What I Wish I Had My First Year Teaching {with Aloha to Second}

When I think back to my first year of teaching, oh I think about how much easier it would have been if I had started with a few extra supplies!  These are my top three items I wish I had when I first began this wonderful world of teaching.  I hope you find them helpful. 

I wish I had known about Scholastic Book Clubs.  This is a great online resource to purchase books for your classroom.  You earn points each time books are purchased and then you can use those points to buy books in your room.  The points give you FREE books!  

I was spending so much money in the beginning purchasing my own books.  This website is also great because it allows your families to buy books for their homes, and you receive points each time they buy.  It is SO easy that families can even purchase them online.  You set up an online account and you are given a code.  Then, give the code to your families and they will enter it at checkout.  If they enter your code, it syncs to your classroom and you earn points.  The books are also shipped to school so you can easily distribute them to your students.  Click here to start your book club today!

I wish I had book bags when I first started teaching.  These are my favorite items in my classroom.  They make transporting classroom books so much easier.  My kids are much more responsible and the love carrying their book bags around.  

They simply enter the classroom, place their book bag in their reading bin, and later in the day during book shopping time they can return their book and get a new one.  I also keep a reading folder in their book bag for them to record the books they read.  You can find the book bags here from Really Good Stuff and the take home reading folder information here it is by Rachelle Smith!

I also LOVE my white board easel.  It is small and I can move it all over my room so easily.  I usually have it on my small group table and it makes it easy for me to demonstrate things for my students.  This easel is so handy and even has pockets on the back to store materials in!  I purchased it from Lakeshore Learning.

I hope you are having a great start to your school year, and I hope you find these tips useful for you!