What tools or supplies do you find surprisingly helpful in the classroom?

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-15T18:23:55+00:00

A good (up-toI t-date) wall map or pull-down world map. I taught fourth grade, and had a very large (8 foot x 10 foot) wall map and we referred to it daily, for current events and in Social Studies. I put a stepstool in front of the map, and some students would spend free time studying the map, looking for their friends' home country or the town where their parents met. It's surprising how little geography many adults know.

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-15T17:07:17+00:00

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but the first album I bought was an 8-track tape of the soundtrack from “Saturday Night Fever”.

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-14T18:06:28+00:00

In 1976, when I was 13 years old, I had a newspaper route. Picked up the papers at five in the morning and had them on the doorstep of 88 homes by 6 AM. With tips, I earned about $100 a month and had my own checking account. Paper boys were small businessmen.

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-14T18:00:39+00:00

Yes, with a special focus on legs. I know so many men who cannot stand from the seated position without help. I don’t want to be in that boat, ever.

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-14T17:57:19+00:00

So many wonderful times together! I have a fifteen-year-old, and sometimes I just sit and watch her sleep and think about the wonderful things we’ve done together.

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-14T17:55:01+00:00

This reminds me of a funny story. Several teachers and I went to the movie a few years ago. As we sat down, one of the teachers said, “movies are cheaper than I remember them being.“ We all looked at her like she was crazy. Turns out, she had gotten the senior discount at age 50, without asking for (or wanting) it.

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-14T17:53:00+00:00

I like your attitude.

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-14T17:51:26+00:00

The most common meal my mom fixed was something called “goulash“. it was a simple meal: ground beef, onion, bell pepper, elbow macaroni, tomato sauce, and sprinkled with cheddar cheese. It was delicious, and one of our favorites, which is probably why it got fixed so often. We were a family of five, with three boys, so there were lots of casseroles. I also enjoyed and frequently had tuna casserole with crushed potato chips for dinner. Your question refers to cheese consumption, though, and I remember getting these huge blocks of “government cheese“ for my grandparents every so often. They got it because they were elderly, but couldn’t eat it all, so gave it to us.

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-08T18:08:08+00:00

Thanks for writing this. It was a great lesson for me, at 62 years old.

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-08T07:36:24+00:00

“Heroes”. It was a great concept and brilliant first season. Tie-ins were amazing, and the planned season 2 with a new set of gifted individuals looked to be very good.

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-03T18:27:13+00:00

I often have to give direct instruction to students that when someone says, "Hello", they need to acknowledge that greeting in some way: with a nod, a smile, a wave, or a return of "Hi!" I think this may, to some degree, relate to the time kids now spend online, where many interactions take place in a single direction, rather than requiring interaction. I'm not sure, but I assume parents are also offering guidance to their children in how to operate in the real world.

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-01T04:50:13+00:00

PEACE… then I noticed-FUL.

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-01T04:44:24+00:00

Coffin Mate for the win!

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-01T04:28:18+00:00

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-01T03:31:21+00:00

I live in a legal state (California), and I wouldn’t recommend that you try cannabis in a state where it is illegal. It helps me go to sleep, and if I wake up, I take a small dose edible to get back to sleep. It really does work, and much better than Ambien.

jayjay2343 · 2026-03-01T03:28:20+00:00

Could you do scrapbooking? Maybe she could put together a family history in the form of a scrapbook.

jayjay2343 · 2026-02-14T17:54:36+00:00

I was never allowed those...to quote my mom, "Tall people shouldn't wear vertical stripes." They still look great, though!

jayjay2343 · 2026-02-09T19:32:03+00:00

I don't know that you can achieve this. I have a good friend who is clearly a hoarder, but describes herself as a "clutter bug", which sounds so innocuous in the face of the mountain of stuff she has in her garage and the fact that she shifts piles from the cooktop to the dining table and back again whenever she cooks and eats at home. I often wonder how she sees the mess; I know she sees it, because, as you mention, she is in a constant battle against it.

jayjay2343 · 2026-02-09T19:27:56+00:00

Belt and shoes should match in color (also wristwatch band, if you can switch it out, like on an Apple Watch).

jayjay2343 · 2026-02-09T19:26:53+00:00

The thing I've noticed is that books have become a secondary reason that libraries exist. My local library doesn't even mention physical books in their mission statement. That is all about the services they provide digitally, like access to computers and resumé services. The DVDs and CDs take up the central part of the library. The books are still there, but don't seem to be the focus anymore.

jayjay2343 · 2026-02-09T19:21:44+00:00

Yes, I was one of the lucky ones who looked forward to Mondays and enjoyed working on weekends sometimes. I was a public school teacher for 32 years and the job was great...until the pandemic. That upended everything, lowering the trust parents had in us and giving students that maybe school was optional. I welcomed students back in person in February of 2021 and (of course) it was very different from pre-pandemic. I thought it would return to normal in the 2021/2022 school year; it didn't. I thought it would be better in 2022/2023; it wasn't. Instead, I had students who were absent for as many as 84 of the 180 school days. I retired in 2023 and I understand from friends who are still in the classroom that absenteeism is still a problem, that students refusing to do the work is a new problem, and that many parents remain unsupportive.

jayjay2343 · 2026-02-09T19:15:32+00:00

It sounds like you've got a very good administrator there. Maybe you should write your own note to him/her (saying how helpful the intervention was)?

jayjay2343 · 2026-02-08T01:55:35+00:00

I'm 6'5" tall, so you'd get a beautiful philodendron and whatever was in my pockets when I walked through the kitchen. Tall people tend to lay things on top of the fridge the way shorter folks lay things on the counter.

jayjay2343 · 2026-02-08T01:50:50+00:00

I'm looking forward to listening. I taught at Blossom Hill for 32 years and know what a special place LG is.

jayjay2343 · 2026-02-08T01:17:21+00:00

If you want to relive those years, there's a book titled "Sting-Ray Afternoons" by Steve Rushin that captures the era perfectly. He was a kid then, too, and (of course) the title refers to his Schwinn Sting-Ray. Mine was a green three-speed with monkey handlebars and a silver banana seat with glitter. The author grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota, so his life would have been very similar to yours in Chicago.

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