Tuesday, August 7, 2018

20 Brilliant Teacher Hacks You'll Love!



Hi, I'm sharing 20 brilliant teacher hacks with you today that you will absolutely LOVE! Some that I currently use in my own classroom and some I just recently discovered! Read on as you're going to want to start using these hacks in your classroom right away!

*All of these hacks are from Instagram and therefore photo credit links for each photo will take you to the original author's Instagram account. 
1. Cut your composition books/journals in half to stretch them out and save paper. I do this as well for my students' morning work journals and their  writing journals. {Idea & photo courtesy of @thespedhead}

2. Use these inexpensive, portable, battery operated lights as a Classroom Voice Level Indicator. {Idea & photo courtesy of @misscourtneysclass}


3. Have no place to hang backpacks and they keep falling off the chairs? Tired of tripping on them? Try hanging them on a Command hook on the back of students' seats. {Image unkown}

4. Store your bulletin board borders on a dowel rod on a shelf. I've also seen them stored in icing containers too! {Idea & image courtesy of @nicoleallisonslp}


5. Use a shower caddy on or beside your whiteboard to store your markers, erasers, and flashcards. I always keep "my" markers separate from my "students' markers," because they always ruin my good ones by pressing down too hard and/or leaving the caps loose. I actually just made this for my own classroom, but haven't been to my classroom yet to hang it! #summerbreak "Learning in Wonderland" offers this printable for free on her blog here. {Idea & image courtesy of  @learninginwonderland}

6. This door stopper hack from @teaching&muchmoore is exactly what I needed for my classroom. I leave my door locked at all times (for emergencies & drill procedures), but slightly cracked with a magnetic metal clip that holds it slightly open. When people come and go, it slams against the clip really loud! So thank you for this idea I will be implementing this year! I just bought my pool noodle today for just 2 bucks! {Idea & image courtesy of @teaching&muchmoore}

7. Glue Sponges!! Best.Thing.Ever!!! I love glue sponges and so will you if your students use a lot of glue. I totally despise glue bottles and glue sticks. With glue bottles my students tend to put WAY too much and with glue sticks, they press too hard, break them, go through them way too rapidly, and leave the caps loose, so they dry out! I am a total glue sponge girl. I've been using them for about 3 years now! Read Angie's tutorial here on how to make your own. {Idea & image courtesy of @luckylittlelearners}

8. Use magnetic towel rods to display your anchor charts. I keep saying I'm going to do this for two years now and still have not, but looks brilliant. {Idea & image courtesy of @peppyzestyteacherista}

9. I just made this a couple nights ago and I'm so excited to hang and fill it when I get back in my classroom tomorrow. Mine has 24 pockets. It's a hanging shoe bag...I got mine from Amazon here...and "We Heart Teaching" has the labels for free in her store here. {Idea & image courtesy of @weheartteaching}

10. Ahhh, yes, velcro! This hack is from "Teach Love Autism" and it's just brilliant and she explains it right here! {Idea & image courtesy of @teachloveautism}

11. This is brilliant for a simple "never get lost" bookmark and page marker! Love it! Tape a piece of ribbon in the back of the book and students place the ribbon on the page they stopped on. This way they can easily find their page each day.  I did this last year when we were using Interactive Notebooks and it worked perfectly! Of course I had that ONE student that decided to tear his out! But maybe tying a reward to this could help if this is a problem. {Author Unknown}

12. Is this not just the GREATEST and most CLEVER!? Need to number your iPads?? Amy Groesbeck numbers hers this way with a wallpaper selfie!!! I love this so much! {Idea & image courtesy of @theamygroesbeck}

13. These 3 compartment containers apparently store all of your Base Ten Blocks; your tens, ones, and hundreds as individual student containers for hands-on activities! Apparently, they are from Dollar Tree, but not at my Dollar Tree! I have been on a hunt for these containers! They are out of stock on Dollar Tree Online and I have ordered two different sets from Amazon...neither big enough to hold the hundreds! Seriously, and this is NO JOKE! If you can find these at your Dollar Tree...I believe they are "Sure Seal," and send me a set of 5...they come in sets of 3 (I need 15), I will send the very first person to purchase and mail these to me a $100 store credit to my store! {Author Unknown}


14. Use "Repositionable Glue Sticks" to make anything in your classroom a sticky note! Seriously...I can make anything a STICKY NOTE??? I can't wait to get my hands on this stuff!! {Idea & image courtesy of @aroundthekampfire}

15. Need a room divider or privacy curtain?? Check out this simple alternative. Erin from "You Auta Know" creates one using a shower curtain, binder clips, and a garment rack from Amazon for less than $30 bucks. I shopped for dividers last year and couldn't find a decent one for under $100 bucks! {Idea & image courtesy of @youautaknow}

16. As special education teachers, we need to have our timers handy at ALL times. I personally wear mine on a lanyard around my neck, but this is a wonderful teacher hack if you'd prefer to wear it around your wrist. {Idea & image courtesy of @tinasteachingtreasures}

17. Everyone has their own thing about headphones, but headphones were a nightmare for me until I started this system last year; thanks to the inspiration of "A Smiling Teacher." This is a "double pocket shoe bag" (meaning each pocket holds two shoes, making it large enough for headphones) and I purchased it from Amazon here. @asmilingteacher offers the labels in her store here. It's also helped in teaching my students responsibility and how to take care of their things and put them away when they're done.

18.  I don't know about you, but we can't keep erasers on our pencils, because my students literally eat them. Or...OK...I'll admit...sometimes the pencils are just so cheap, the erasers just remove themselves after a couple of uses. :) Anyway, for this reason, I always have alternative erasers on hand at each table. My teacher hack is cut them in half as shown above to stretch them out!

19. Can't believe I didn't think of this! I worked so hard last year on getting my students to write "margin to margin," and you mean all I had to do is place a piece of tape on the margin Miss Decarbo?? Thank you for this! {Idea & image courtesy of @missdecarbo}

20. A hack I learned two years ago and it works amazingly! It makes students hold their pencils down below! This was a tip from one of my student's Occupational Therapist. 

Do you have a "brilliant" teacher hack I missed?? Let me know in the comments and send me a picture and I will add it to this post!!

Be sure to follow all of these lovely people on Instagram using the links to their IG page posted on each hack!

There were a couple of hacks I did not have an author to credit. If you recognize them, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due!



 PIN these images to SAVE these hacks for LATER!