Friday, August 14, 2015

8 AWESOME GIFTS FOR NEW TEACHERS




Today at work we threw a surprise party for my sister Momo for both her 30th birthday and to congratulate her for getting her first teaching job. Unfortunately I have no pictures because I was too bust setting up and then trying to keep everyone quiet, lest we lose the surprise aspect of the party. lol

Naturally, I wanted to give my sister a gift that was both useful and meaningful so I put together a gift basket (or rather several gift bags) of items that I find essential as a teacher. I've decided to share that list with you, both for people looking for good gifts for teachers, and for teachers themselves on the look out for some tools to add to their arsenal.

Note: this post contains affiliate links, which means I receive small commission if you decide to purchase anything through Amazon using my links. I only recommend items I've purchased and used myself, so trust that everything I post is legit, and I haven't received anything free or been asked to post any of these items : )

So without further ado:

Disorderly Teaching - 8 Awesome Gifts for New Teachers


Paper Mate Flair Pens

8 Awesome Gifts for New Teachers - Disorderly Teaching 
An absolute must for any teacher! Perfect for color coding, annotating, or just grading with something other than red! I use these babies EVERY day in my classroom and I love, love, love them. They write beautifully, the colors are vibrant, they don't bleed through, and they seem to last a long time. I’ve had mine for a couple of years and haven’t had to replace them yet.




Seville Mesh Desk Organizer

8 Awesome Gifts for New Teachers - Disorderly Teaching

I love this organizer so much I bought a second one for my co-teacher so she could revel in its magic (and so our desks could match). I actually got mine at Costco but it seems they no longer carry it so Amazon to the rescue! I really like that it has both horizontal pull out drawers which are great for loose papers, and vertical dividers for file folders and notebooks.



Officemate Deluxe Rotary Organizer

8 Awesome Gifts for New Teachers - Disorderly Teaching

Is there a single teacher who doesn’t have one of these spinny dervish organizer things on their desk? They’re super useful and this one I found is even better than my own. In fact it was the highlight of the party and everyone was asking where they could get one. It's no surprise. I mean it’s got a built in tape dispenser and Post-it compartment. How cool is that?



What Teachers Make:
In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World

8 Awesome Gifts for New Teachers - Disorderly Teaching

I picked this one up on a whim since I love Taylor Mali’s poem What Teachers Make. If you haven't seen the video, check it out here:



I think every teacher needs a little motivation, especially when you're first starting out. Mali understands what really matters as a teacher and always gets me pumped.




Lined Easel Pads

8 Awesome Gifts for New Teachers - Disorderly Teaching


These are great for making anchor charts, and the fact that they’re lined makes my OCD heart happy. No crooked anchor charts!



Sharpie Flip Chart Markers

8 Awesome Gifts for New Teachers - Disorderly Teaching

Because you need good markers to make good charts : )



PaperPro One Finger Stapler

8 Awesome Gifts for New Teachers - Disorderly Teaching

I LOVE this stapler... and apparently so do other people since it's always going missing from my desk. It's super easy to use, which is great for those times when the copier decides it doesn't want to staple your 100 packets and you have to do it by hand.


Adorable Sticky Notes


8 Awesome Gifts for New Teachers - Disorderly Teaching

Because OMG how cute!

Bees Page Tabs

Chick Page Tabs

Animal Sticky Notes



Honorable Mentions

These items I didn’t buy because we’d already picked them up during summer sales, or she has easy access to them from supplies at work. I’m posting them anyway, in case you found this post while looking for teacher gift ideas and need a bit more. Any teacher would be happy to receive these.


Pencils: Teachers can never, ever, EVER have enough pencils.

Dry Erase Markers: Go for a variety of colors instead of the boring old black, red, blue and green. I like choosing two main colors each month to punch up our daily agenda.

Dry Erase Board Cleaner: Please, don't use anything else to clean a white board. You eventually ruin the finish and the board is never the same.

Sharpies: A mix of round and fine tip is best, to provide versatility, as well as multiple colors.

Highlighters: The old standard yellow can be great, but multi-colored highlighters are amazing for annotating text and coding evidence. I bought 20 5-packs of highlights this summer!

Post-Its: Another supply teachers use and need ALL THE TIME.

Tool Kit: You'd be surprised how often this comes in handy. Make sure whatever you get has a hammer, needle nose pliers, measuring tape, and a ratcheting screwdriver with multiple bit types and sizes. A level is a great one too, especially if the teacher is your life is a bit OCD.

Sewing Kit: If you're anything like me, then chances are kids come running to you when they have wardrobe issues. Not only can you fix it for them with basic sewing supplies, but it gives you an opportunity to teach them a valuable life skill.

