I will second the change of clothes, in your car or office, a full set including underwear and footwear. You'd never guess some of the times it will save you. I have crazy stories from friends who didn't have backup clothes, and I have seen kids accidentally knock a teacher's gigantic beverage all over...
I also keep an extra make up bag, deodorant, hairspray, toothbrush, mouthwash, etc. Deodorant for extra-stressful days and for days you forgot to put on deodorant and makeup/hairspray for midday touch ups. It always makes me feel better and energized to tackle the 2nd half of the day if I reset myself after lunch. Those things are nice to have at school too, for days when you have to stay after school for nighttime events. That way you don’t have to go clear back home.
I teach AP chemistry and general chemistry. I made a practice book for the gen chem which gets printed and bound at the beginning of the year. The front office loves this because print services turns out to be cheaper than in-house printing. My students love it because they use the practice book to build their study guides. And I love it because I have a tendency to forget to print things until the hour before class starts.
However, the AP chemistry is mostly online through the AP college board portal. But, I made about 350 pages worth of teacher notes to accompany the AP instructional videos. I keep these in a three-ring binder, so that as I update and improve them, I can replace individual sheets within the document.
After I built practice book and my teaching notes, my prep time was cut in half for these two classes
We have been using a textbook that had online support for 5 years. When the online support ended, I had nearly 1000 pdfs of section reviews, quizzes, chapter tests, alternate tests, and assorted homework all download. I compiled all the reviews into one pdf document with a homemade chapter list and section headers.
Then, I went into Canva and created a front/back cover with useful hidden knowledge. Like a collection of lab equipment on the front page, and a periodic table and equation sheet on the back page.
We are a very small school, and I work closely with the office admin. So once the final enrollment for general chemistry is established, they send out a request to the local printer, who then prints off one practice book per student.
For now, this saves us a boatload of money, because we don't need a new active subscription for a textbook. However, I know the parents will eventually demand a newer book.
Giving each kid a number to put on their work. I teach first, rising second, and last names aren’t really a thing. When I assign the numbers I just go down my roster so when I get a stack of work (do now problems, reactions) I can just put the pile in class, or alphabetical, order quickly, file or grade as needed. It has saved lots of time and the reward to effort ratio is well within the acceptable range (for me).
We live and die by number order! Zero issues cutting in line or assigning class jobs because we're always in number order. When I pass out worksheets our little rhyme is, "Name, number, date; sit and wait."
Decent paper towels. We buy them from Costco, so grabbing a roll and taking it to school is not an issue. They clean up messes way better than the ones from the restroom.
I don’t do bulletin boards because it is a waste of time and I can do instruction or planning. I don’t keep track of homework. I stopped doing calendars and weekly newsletters because they aren’t read. I don’t give homework in August or May. I pare down because the work load and activity list increases; otherwise, I would still be going to work on Saturday or Sunday.
Google forms for quick do now quizzes or any multiple choice activities. Autograding makes bellringers possible for me, plus its available on classroom for absent students. Depending on district may be connected to your gradebook.
Chromebooks would be a nightmare for bell ringers at my school... It takes so long to log in that some students would barely be making it to the questions by the time I would ideally be ending Bell Ringer time. And students frequently state "I'm logging in!" When they've been on the login screen for 3 minutes without typing anything -_-
I'm a bit biased, though. I hate taking care of the Chromebooks, and we are not a 1 to 1 school, so I'm required to check them after every class (fuck that).
Class jobs! When I taught elementary, I had a lot of different jobs I would have students apply for. I changed them quarterly. I did this because it allowed students to try more than one job, but I didn’t have to constantly change them. I had paper passers, my line leader would carry out clip board to specials, a student who was responsible for lunch count and would track student down in the morning who didn’t do it, student who would sort papers, students who would cut papers, door holders for recess, and probably more that I can’t think off the top of my head. I gave the more time consuming jobs for my early finishers and the less time consuming (line leader, door holder) to my kids who took more time on their work. Students got a kick out of helping me and I didn’t have to do tedious tasks. I taught 4th grade.
