Teacher Tips For Back-To-School Shopping: My CHEX Daily TV Segment

Last night I made my second appearance as a guest on the CHEX Daily Show to share teacher tips for back-to-school shopping, and again I had a great time. I was a lot less nervous (the night before and day of) and the whole process (from segment preparation to self-makeup application) seemed much easier since I’d already done it once.

This time I was sitting at the table on set, which was helpful since I had school supplies to spread out, and I found it so easy to chat with hosts Teresa Kaszuba and Mike Judson and share all of my tips.

Looking for some practical back-to-school ideas (and pet peeves) from a teacher’s perspective? Check out the video clip below.

A few bonus tips that were on my list, but I didn’t share on the show:

When the weather is nice (until we start wearing boots, which will probably be, oh, in October) kids should have running shoes for outdoors as well as indoors. They have over an hour of outdoor recess each day, plus DPA (Daily Physical Activity), and they’ll be more active and safe in proper footwear. (Flipflops and party shoes don’t cut it in the classroom either!)
If kids are bringing technology to school, keep it physically safe in a sturdy case, but password-protect items whenever possible too (making sure you also know the password!)
A tip from a Grade 1 teacher: even though there shouldn’t be much homework at this age, kids still need a large enough backpack to hold their lunchbag, water bottle, agenda and anything else they may want to shove in there. Some kids bring cute little bags that just don’t have enough room.
LABEL EVERYTHING. Your child may be old enough to recognize her belongings, but it’s pretty tough when three other kids have the exact same thermos or hoodie. You would be shocked if you saw the amount of clothing that gets donated from our lost and found bin every year…and our school is tiny!

Finally, here’s a shot of the Crayola Twistables pencil crayons – a very neat invention, though they do produce garbage compared to traditional pencil crayons. (I even called Crayola to ask if the leftover plastic cases can be recycled, and while they’re working on that, the answer right now is no.)