If you're anything like me, a lot of the Summer holidays are spent seeking out bargains for the new school year. Whenever I'm out and about I can't help but think of what I might need in my classroom next year, or how something could be used. This week has been one of those weeks. We went to Ikea and I really had to stop myself buying items that, although they might look good, wouldn't have much 'educational value'. But, today, I found myself in the local 'Poundland' and 'Wilkinsons' purchasing a few items that I had been inspired to get/found a purposeful use for next year.
In the true spirit of #poundlandpedagogy, here are my bargain buys and how I intend to use them this coming school year...
(check out the hashtag above for other fantastic ideas that other teachers have) [thanks to @WallaceIsabella for creating this phenomenon]
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I've been looking for something like this since the back end of last year when I was doing my numeracy puzzle(s) of the week with my tutor group - check out my recent numeracy across the curriculum post here. I was getting fed up of having to find spare bits of scrap paper for them to work on during tutor time and, without the budget to get them their own exercise book, was looking for some small notepads that they could use instead.
I found these note books (a pack of 8 for £1) from 'Poundland' and they are pretty much what I was thinking of. I bought 4 packs of these so each one of my tutor group has their own note pad to use throughout the year.
These will come in handy for weekly discussions, numeracy puzzles, literacy tasks etc etc. I will keep them in our room so that 1) the kids don't lose them 2) I can look at what they've done and 3) I can easily hand them out on a daily basis when needed.
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Here's what the note pads look like out of the packets. There are 50 pages per note pad, which should be more than enough. Plus, if I need to kill any time during tutor time in the 1st week back I'll be sorted - personalise your note pad!
The only foreseeable problem...fighting over what colour each person gets!
The next idea I got whilst visiting my fiance's school/classroom yesterday and helping her set up her displays etc (yep, I had nothing better to do).
On a separate note, I'd be interested to know how many teachers are able to go into school (if they want to) over the Summer holidays? My school is closed throughout the whole of August (except results day) and so I'm not able to go in even if I wanted to. Whereas my fiance's school is open throughout the holidays between 9am-3pm. Let me know via Twitter (@mrprcollins) or by commenting below.
When helping set up her classroom I noticed she had a load of bulldog clips on nails that were hammered into the wall. I asked what she used them for and she said that was where students kept their 'works in progress'. Being a DT teacher she often has students that are partway through a project and to keep all their work in one place they clip them onto the bulldog clips and were kept there until next lesson. I believe she used this process with a single class (maybe her GCSE class)? What I liked about this is that all her other classes, and classes of other teachers using her room, would see the work on display and the development of it over time.
I've decided to magpie this idea and tweak it for my #takeawayhomework display. To read more about the takeaway homework I use with my classes click here and here. What I intend to do is, on my display board that I've set aside for the takeaway homework I will put up some of the bulldog clips, with some 'backing paper' ready to hold in place examples of fantastic homework that I receive/have received so far. So I got some bulldog clips and backing paper from 'Poundland' today...
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Here's her 'work in progress' display with the bulldog clips and backing paper ready for her students' work...
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...my recent purchases from 'Poundland'. I will pin up about 5/6 pieces of homework and then complete the display with my takeaway homework menu and some other examples that can't be clipped up - things like the foldables, tweets, trump cards etc.
Next, an actual purchase from Ikea - my new organiser/whiteboard and some added whiteboard pens from 'Poundland'. The one thing I did buy from Ikea (only £2.25) was a noticeboard that doubles as both a whiteboard and a pin board. The whiteboard section is, conveniently, split into 7 sections (I'm assuming 1 for each day of the week). Now this, for me, is ideal as I have 6 Mathematics classes next year and my tutor group. So for each section I intend on writing up important information for each class on a regular basis. I used to do this using the magicwhiteboard A4 sheets that I stuck up on my windows, but I didn't update them as much as I could have. The whiteboard will be hung up somewhere visible to students and myself and I will aim to put the following under each class' section: homework details/deadlines, important dates (assessments etc) and pupil(s) of the week. Here's the board...
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In addition to the board I stocked up on some whiteboard pens from 'Poundland'. They seem to work fine and you get 5 for £1, all different colours too. I'm forever running out of these and our departmental supplies constantly run low. So, in an attempt to avoid constantly bothering our faculty assistant for whiteboard pens, I figured I'd get some spares to keep my students going for a while!
