Inexpensive Classroom Supplies for Teachers on a Budget

Times are tight for schools everywhere. Teachers who do have a classroom supplies budget with their school or PTO are needing to pare things down as much as possible. Most are still dipping into their own monies to make ends meet in the classroom. With the economy as sluggish as it is, purchasing classroom supplies with take home pay is getting harder and harder to justify on the home front. Need some ideas for teaching on the cheap? Here’s a list of articles on supplies, resources and project ideas for saving money in the classroom.

• Shoestring portable puppet theater.
• DIY whiteboard with homemade cleaner.
• Three cheap classroom hacks using traditional bandanas.
• Cheap ways to go green in the classroom.
• Torn scrap paper mosaics.
• A homemade multipurpose game board.
• Affordable paper bag review game.
• Cheap classroom lessons using index cards.
• Using inexpensive glue sticks to your home court advantage in the classroom.
• Multiple project ideas for file folders.
• Using old fashioned clothespins in the classroom.
• Rock your management style with paper clips.
• Wooden craft sticks as an affordable instructional supply.
• Explore the power of using free newspapers as an instructional tool.
• Creative classroom uses for rubber bands.
• Get more use than expected out of those donated phone books.
• Turn garbage into gold with empty cardboard beverage flats from the school vending machine.
• Use binder clips as a cheap organizational aid.
• A list of great cheap classroom supplies for struggling school teachers.
• An interesting freebie resource for ESL teachers.
• A simple DIY classroom calendar project for cheap.

Other ideas would include checking out the classroom cheapies at Dollar Tree, or using the inexpensive suggestions in this article for art smocks and hula hoops. Do you have a great idea for affordable classroom supplies or resources posted on your blog or web site? Our goal is to turn this page into a comprehensive resource for teachers searching for cheap teaching ideas. Contact us with your site’s URL, and we’ll be in touch about a link exchange. In the meantime, please feel free to post a comment below. We love to hear from readers.

Photo Credit: Pink Sherbet

Free Middle Eastern Studies Resource: The Doha Debates

Those educators serving junior high through high school students who are looking for a quality media resource to study Middle East issues and current events have a fantastic freebie available to them at the click of a button. Read on.

The Doha Debates, carried regularly on CNN, have a web site of their own. What’s great about this is that if you miss an episode, you can catch the podcast, transcript and both high and low resolution video versions of each debate via their archives, which are organized by season.

They tackle such issues as marital choice, the wearing of hijab, and the ongoing Palestinian problems. There are also special debate sessions scheduled regularly where high ranking officials are brought to Doha for the students to ask direct questions. This recently included Shimon Peres, the first high ranking Israeli official to visit Qatar in more than a decade. Other guests have included Bill Clinton and Desmond Tutu. Occasionally, the debates are scheduled at an overseas location. For the most part however, they take place in Doha.

Since they are conducted (except for the special visitation episodes) in debate format with two speakers for each side of every motion, these make for an excellent classroom discussion resource. Work the archived episodes in as you see fit. Incorporate research from a free ESL current events resource or turn them loose to discover titles and URL resources from regular media. When the new seasons start each year, consider assigning research ahead of time based on the subject. Then host a classroom debate and vote prior to watching the high resolution video episode in class and compare results.

 However you decide to incorporate it, I don’t think you’ll be sorry. This is a quality resource with a high degree of political balance and professional quality. Available at DohaDebates.Com.

 Photo Credit: Doha Debates