Hack the Classroom

I still can't believe that I have completed one full week of teaching and learning with my students so far this year! As I looked around my classroom for hacks, I noticed a few that don't take long to put together but help immensely make my job as a teacher easier and more efficient. The first hack that I use is called the "Sub Tub", as pictured below.

The Sub Tub houses all of the materials, plans, and papers that my substitute will need while spending a day, half of a day, or and hour or two with my students while I am gone or at a meeting. I have received several compliments on the organization that it provided substitutes. It is also easier for me when writing my plans so I don't have to describe where in the room all of the materials are because they're just right there in the Sub Tub. It was a simple thing to put together, but helps incredibly when I have a substitute watching over my class. That is why I consider the Sub Tub a hack. Another hack that I just discovered this school year relates to a bulletin board. Now, I cannot take full credit for this hack as I gained the idea from one of my teammates. The hack involves using clear plastic sheet protectors to slides posters onto a focus wall bulletin board as opposed to stapling the actual posters themselves to the board. Here are some images that describe what I mean: 1. I cut off the edge with the hole punches on it (more for visual purposes) and stapled the clear plastic sheet protector to the bulletin board, making sure to not staple through both layers of the sleeve so that I could still slide something into it.

2. I can then slide a laminated piece of paper for the Focus Wall bulletin board into the sheet protector.

3. When the poster is inside of the plastic sheet protector, you can't even tell that it is inside of a sleeve as opposed to just stapled to the bulletin board itself.

This is a hack because the bulletin board is a Focus Wall for the ELA curriculum (Wonders) that we use in my district. There are eight posters that are changed weekly to match the concepts being taught. The Focus Wall displays all of these posters for student reference. If I had to take down and staple the posters each week, that would take a little bit of my time to do. It would also puncture holes in the posters. Using the clear plastic sheet protectors to slide the posters into each week saves me time as well as preserves the posters so that they can be used for several years. This will save me time, paper, and plastic so I don't have to make these copies again in the future and waste these precious resources.