the families of your students! Some of you are fortunate enough to have a...
Mailbag: Thumbdrives, Google Docs, and Longhand, Oh, My!
Dear Maia, I’m a middle school language arts teacher, and it has gotten increasingly complicated to keep track of my students’ writing over my decade of teaching. Some students want to write by hand. Others want to draft on laptops or desktop computers. Google Docs...
E-mail–Hate or Love it—It is Here to Stay!
E-mail. . . You may have noticed its absence as a topic on our blog. This is not because e-mail isn’t a big deal — in fact, we have an entire book chapter devoted to it. But I know that once we open the e-mail can of worms, well, there is no going back. And for...
FAQ: Falling Off and Getting On Again?
It happens to all of us. You have the best intentions to be “Together,” and then, something happens. You get sick, you travel all weekend, a friend pays you a surprise visit, you watch too many episodes of Homeland (ummmm. . . whoops!). Whatever the reason, something...
No Desk? No Cart? No Problem!
After last week’s post about teacher desks, a few of you wrote in to share your stories of not having a desk, or not even having a cart! I feel your pain. I spent a year teaching in three different outside trailers…there were frequent afternoon torrential downpours…...
FAQ: Hey, Do You Have a Pen I Could Borrow?
My first year of teaching, I had REALLY long (and admittedly, kind of messy) hair. At the end of the day, I would shake out my ponytail and occasionally find at least three pens hanging out up there. Next, I would empty the pockets of my oh-so-fashionable ankle length...
Parents Need Help With Organization, Too!
I had my first taste of school as a parent last week when I dropped off my 2-year old daughter at preschool for her very first day. I diligently followed her school’s guidelines for labeling an extra set of clothes, what was and was not allowed in the classroom, and...