Finally, another great find today came from 'Wilkinsons' in the form of index cards or cue cards (whatever you refer to them as). I got some of these last year to use as a starter/plenary task - 'my favourite no'. Check out this link/video for a full explanation on the task (it's well worth it). This was an idea I found on the web last Summer and the task works fantastically well! The only drawback was that wherever I had looked in the past for index cards they seemed to be £4/£5 a pack, which was far too much!
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These index cards (50) from Wilkinsons cost just 75p each and so I got a few packs of these to use with the 'my favourite no' task. I'll get students to do use both sides of the cards and might even cut them in half so I get as much use out of them as I can.
There we have it, my recent haul of stationary to prepare for the new school year. Be sure to tweet your #poundlandpedagogy finds and uses and tweet me @mrprcollins, or comment below, if you think of other productive ways I could use the items I bought today.
Having just linked the hashtag above I've already found another teacher @TheMathsMagpie who has used sponges bought from 'B&Q' to create whiteboard rubbers for her mini whiteboards...
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Great idea...one for my next trip to the shops!
In the true spirit of #poundlandpedagogy, here are my bargain buys and how I intend to use them this coming school year...
(check out the hashtag above for other fantastic ideas that other teachers have) [thanks to @WallaceIsabella for creating this phenomenon]
I found these note books (a pack of 8 for £1) from 'Poundland' and they are pretty much what I was thinking of. I bought 4 packs of these so each one of my tutor group has their own note pad to use throughout the year.
These will come in handy for weekly discussions, numeracy puzzles, literacy tasks etc etc. I will keep them in our room so that 1) the kids don't lose them 2) I can look at what they've done and 3) I can easily hand them out on a daily basis when needed.
The only foreseeable problem...fighting over what colour each person gets!
The next idea I got whilst visiting my fiance's school/classroom yesterday and helping her set up her displays etc (yep, I had nothing better to do).
On a separate note, I'd be interested to know how many teachers are able to go into school (if they want to) over the Summer holidays? My school is closed throughout the whole of August (except results day) and so I'm not able to go in even if I wanted to. Whereas my fiance's school is open throughout the holidays between 9am-3pm. Let me know via Twitter (@mrprcollins) or by commenting below.
When helping set up her classroom I noticed she had a load of bulldog clips on nails that were hammered into the wall. I asked what she used them for and she said that was where students kept their 'works in progress'. Being a DT teacher she often has students that are partway through a project and to keep all their work in one place they clip them onto the bulldog clips and were kept there until next lesson. I believe she used this process with a single class (maybe her GCSE class)? What I liked about this is that all her other classes, and classes of other teachers using her room, would see the work on display and the development of it over time.
I've decided to magpie this idea and tweak it for my #takeawayhomework display. To read more about the takeaway homework I use with my classes click here and here. What I intend to do is, on my display board that I've set aside for the takeaway homework I will put up some of the bulldog clips, with some 'backing paper' ready to hold in place examples of fantastic homework that I receive/have received so far. So I got some bulldog clips and backing paper from 'Poundland' today...
Next, an actual purchase from Ikea - my new organiser/whiteboard and some added whiteboard pens from 'Poundland'. The one thing I did buy from Ikea (only £2.25) was a noticeboard that doubles as both a whiteboard and a pin board. The whiteboard section is, conveniently, split into 7 sections (I'm assuming 1 for each day of the week). Now this, for me, is ideal as I have 6 Mathematics classes next year and my tutor group. So for each section I intend on writing up important information for each class on a regular basis. I used to do this using the magicwhiteboard A4 sheets that I stuck up on my windows, but I didn't update them as much as I could have. The whiteboard will be hung up somewhere visible to students and myself and I will aim to put the following under each class' section: homework details/deadlines, important dates (assessments etc) and pupil(s) of the week. Here's the board...
Finally, another great find today came from 'Wilkinsons' in the form of index cards or cue cards (whatever you refer to them as). I got some of these last year to use as a starter/plenary task - 'my favourite no'. Check out this link/video for a full explanation on the task (it's well worth it). This was an idea I found on the web last Summer and the task works fantastically well! The only drawback was that wherever I had looked in the past for index cards they seemed to be £4/£5 a pack, which was far too much!
There we have it, my recent haul of stationary to prepare for the new school year. Be sure to tweet your #poundlandpedagogy finds and uses and tweet me @mrprcollins, or comment below, if you think of other productive ways I could use the items I bought today.
Having just linked the hashtag above I've already found another teacher @TheMathsMagpie who has used sponges bought from 'B&Q' to create whiteboard rubbers for her mini whiteboards...
Great idea...one for my next trip to the shops!