For some of you, the school year has come to an end. But for many of you, it’s crunch time. You have just a few weeks, maybe just a few days, to prepare report cards, organize cumulative folders, complete documents for the district office—the list goes on and on! I don’t mean to cause you panic, but how will you get it all done?

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Just this past weekend I had a yard sale. I have to admit I wasn’t very profitable because I’m not very good with negotiating. I ended up giving away almost everything…for nothing! But the bright spot is there’s less clutter in my house. (If only I had had the nerve to sell my husband’s stuff while he was gone. We’re newlyweds and I just haven’t quite adjusted to his “junk,” I mean “stuff,” yet.)

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It’s spring allergy season here in Greensboro, and that brings sniffles, sneezes, and the need for tissues. Tissues are an important supply in the classroom, too. As you know, when you put 20+ kids in a small space, they’re going to share germs and get sick. Add to that the fact that kids aren’t [...]

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My first graders always looked forward to learning center time. I did too! There’s something refreshing about the variety of activities and the freedom of movement. Often it was a challenge for me to find enough fun ideas on the skills I was teaching, though. It was even more challenging to find the time to come up with quick and easy activities on my own. Do you sometimes face the same challenges? What skills are you looking for in center time activities?

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The editors here at The Education Center® chat regularly about our days in the classroom. One topic that comes up about once a year deals with whether or not we were “rippers.” What does that mean? A ripper is a teacher who rips out pages from her teacher resource books rather than keeping the book [...]

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I have a confession to make: I’m a bit of a packrat. That was especially true when I was teaching. I had tons of store-bought teaching supplies as well as a closet full of cardboard tubes, cotton balls, craft sticks, and other miscellaneous items that I had collected over the years. The trick with being a packrat is figuring out how to store things so you remember them at opportune times. Have you ever finished teaching a unit only to discover a week or so later that you had overlooked a perfect poster or game to go with it? If so, you know exactly what I mean about figuring out the best storage options.

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