I "heart" Velcro!

Well I have determined that industrial strength Velcro is a teachers good friend. In a classroom where the kids have to sit on the floor it is hard to give them each their own personal space without spending hundreds of dollars on area rugs designed for that purpose. Even then it can be difficult fitting 28 5th grade bodies onto the cramped area of one of those rugs. So this year I took a new approach! I made squares, laminated them, and then used industrial strength Velcro to secure them to the carpet. It only cost 25 dollars, they look pretty cool, they do the job of defining personal space, and best of all they are movable so you can put them in what ever shape you want! The only down fall is that they are just laminated paper so they will wear out pretty quick but and it did take a while to make 28 of them.


I also have brand new "toy" for my classroom. Since I am in a portable building this year due to construction, I have had some annoying CD issues. If I use my nice CD changer, if we do any kind of movement the CD skips like crazy! Then I started using the CD player I used to use to connect to the big sound system but the door sensor decided to break so that at random times it thinks the door is open and stops in the middle of playing. Being a music teacher and using the CD player many times during the day these issues were becoming very frustrating. So I finally broke down and asked my principle if I could purchase an MP3 player for my classroom. I love my new Sansa View! It has been great to have all my music right there and not have to search for CDs. I got the Sansa specifically so I could use Rhapsody to Go which has been amazing as well. I have been able to download several CD's with my unlimited downloads and not have to worry about connecting the computer to the sound system! I have loved it! I wish I had thought of this earlier, now I just need the music magazines I subscribe to to start putting all their music in MP3 form online so that I can just download it instead of having to rip it from the CD first.