I like to name by tables (where the students sit) after famous scientist, or STEM career people. Then it is easy to just call the table, to come line up. I just say the "Grace Hopper" table. It also makes the students very curious about that person, and want to go research that famous person.

My laptop is not light. Add my lunch box, purse, wallet, and a water bottle, and it becomes a challenging hike from my parking spot to my classroom. This crate wheels in just like luggage. It fits beside my desk. Better yet, I can toss in items throughout the day that need to go home. The crate folds up for summer storage, and when you put the lid on it, you can use it for a seat. Have stairs in your building? There is another edition for use on stairs.

I use breath mint cans to hold pushpins. I take pictures of anything that I've organized well in August because by September it's a wreck. I save the pictures in Google Keep or Wakelet to refer back to when I'm buried under chaos.

Use old lunch meat containers to store things like ELA or math task cards. You can also use them to store manipulatives or other supplies.

If you move around from class to class or teach PE you need an easily accessible place for your stuff like keys, phone, first aid supplies, pencil, and maybe a notebook right? A fanny pack, you can call it a teacher pouch if you'd like, would be the perfect solution!

Use a nurse's fanny pack. I used to use an apron with 2 pockets. Then I discovered a nurse's fanny pack. It has loads of pockets! It has both open pockets, a key clip, and zippered pockets. It's great for easy access to keys, pens, post its, bandages, office slips, class cards/index cards, reward stickers/raffle tickets, slide pointer, phone. 

Wrap a rubber band around the pumping dispenser of a hand sanitizer bottle to keep the pump from going all the way down and squirting out too much.

✨Looking for more ideas like this? Check out Classroom Hacks: The Rubber Band Control Valve and the Duct Tape Anti-Clicker

Get the dollar store microfiber cloths and cut in half or in fourths to use as whiteboard erasers. Want to get extra fancy? Hot glue a magnet onto it and keep it on your whiteboard so that you never lose your eraser again.

✨Looking for ideas for using those whiteboards? Check out this post: Use white boards for flexible retrieval practice

Nail Polish Remover- removes permanent marker and cleans dry erase boards with ease!

Mix 1/2 water and 1/2 rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle to clean your whiteboard, computer screen and student (and teacher!) desks. It cleans and sanitizes at the same time 🙂

Use those cotton/cloth masks left over from Covid to clean individual student white boards, write on table tops and your white boards. Most districts have boxes (even cases) of those masks just sitting. Each student can have one. Hey they come with hangers too (the ear piece serves as a great hanger as well).

✨Have a lot of masks hanging around? Check out VIDA's Mask Recycling Program to learn how to recycle them for free!

Tie a string around the end of an old whiteboard marker and spin it overhead to get the ink flowing back to the tip. Just be careful! If you hit something you could end up with ink all over your walls as M Adkins warns us.

✨Don't want to risk the potential ink splatter? Try these other ideas too.

Using old t-shirts, you can straight use them or cut them down to the same length of a personal whiteboard and sew the unfinished end to close. Also, extra small or children sizes could be used. Slide the whiteboard inside and, if you sewed the one side closed, protects the whiteboard and can hold a marker. Toss them in the washer at the end of the year or when they get gross, they will last for years! I still have some from 15 years ago.

The Dollar Store is a hot spot for finding great supply hack resources! Try getting a stack of plastic plates to have on hand as extra personal whiteboards.

✨Need MORE Dollar Store hacks? Check out The BIG List of Dollar Store Hacks for Teachers from We Are Teachers.

Play-doh can do double duty as glitter clean up! Have an extra container on hand just for this purpose. It makes all of those glittery art projects seem less scary. Plus now you have cool glitter play-doh!

✨Want some more great Play-doh fun and ideas? Check out our FREE course Creating a Playful Classroom with Jed Dearybury.

Index cards are a must have supply in every teacher's classroom. You can use blank cards for exit tickets, play a game of Hed Banz, or create your own flashcards. Mandi Tolen uses index cards in a clever way to sort her students into different collaborative groups all year long.

✨Read how to sort kids with index cards AND get a copy of her pre-made sorting cards in her post Collaborative Group Sorting Cards.

I am a "Specials" teacher. I see all the students in grades K-5 at my school. I needed an easy way to learn names and keep classes organized. I use folded Index cards as nametags for my classes. Students' names and numbers are on one side, and the back is for stickers! They receive stickers for exceptional work, good participation, and being extra helpful, among other positive behaviors that I deem worthy of recognition. Once they fill the back of the card, they get to choose a treat from my treasure chest - pencils, candy, erasers, etc. My index cards are different colors - one way to create groups. I use the numbers - even, odd, multiples of 3, etc. - another way to create groups. I have colored stickers - another way to create groups.

Pick ONE students as your "focus" student for each period, each day. Write their name in your planner or a sticky note you can easily see if you don't use a planner. Be intentional in interacting with that student--make it a positive deposit in the bucket. It might take you a month or so to get through every single student (then repeat!). You will quickly let students know you care about them on the human level and maybe end up being the adult who makes their day!