Paper Trimmer: I HIGHLY recommend getting a sliding blade trimmer versus a guillotine style. I have yet to meet a guillotine cutter that's aligned at a correct 90 degree angle.

Microwave: This can literally change a teacher's life. It opens up a new world of options for lunch and snacks, plus it can save that cup of coffee you forgot about an hour earlier.


Friday, August 7, 2015

Weekend Project – DIY Cute Fire Drill Teacher Clipboard


Apologies for any typos etc in this post. My ADD has been really bad the last few days (just ask Janice how our planning session went yesterday, or count how many time in the past two hours I've said "Damn it, what did I just think to do?").

Disorderly Teaching - DIY Cute Fire Drill Teacher Clipboard


On Tuesday I posted about how we handle fire drills in our classroom. A key component of student check in is an easy to find clipboard. The clipboard we use in our classroom is super simple, just a regular board with a paper owl (from the dollar store) taped on. I covered the entire owl with packing tape to protect it.

With my sister getting her own classes this year (go Momo! So proud of you for becoming a teacher), I decided to make a stand out clipboard for her to use during drills as well. It’s cheap, easy, and perfect for a Weekend Project : )

Note: This clipboard is great for any time you need students to follow or meet up with you. Be creative!

Project Completion Time: Half Hour (not counting buying supplies)

Supplies:
  • Clipboard
  • Decorative item(s)
  • Strong tape or glue

DIY Teacher Clipboard to take the hassle out of firedrills, classroom transitions, fieldtrips and more


Since this is her first year teaching, we went a bit fancier with her clipboard. First, we found this MAKEMarket chalk style clipboard at Michaels on clearance, which matches her chalkboard classroom theme.
 DIY Teacher Clipboard to take the hassle out of firedrills, classroom transitions, fieldtrips and more

Then we found these adorable painted wooden decorations (does anyone know what these are actually called?). You can find a wide variety of these in their woodwork section so choose one that matches your style and make it something that stands out. Momo originally picked out the bee because she loves bees, but it didn’t pop quite enough to stand out in a large crowd, so we added in the crown heart to make it the queen bee for her students to flock to : )


DIY Teacher Clipboard to take the hassle out of firedrills, classroom transitions, fieldtrips and more

If you want to keep your clipboard flush, go with a paper based decoration. You can find teacher cut outs in the dollar store, large embellishments in scrapbook stores, or cut something out yourself. Just make sure you stick to a clear, bold design so that it stands out. A collage of magazine cut outs may truly represent you, but it’s not a great sign post.

Now, just attach your decorations to the back of your clip board. Position them as close to the top as you can for when you hold the board up in the air (especially if you’re short like us).

For the wooden decorations, I attached them with my handy e6000 (one of the best crafting adhesives to have in your arsenal. I use it for everything!).

DIY Teacher Clipboard to take the hassle out of firedrills, classroom transitions, fieldtrips and more


If you’re using paper, tape will do fine. I like to cover the entire thing with packing tape to protect the paper from tearing or water damage. That way it will last for years.

The last thing to do (assuming you use this for fire drills) is to clip in your attendance roster for each of your classes. Now you’re all set!


DIY Teacher Clipboard to take the hassle out of firedrills, classroom transitions, fieldtrips and more

If you decide the make one of these clipboard, PLEASE share pics with me. I'd love to see what you come up with and how you use it!!!

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Take the Hassle Out of Fire Drills

Take the hassle out of high school fire drills with this easy procedure. - Disorderly Teaching



Update: Check out my super simple DIY for your classroom clipboard here.

Today I'm sharing my fire drill procedure with you, to help take the hassle and frustration out of fire drills for my fellow high school teachers.



I imagine in elementary school during a fire drill, all of the little kiddies line up in two straight lines and follow their teacher to perfection, just like in Madeline (feel free to comment with horror stories if I'm way off there). In high school however, it's a different story; at least where I teach. Students see a fire drill as a break from class and a chance to see friends. We all file out of our building en masse, and students mill around in a giant cluster. Just imagine 16 classrooms worth of teenagers in one clump. (with another 48 classrooms worth outside the neighboring buildings).

Now during a drill this isn't an issue, but in a real emergency it is. As teachers, we need to take roll to make sure all of our students made it out of the building safely. That way we can report if anyone is missing and still inside. Taking roll is impossible in the aforementioned student cluster, so we've taught our students to check in with us as soon as they make it outside.

Teaching this procedure was not easy (who can resist the lure of friends from another class!) and it took a few years to develop a system that works, but my co-teacher Janice and I are happy with it now.


