I learned about teaching in the aisles of Staples

There is great article published by the National Writing Project entitled Everything I Know About Teaching Language Arts I Learned at the Office Supply Store. The author, Kathleen O'Shaughnassy, is both funny and practical as she gives tips on helping students to learn using the most common office supplies. I love the article and have even used some of her tips.

I would like to add one of my own, Magnetic Tape strips. I use these babies for everything. I blew up a list of my students vocabulary list, printed it out, and cut them individually. I then affixed them to the white board at the back of my room, that I never use for obvious reasons to form a vocabulary wall that can be added to as my students learn new words. Most teachers know that tape and other such things do not work well on white boards. I also used printed out our schedule in the same manner, which can be easily rotated to accomodate the changing dates. There are a million other uses too. Best of all, it was 0.99 for 18 adhesive strips (.5 in x 4 in) at Walmart. Score!

By way of a disclaimer, I am not recieving any compensation for this tip. I simply wanted to share it with fellow teachers who read this blog in the hopes that they too can be awed by the sheer awesomness that is magnets. No, seriously.

I have weigh in today (cue Jaws theme song) though I am making a pit stop at the store to pick up a pregnancy test. My period was really light month, and kinda brown. My period is usually pretty light (so light I don't even need a tampon), so I'm probably overreacting, and I'll kick myself later for wasting the money, but I need to stop the worry warts bouncing around in my brain. I'll letcha know.