Keep a printed copy of your schedule outside you door so students and staff members can see your availability.

Put your seating chart in a sheet protector & use a whiteboard marker to take attendance. I kept those sheet protector seating charts in my emergency binder so I could easily take attendance every day & have them handy in case of an emergency drill.

On my syllabus signature page, I have 2 open-ended & optional prompts: "What's your favorite thing about your child?" & "Anything you would like me to know?" The responses I get are wonderful. It gives parents a chance to brag, I get to know more about the student and family outside of academics, and it opens communication in a low-stakes way!

Sharpen your pencils ahead of time and keep them somewhere easy to access. You can put them in a straw holder and keep near your work station.

I have a table by the front door where each student picks up any handouts on their way into class. I also have a "mailbox" system (just a file box with a folder for each student that they make the first day of class) where I put any graded written work. These two tips save me a ton of time passing out papers to students.

Somewhere in your classroom, keep a stack of your old unusable worksheets or photocopying. Pre-cut some of the sheets into strips (8 to an A4 sheet) some into quarters and some in half. These make great, low-tech retrieval activities easily possible. No need to mess with books and the bits of paper are slightly bigger than a Post-It, allowing for useful formative assessment. Especially great for us language teachers!

Sometimes those composition books barely get filled up! We end up with lots of blank pages. Ask your local Office Depot or Home Depot to cut your notebooks in half for you. You'll have smaller, more manageable writing space for half the price.

✨ Want some quick exit ticket ideas? Check out 20 Ideas for exit tickets in the classroom

Student name checklists! I have these printed so I can grab quickly and paper clip to papers, the field trip note, for a sub, etc. I reduce my cognitive load by have names at the ready and can quickly show who is missing a page, add grades on the list, see who needs to turn in a form, and other every day tasks.

✨ Read Jen's post about it: Teaching More Efficiently With Checklists (via Edutopia)

These super cheap spice racks from IKEA make GREAT display shelves to show off your favorite classroom library books and get kids excited about reading.

Sean Fahey keeps his own teacher "go-bag" handy with an extra pair of pants, shirt, snacks, coffee, water and supplies in case of emergency. As teachers we know how many unplanned surprises there can be each day!

Put numbers on the back of your students chairs. That number can be used for all sorts of things like finding their own slide in a collaborative slides presentation or spreadsheet!

✨Try this idea with lots of different collaborative activities! Check out 30 collaborative Google Apps activities for schools for more.

Always save the thank you notes you get from students. Put them in a folder or wrapped in an elastic and keep them in your desk. When your frustration level reaches its limit, take them out and read through them. You'll remember why you became a teacher.

Schedule send emails for odd times (ie 10:47) so that you can have a response ready to go but if you find you need to make changes, you have time to do so!

✨Get more gmail tips in The Gmail survival guide for busy teachers

Use a dish rack, plastic white ones, to hold Chromebooks for charging. You can find these at the Dollar Store!

Wakelet is a great way to organize the things you want to refer back to later. Try using the Wakelet extension to organize all of your tabs into one collection.

Here is a fun idea from Rayna Freedman: Use Wakelet to make a collection of Ted Talks for students to listen to at a center. You can share your collection with a QR code for easy access too.

Keep a doc with your year outline handy. Either print it out and keep it on your desk or create a shortcut to it on your desktop for easy access. It will help keep you on track and save time when planning future lessons.

Use a weekly planner template for all the activities and assignments for the week. Post links to all the slides/handouts, etc. that you will use and make it available in Google Classroom. Parents can see what is expected and students who are absent have all the tools they need to make up their work. I started this when we were doing online classes during Covid and have kept it because it makes life so much easier.

Using a color coding system in Google Drive will help keep all of those files organized. Looking for a way to REALLY step up your Google Drive organization game? Use emojis at the beginning of your folder names for easy access to specific files.

Develop and use a consistent naming culture for EVERYTHING you create in your Google Drive. YEAR, WHO, WHAT: ex. 2025 APUSH Unit 1 Slides. Helps you find everything easier, and update and rename them each year.

The challenge: I need an easy way to keep track of where my saved media files (jpg, mp4, etc) originated from. My solution: Using the “add a description” field in Google Drive, I save URLs and other notes. This keeps the info right with the file and shows up in a Drive search!

I create a Google Classroom just for showing YouTube videos. When you post them on Classroom, the ads don't play! I don't invite any students, I just use it to show the videos to the class.

Keyboard shortcuts are a lifesaver and can save you so much time throughout the year. 

✨Use a cheatsheet to help yourself remember all of those shortcuts. You can find a printable one in our post 22 killer keyboard shortcuts (and a challenge!) for busy educators.

I always use a timer for any activity. I like the pomodoro one and I use it to prompt my students to work with a set time. They call me « Miss Timer » now 😂!