Simple ideas to make my job easier!

I am a massive fan of VISTA Print. Particularly when they're having a huge sale. Two years ago I decided to make some business cards which simply said 'A note from Mrs Sellen'. Simple idea right? Well I have used them almost every day of the past two years. On these cards I can send home simple reminders about notes that are due in to school, and I can also send home little notes to parents about how well their child has been doing in class. The kids love them. The parents love them. And they're so simple.

I originally got this idea off PINTEREST (where all good ideas come from) and I've modified it slightly to better suit my classroom.

Here is the original idea (click on the image to head straight to Pinterest):

Here is what my modified version looks like:

If you are lucky enough to get a really great deal from VISTA Print, you might get 250 of these for free. This time round I paid $9.99 for them. As I mentioned before, they've lasted me two years so it is definitely worth the investment.

This year as I'm going on Maternity Leave I decided to make a bunch of labels (in the same design) to stick to the things that belong to me that I will most probably leave behind. Teaching can be quite expensive and I don't really want to buy a lot of these resources again. So for $9.99 I bought 140 labels with my name on it, so that I can mark my belongings (I will be taking a lot of things home too). 

Here's what my labels look like:

It should take about 7 days for them to arrive as I just got standard shipping… but I can't wait! I want this transition into Maternity Leave to be as smooth as possible!

WOW where did the year go?

It seems to be that time of year again where I find myself freaking out about the year ahead and my list of "things to do" keeps growing. 

It has been almost a year since my last post. As you can imagine, the year fills up and you find yourself drowning in various commitments. 2014 was a HUGE year for me. I had a great time teaching Year 5 and I also had a great year personally. I found out in September that I will be expecting a bundle of joy in May 2015 and so my priorities around work and life have shifted dramatically.

I will be going back to work for 2015, however, this time I will only be working for one term. Over the next couple of weeks I will share how I've set up my classroom spending the least amount of money as possible and how I will hand-over my class to someone I haven't even met yet. I want to be kind to this next teacher, but I also don't want to do their whole job for them. It will be a balancing act. BUT I already have a plan and *fingers crossed* it works :)

Like any year it's important to start the year off with a diary. For me, this choice was far harder than usual as I will only be working for one term. I needed a diary that would suit me in my professional and personal life. So this year I decided to go with a kikki.K A4 Weekly Leather Diary. It's a weekly diary (which I love) and it has plenty of space to write down notes and anecdotal comments from the teaching day. There is also a significant amount of space for the weekends (the most important days of the week) and it has monthly planners. Click on the image of the diary to be redirected for the kikki.K website. If you buy from the store, they also throw in a free pen. I LOVE BARGAINS! 

That's it for now… I will be back shortly with MORE amazing Back to School ideas!