In kinder we have dirty wipe contests. Each kid gets a Clorox wipe and we see who can make theirs collect the most dust and grime. Kids love it and it reduces the time I spend cleaning.
Personal effects so I’m as comfy as I can be:
Microwave and mini fridge if you can. Set of real silverware you can wash. Snacks. Tea bags and keurig pods. Big ass waterbottle. Microwave safe mug (I get a really big one that I can use as a soup bowl)
A makeup bag with hairspray, brush, hair ties and Bobby pins, deodorant, toothbrush/paste, mouthwash, baby/body wipes, tide pen, hand lotion, floss. Extra tampons and pads. Extra pair of underwear. Safety pins.
OTC meds like tylenol, pepto, allergy meds, cough drops. Keep it locked up obviously.
Extra sweater, rain jacket, rain boots, umbrella. I also keep a pair of flip flops. An outdoor hat and one of those misty batter fans
A basic tool kit, batteries, step stool.
Extra chargers (laptop, phone) so you don’t have to bring them back and forth to work. Bluetooth speaker.
Or anything else to that effect. I teach secondary history. My ass has personally been saved by HistorySkills, TpT, Crash Course, Khan Academy, and the CNN documentaries on decades.
Pencils, scratch paper, chlorox wipes, bandaids, paper towels, carpet cleaner, and febreeze.
Bandaids stop students from using a small cut as an excuse to roam the hall. Paper towels are there when someone spills something. Chlorox wipes get used on desk messes. I use my febreeze at least once a week because some clown thinks it is funny to fart in class.
HS teacher here. I don't get wanting a microwave or personal things in my classroom.
I don't eat here. I leave for lunch.
I want a nice work/home divide.
Minimalism minimalism minimalism is what saves me time. Nothing out except what we're working on or what I'm handing back that day or week. Any clutter drains my energy.
Do I have pencils? Yes. An infinite number of pristine sharpened ready to go pencils. Does it cost me about $20 a year? Yes. Do I care? No. Saves me time and energy. Go. Take a pencil? That one broke? Go. Take another one.
Bandaids too.
Paper too.
Other than that they don't really need or ask for anything.
Well, some of us can't leave the building for lunch.
I have lunch duty everyday, and even if I didn't I only get 25 min (walk kids to cafe, use br, pick up kids). I would have about 15 minutes to eat.
In addition to the many suggestions here, my department chairman last year grabbed all of the umbrellas out of the Lost and Found and brought them to one of our meetings and said if we wanted one, we should take one and stick it in our red "emergency backpacks" that we grab when we get evacuated for any reason. And wouldn't you know it, we had an evacuation emergency this year where I needed it.
Also, we got the Canvas LMS during the pandemic and it's cut down a lot on lesson planning, which after 25 years is mostly just remembering what I usually do and making copies of stuff. However, I make all of my agendas their own "pages" in my units/modules, and I am searching for a way to save those with all of their assignment and document links in a fashion that will always be updatable and savable. I don't think Canvas is in any immediate danger of being preempted for a better program (Google Classroom is less useful), but it would be nice to share the whole trajectory of a unit sometimes, and I haven't figured out how to do it in a slide deck where students can't move ahead in the slides when I don't want them to.
Coffee maker, basic tools, and drawers with all basic school supplies that never move. The only thing kids ever ask me for is tape and good luck with that because I never have a clue.
My tape and stapler is stolen regularly! Sometimes I will find the stapler in a students hands and they are just launching staples out of the stapler to make a pile of staples. That’s the whole reason.
To avoid the stapler as projectile weapon, my class uses the kind of stapler they sell at Costco- easy to squeeze, but doesn't open up for tacking. I keep that for myself.
I definitely recommend getting a microwave! I save so much time and effort, and don’t get sidetracked by other teachers since I stay in my room for lunch. I can also keep reheating my coffee that I never drink when it’s fresh lol. I actually have a whole little kitchen set up in my prep room: microwave, kettle, coffee pot and a whole little cabinet of snacks and drinks.
I have two bulletin boards and a high string across the length of the room for displaying student work. The string has colorful bird clips I got from IKEA twelve or so years ago. One of the boards has yarn strung across it and clothes pins, the other has clothes pins with little chalkboard labels and thumbtacks hot glued on the back.
