Summers are getting shorter. At least that’s the impression I got during recent trips to discount stores. While getting ready for a beach trip, I went shopping for swimming supplies. What I found was that the outdoor-living area, which had overflowed into several aisles in May, was reduced to one aisle. In its place was—you guessed it—every kind of back-to-school supply imaginable! This was early in July! I felt like summer was being snatched away from me.

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Ah, sweet summertime! Now you can finally find a bit of time to relax, spend days with your family, tackle household projects, and pursue favorite hobbies. But I know classroom teachers, and I know that your students are always on your mind. I'm sure you'll be spending some of your precious summer hours planning and organizing for the coming school year. With this in mind, I've taken some time this morning to gather some organizational tips from several of my favorite Mailbox® books, the "500 Classroom Tips" series.

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Change is good, right? I know it is, but here’s my confession—sometimes change scares the heck out of me. And yet I know I embrace change on a daily basis. I guess it’s the big changes that can throw me for a loop. To this day I vividly remember the afternoon my principal informed me that the following fall I would be changing grade levels. My knees went weak and my head began to spin—and not in a good way!

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This time of year can be a whirlwind of activity! There are so many things to accomplish! First and foremost, activities must be wrapped up. But, there is also a room to clean and organize for the next school year, as well as a roomful of students to send off for the summer! To help you as you make your way, I've collected several of my favorite tips from current issues of The Mailbox® magazine.

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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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