Student Supply Center

Image credit: Morgue File

Back to school time has arrived and I will be setting up my classroom this week. One of the most important and useful parts of my classroom is the student supply center. This is a small area in my room where students can help themselves to minor supplies without needing to ask me. I created this supply area well over ten years ago because I simply got tired of being asked a thousand times a day for paper, scissors, pencils, etc. Now all of these things are front and center for students to borrow when they need them and without asking.

My supply center has the following self-serve items:

• small plastic boxes of: colored pencils, leftover pencils and pens, scissors, glue, rulers
• lost and found box (which always seems to fill up too quickly)
• calendar
• absent box with handouts for students who were absent and "If You Were Absent" guidelines
• bathroom occupancy flip sign (occupied/vacant) with "Bathroom" guidelines
• dictionary/thesaurus
• scrap/recycle paper
• table of contents showing our list of assignments
• box of tissues
• three-hole-punch

Small efficiencies like these can reap huge benefits—minimizing wasted time and stress in our very busy classrooms as well as placing additional responsibility in the hands of students to be independent problem solvers.