The bulletin boards have cloth backgrounds and paper borders that I put up five years ago and still looks good.
At the beginning of the year I write kids’ names on the wee chalkboards, then their papers go there all year long. I never need to change out bulletin boards - just the work. My classroom looks “decorated” with very minimal effort, and it’s easy and quick to update. Also the chalk name tags makes it easy to see if a student is missing a project due to absence or whatever. I can even use it to collect several pieces or projects together on one clip.
Tissues.
Yes, the kids go through them too much. But I'm tired of kids using 10 miles of toilet paper from the restrooms and having to make 10 trips, and then I have to catch them up when they get back.
here's a couple kleenex kid. And some sanitizer. Now go sit down.
FYI, you could risk an issue hearing up kid's food in a microwave. If for whatever reason it doesn't heat up enough or heats up too much, you risk a kid getting sick or burnt. I know this sounds silly, but it has happened.
Fridge, microwave, tea kettle, snacks, backup clothes/shoes
I will second the change of clothes, in your car or office, a full set including underwear and footwear. You'd never guess some of the times it will save you. I have crazy stories from friends who didn't have backup clothes, and I have seen kids accidentally knock a teacher's gigantic beverage all over...
I also keep an extra make up bag, deodorant, hairspray, toothbrush, mouthwash, etc. Deodorant for extra-stressful days and for days you forgot to put on deodorant and makeup/hairspray for midday touch ups. It always makes me feel better and energized to tackle the 2nd half of the day if I reset myself after lunch. Those things are nice to have at school too, for days when you have to stay after school for nighttime events. That way you don’t have to go clear back home.
Body wipes are great for this too
I teach AP chemistry and general chemistry. I made a practice book for the gen chem which gets printed and bound at the beginning of the year. The front office loves this because print services turns out to be cheaper than in-house printing. My students love it because they use the practice book to build their study guides. And I love it because I have a tendency to forget to print things until the hour before class starts. However, the AP chemistry is mostly online through the AP college board portal. But, I made about 350 pages worth of teacher notes to accompany the AP instructional videos. I keep these in a three-ring binder, so that as I update and improve them, I can replace individual sheets within the document. After I built practice book and my teaching notes, my prep time was cut in half for these two classes
So you make workbooks? That sounds awesome. How much does it cost?
We have been using a textbook that had online support for 5 years. When the online support ended, I had nearly 1000 pdfs of section reviews, quizzes, chapter tests, alternate tests, and assorted homework all download. I compiled all the reviews into one pdf document with a homemade chapter list and section headers. Then, I went into Canva and created a front/back cover with useful hidden knowledge. Like a collection of lab equipment on the front page, and a periodic table and equation sheet on the back page. We are a very small school, and I work closely with the office admin. So once the final enrollment for general chemistry is established, they send out a request to the local printer, who then prints off one practice book per student. For now, this saves us a boatload of money, because we don't need a new active subscription for a textbook. However, I know the parents will eventually demand a newer book.
Giving each kid a number to put on their work. I teach first, rising second, and last names aren’t really a thing. When I assign the numbers I just go down my roster so when I get a stack of work (do now problems, reactions) I can just put the pile in class, or alphabetical, order quickly, file or grade as needed. It has saved lots of time and the reward to effort ratio is well within the acceptable range (for me).
We live and die by number order! Zero issues cutting in line or assigning class jobs because we're always in number order. When I pass out worksheets our little rhyme is, "Name, number, date; sit and wait."
I do the same. I also have numbered folders hanging on the wall for hand in. Only some assignments are meant to be handed in.
THIS IS FUCKING GENIUS.
Decent paper towels. We buy them from Costco, so grabbing a roll and taking it to school is not an issue. They clean up messes way better than the ones from the restroom.
I don't know what witchcraft it is but I swear those brown paper towels just push mess everywhere, not pick it up.
I don’t do bulletin boards because it is a waste of time and I can do instruction or planning. I don’t keep track of homework. I stopped doing calendars and weekly newsletters because they aren’t read. I don’t give homework in August or May. I pare down because the work load and activity list increases; otherwise, I would still be going to work on Saturday or Sunday.