Teaching the Procedure for Fire Drills

1. Explain the basics of a fire drill to students. This includes the route your class takes and (this is key) where you want them to meet up. Our building exits to the parking lot behind it, so kids tend to just wander out in random directions. We chose a safe point on the fringe with a clear marker to head towards. In our case we explained "Once you leave the building, move off the grass into the lot, then turn to the left. Walk towards the No Parking sign and meet up with us there."

2. Explain WHY students need to check in. Yes I know teenagers are moody and independent and think they know better. But guess what? If you give them a sound logical reason instead of "because I said so," they are way more likely to listen. So we tell our students that our job is to make sure they get out safely, and if they don't check in we're going to assume they're stuck in the building. Someone will have to try to find and save them which will waste time that could be spent rescuing people who are in need and could result in people being hurt (or worse) unnecessarily.

3. Give students a way to find you. My students know I love owls, so I put a large bright owl on the back of a clipboard. Our paper attendance is kept on that clipboard (and NOTHING else!) and Janice or I grab it on the way out to take roll outside. We hold the clipboard up high in the air so students can see exactly where we are and check in. It also serves as a visual reminder for those who forgot the procedure.

4. See what happens. As each student checks in with you, check them off on your attendance roster and thank them for remembering to check in. Depending on your school's guidelines have them stick with you or send them on their way. We let our kids go socialize once they've checked in.

I’d love to tell you that without fail that every student will check in no problem. The reality is this last year was my 4th year teaching and it was in one of the last fire drills of the year that we got 100% check in (told you this system took a while to perfect).

5. Now comes the fun part, especially if you enjoy drama. You want to reward the kids who checked in, and give a vibrant reminder to those who didn’t. So what we do is this:

First, give some form of reward to the students who checked in, like a piece of candy or even just some over the top verbal praise. Next is the reproval for those who didn't check in.

One teacher stays out of the room. The other tells them dramatically that there has been a tragedy. Ms. M or Dr. R (whoever stayed outside) has died. So many students didn’t check in that she ran back into the fire to save them and, alas, she did not make it out. Feel free to ham this up as much as possible. One time the teacher who “died” came stumbling into the room gasping and fell to the floor in a dramatic death scene. The idea isn’t to be morbid, but to be memorable. You’ll be amazed how many students remember the next time that they have to check in.

If you’re not lucky enough to have a co-teacher (and I’m sure most of you don’t), this still works. You literally just tell the class yourself that you died. Even with someone else telling the class, at no point do the students believe that happened, so it doesn’t matter if you’re there in the room, clearly alive as you tell them. Of course if you really want to ham it up, you can tell them everything in your dying breaths from the classroom floor : p

We repeat this procedure for the next few fire drills. Eventually you has very few or even just one student who didn’t check in and we call them out directly (note: make sure you have a good rapport with your students before doing so). Usually we’ll tell them “Her headstone will say ‘It was [student]’s fault,’” and the kids will all joke about it.

6. The last phase will be when you get 100% check in during a drill. We give the students a big reward (ex: popcorn and they get to watch an episode of a TV show or part of a movie) and also brag about how they are the most orderly class out there during drills.


Remember, as with any procedure, review review review. Everyone forgets things over time, so we need to reinforce throughout the year, no matter how well we taught it in the first place.

Well I hope this post helps you wrangle your kiddos during the next fire drill! Let me know how it goes. If you have any other tips, please share them in the comments below.






Monday, August 3, 2015

I have a Teachers Pay Teachers Store

As the post title says, I have started a Teachers Pay Teachers store. You can check it out here.

There's not much on there yet, but I plan to post products for teachers who work with students who struggle with reading. There's tons of reading products on TPT for elementary students but not much for middle and high school.

For now, I've just posted some printable posters I created for my own classroom. They're high resolution professional quality.

The first is a freebie, featuring a delightful quote by JK Rowling (creator of my favorite book series ever):

TPT - Disorderly Teaching


The second is $1.50, but it's on sale for $1.20 right now! AND use code BTS15 and you can get another 10% off (through August 4th).

TPT - Disorderly Teaching


I love, Love, LOVE this poster (I mean come on, it's got books, magic, AND Carl Sagan). It is my pride and joy in my classroom and students really do love it. They take pictures of it and one students last year asked if she could have my framed copy!

If you decide to grab either of these, I highly recommend Short Run Posters. I used them when I ordered these posters for my own classroom and they did a great job at a low price. (That is not an affiliate link or anything. Just sharing a good resource ^_~)


Lastly, I updated my pun supply labels and turned them into colorful owl posters! This one's $2.00, but also on sale.
TPT - Disorderly Teaching


Please check out my store and let me know what you think of these products : ) I'm new to this so I'm open to comments, criticism, ideas, and requests.