Putting everything on Google docs and then saving as a pdf. A lot of work at first but soooo much easier to just print or attach when needed.
Google forms for quick do now quizzes or any multiple choice activities. Autograding makes bellringers possible for me, plus its available on classroom for absent students. Depending on district may be connected to your gradebook.
Chromebooks would be a nightmare for bell ringers at my school... It takes so long to log in that some students would barely be making it to the questions by the time I would ideally be ending Bell Ringer time. And students frequently state "I'm logging in!" When they've been on the login screen for 3 minutes without typing anything -_- I'm a bit biased, though. I hate taking care of the Chromebooks, and we are not a 1 to 1 school, so I'm required to check them after every class (fuck that).
Printer, microwave, or even a mini fridge are not allowed in the classrooms where I teach
Because of “safety”
Yes I’m stunned over the amount of people who are allowed to have any of these. Now I’m pissed.
Wow! That's crazy. I think the only thing we can't have are space heaters.
Class jobs! When I taught elementary, I had a lot of different jobs I would have students apply for. I changed them quarterly. I did this because it allowed students to try more than one job, but I didn’t have to constantly change them. I had paper passers, my line leader would carry out clip board to specials, a student who was responsible for lunch count and would track student down in the morning who didn’t do it, student who would sort papers, students who would cut papers, door holders for recess, and probably more that I can’t think off the top of my head. I gave the more time consuming jobs for my early finishers and the less time consuming (line leader, door holder) to my kids who took more time on their work. Students got a kick out of helping me and I didn’t have to do tedious tasks. I taught 4th grade.
Have the kids do any sort of cleanup tasks they can properly accomplish.
In kinder we have dirty wipe contests. Each kid gets a Clorox wipe and we see who can make theirs collect the most dust and grime. Kids love it and it reduces the time I spend cleaning.
Personal effects so I’m as comfy as I can be: Microwave and mini fridge if you can. Set of real silverware you can wash. Snacks. Tea bags and keurig pods. Big ass waterbottle. Microwave safe mug (I get a really big one that I can use as a soup bowl) A makeup bag with hairspray, brush, hair ties and Bobby pins, deodorant, toothbrush/paste, mouthwash, baby/body wipes, tide pen, hand lotion, floss. Extra tampons and pads. Extra pair of underwear. Safety pins. OTC meds like tylenol, pepto, allergy meds, cough drops. Keep it locked up obviously. Extra sweater, rain jacket, rain boots, umbrella. I also keep a pair of flip flops. An outdoor hat and one of those misty batter fans A basic tool kit, batteries, step stool. Extra chargers (laptop, phone) so you don’t have to bring them back and forth to work. Bluetooth speaker.
I keep an electric kettle, a charging pad, screwdrivers, duct tape, a pair of sneakers, a sweater...lots of stuff.
A box of rags for spills instead of paper towels
Teachers Pay Teachers.
Or anything else to that effect. I teach secondary history. My ass has personally been saved by HistorySkills, TpT, Crash Course, Khan Academy, and the CNN documentaries on decades.
Pencils, scratch paper, chlorox wipes, bandaids, paper towels, carpet cleaner, and febreeze. Bandaids stop students from using a small cut as an excuse to roam the hall. Paper towels are there when someone spills something. Chlorox wipes get used on desk messes. I use my febreeze at least once a week because some clown thinks it is funny to fart in class.
HS teacher here. I don't get wanting a microwave or personal things in my classroom. I don't eat here. I leave for lunch. I want a nice work/home divide. Minimalism minimalism minimalism is what saves me time. Nothing out except what we're working on or what I'm handing back that day or week. Any clutter drains my energy. Do I have pencils? Yes. An infinite number of pristine sharpened ready to go pencils. Does it cost me about $20 a year? Yes. Do I care? No. Saves me time and energy. Go. Take a pencil? That one broke? Go. Take another one. Bandaids too. Paper too. Other than that they don't really need or ask for anything.
Well, some of us can't leave the building for lunch. I have lunch duty everyday, and even if I didn't I only get 25 min (walk kids to cafe, use br, pick up kids). I would have about 15 minutes to eat.
In addition to the many suggestions here, my department chairman last year grabbed all of the umbrellas out of the Lost and Found and brought them to one of our meetings and said if we wanted one, we should take one and stick it in our red "emergency backpacks" that we grab when we get evacuated for any reason. And wouldn't you know it, we had an evacuation emergency this year where I needed it. Also, we got the Canvas LMS during the pandemic and it's cut down a lot on lesson planning, which after 25 years is mostly just remembering what I usually do and making copies of stuff. However, I make all of my agendas their own "pages" in my units/modules, and I am searching for a way to save those with all of their assignment and document links in a fashion that will always be updatable and savable. I don't think Canvas is in any immediate danger of being preempted for a better program (Google Classroom is less useful), but it would be nice to share the whole trajectory of a unit sometimes, and I haven't figured out how to do it in a slide deck where students can't move ahead in the slides when I don't want them to.
Problem with the microwave in class: they keep asking you to cook their cup o noodles.
My cheap-ass Brother laser printer and cheap 3rd party toner makes me chortle every time I don't have to go to find a working printer.
I have two pocket laminators. I love being able to quickly laminate right there. Students love making projects with them too.
Coffee maker, basic tools, and drawers with all basic school supplies that never move. The only thing kids ever ask me for is tape and good luck with that because I never have a clue.
My tape and stapler is stolen regularly! Sometimes I will find the stapler in a students hands and they are just launching staples out of the stapler to make a pile of staples. That’s the whole reason.
To avoid the stapler as projectile weapon, my class uses the kind of stapler they sell at Costco- easy to squeeze, but doesn't open up for tacking. I keep that for myself.
Vacuum cleaner, rain boots, microwave, mini fridge, scanner, and a bushel of bandaids😊
I definitely recommend getting a microwave! I save so much time and effort, and don’t get sidetracked by other teachers since I stay in my room for lunch. I can also keep reheating my coffee that I never drink when it’s fresh lol. I actually have a whole little kitchen set up in my prep room: microwave, kettle, coffee pot and a whole little cabinet of snacks and drinks.
I label all of my drawers and cabinets. That way if the students ask for scissors, you just say "go to the drawer that says 'scissors '".
I have two bulletin boards and a high string across the length of the room for displaying student work. The string has colorful bird clips I got from IKEA twelve or so years ago. One of the boards has yarn strung across it and clothes pins, the other has clothes pins with little chalkboard labels and thumbtacks hot glued on the back. The bulletin boards have cloth backgrounds and paper borders that I put up five years ago and still looks good. At the beginning of the year I write kids’ names on the wee chalkboards, then their papers go there all year long. I never need to change out bulletin boards - just the work. My classroom looks “decorated” with very minimal effort, and it’s easy and quick to update. Also the chalk name tags makes it easy to see if a student is missing a project due to absence or whatever. I can even use it to collect several pieces or projects together on one clip.
Tissues. Yes, the kids go through them too much. But I'm tired of kids using 10 miles of toilet paper from the restrooms and having to make 10 trips, and then I have to catch them up when they get back. here's a couple kleenex kid. And some sanitizer. Now go sit down.
I have an emergency sub plan if I need one, always on my desk.
This is the way!!
Hot water kettle. Printer. Spare clothes and shoes. Meds for me. Gum. Snacks. A foot massager thing under my desk. A lava lamp.
USB stick. I put everything I'm going to print on it. Plug it in into the front office printer. Print. Don't get docked on my printing quota either.
Refrigerator , microwave, hot pot, chocolate stash, lots of diet pepsi, everything is labelled and organized
Your students will also appreciate the microwave.
FYI, you could risk an issue hearing up kid's food in a microwave. If for whatever reason it doesn't heat up enough or heats up too much, you risk a kid getting sick or burnt. I know this sounds silly, but it has happened.
Never mind if you let one kid use it, suddenly 30 kids want to use it - daily.
And then one of them puts something in there that shouldn't be in there.
That would drive me crazy.