Classroom Library Week {Part 6} Organizing Your Teaching Library

Today I want to share about having a Teaching Library.  Whenever I come across a good book that I want to use to teach a particular lesson (also called a Mentor Text), I put it in a special place.  In my classroom library last year, this was just a shelf I designated for my Teaching Library.  My students were not allowed to choose books from this shelf and I always went over that with them at the beginning of the year.

The reason I didn't want my students to read books from my Teaching Library is because sometimes the book needed to be a "cold text," for a particular lesson I was doing. I also want these books to be more special so that students will be more engaged and excited about them- they aren't just an everyday book we have in our classroom library. The third and final reason is book condition.  I want to be able to use these books for years to come.  I don't want to have to replace my Teaching Library books because they are torn or worn.  Some teachers might not agree with me on this- remember this is just my opinion! :)   


How to Organize your Teaching Library
Like I said above, last year I just had a separate shelf for my Teaching Library.   At the end of the year, I thought about sorting my books into categories or writing what lesson I used them for and then sticking that in a Post-It on the inside of their front cover.  I started doing this, but my books still weren't organized.  Then, I came across this gem on Mrs. Terhune's First Grade Site (this lady's got the organization goin' on!):

She organizes all of her unit materials in these Magazine Boxes from Mardel.  They also have plain white ones at Ikea (5 boxes for $2!!- but sadly it is only an in-store deal).   Then she labels each box and keeps all of the materials in each box.  That way, she knows right where they are!  I am sooooo doing this for my classroom this year!

What if I don't have a Mentor Text Library?

No worries!  You can check out all of the awesome mentor texts you want from your local library or even your school library.  Just use Google to find a good book that will work with your lesson, and then go check it out.  (Or, if you have some extra money laying around...buy it!)

Why is it important to have a Teaching Library?

I believe that it is essential for every teacher to have a good Teaching Library full of wonderful Mentor Texts to save you time and energy!  As much as I love the library, I don't want to have to take the time to search on the internet to find a book that will fit with my lesson, then go to the library's website and search to see which branch has the book I need, then take the time to drive to the library and pick up the book, then when I am finished, drive back to the library to drop off the book.  Even if you live close to the library and it is on your way to or from school, the extra 10-15 + minutes you would spend doing that could be spent doing something else in your classroom.  I know that 10-15 minutes doesn't seem like a lot of time- however, if you do this once a week every week of the school year, you will have spent a MINIMUM of 6 hours of your year just finding books for your lessons.  Personally, I would much rather walk over to my shelf in my classroom, find the Magazine Box labeled with the unit I'm doing, and find the exact Mentor Text I want to use in about 1 minute.  

One other reason I like to have a good Mentor Text Teaching Library is because you never know when you might change your lesson plans last minute to incorporate something else you didn't think of.  If you have a great Teaching Library right at your fingertips, it's easier to be more flexible with your lessons.  

Last year I taught in a small town.  The next largest town wasn't that big either.  Neither town had a good public library.  This forced me to create my own Teaching Library due to circumstances.  I am happy about it now, though, because I have a fantastic Teaching Library full of some stinkin' awesome books! 

If you are a new teacher, or have moved to a new grade or new class and don't have a lot of mentor texts built up yet in your Teaching Library, no worries! You will get there.  You may have to do the library thing the first year... also be on the look out at thrift stores for great mentor texts!  They are swimming with them! :)

Happy reading!

Classroom Library Week {Part 5} Leveling Your Classroom Library Books

Leveling your classroom library is helpful not only to your students, but will also be a great tool for you.   Most of the books in my classroom library are leveled.  What do I mean by leveled?  Each book has a sticker on the the spine with the Guided Reading Level that the book is on.

Each year at the beginning of the year, I always do a DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) test on all of my students to evaluate what Guided Reading Level they are on.  This helps them to more easily determine if a book is right for them when shopping for books in my classroom library.  Finding out their guided reading level is also helpful to me when planning a Guided Reading lesson or helping them choose a book they might enjoy.

Scholastic has a free chart that you can access HERE that will tell you what guided reading level they are on if you know their DRA or Lexile level.  I have one created that I will share with you-all in a few weeks when I can get to my Reading Binder (that is stuck in storage :).

Reading A to Z is a wonderful website, and they have a FREE book leveling tool that will give you the Guided Reading Level a book is on!  Check out their awesome website HERE.

Scholastic also has a really awesome book leveling tool called Scholastic Book Wizard.  Simply type the name of the book in the search box and it will give you a grade level equivalent of what level the book is on.  You can then go back to the chart above to help you figure out which level the book is on.   You could also use THIS CHART from Reading A-Z to help with grade level correlations.

Some other FREE leveling sites I've found are:
Leveled Book Lists
440 Book Titles


Another site that I just found, but have never used, is the Fountas and Pinnell Leveling Site.  This looks awesome and very helpful.  The only downside is that you have to pay to use it.  Although it would be definitely worth it if you could get your school to pay for it! :)

So, how do you level your classroom library books?  Any great leveling websites you want to share?


Dreaming of chowmein noodles,

Classroom Library {Part 4} How to Create a Check-Out System Using Google Docs

My idea in this post came from the idea I found on the blog, Go Fourth with Mrs. Owens.  Check out her blog when you get a chance.  She gave me the original idea for creating a classroom library check-out system, and I took it a little further and added some stuff and arranged it a little differently.  I also wanted to show you more of a step-by-step process with screenshots to help those of you who are more visual learners :).  p.s. it's a long post, but it's worth it! :)

Creating a Classroom Library Check-Out System Using Google Docs

1.  Go to Google Drive.  Click on the "Create" button and choose "Form" from the drop-down menu (highlighted with a red box below).

2.  Fill out the Title for your form (highlighted in the green box below) and any directions for your students in the box below that (highlighted in green below).

The next steps are up to you on what you want your students to fill out for your check-out form.  I want my students to fill out their name, the book title, the author and the genre.  I really want them to be aware of what authors and genres they tend to read, so that's why I have them fill those out as well.  Also, each week I can do a print-out of all of the checked out books and keep a record of what they are reading.  This may be helpful for conferences, etc.

3.  Name.  If you notice in the picture above, in the yellow box it says Question Type.  I ALWAYS leave this as Text.  That way they can type whatever they need to in each box.    In the spot where it says Question Title, simply write the word "Name."  I leave the Help Text section blank.  Next, leave the Question Type as "Text," and make sure to click the little box "Make this a required question."  When you are finished, click "Done."  See the picture below for the visual of these directions.

Next, hover your mouse over the Sample 2 Question box.  It will be highlighted in yellow and 3 icons will appear on the right-hand side.  Click on the Pencil (which is the edit button- highlighted in the red box below).

4.  Book Title.  Fill out this section just like you did the Question 1 section before, only instead of typing Name in the Question Title spot, type the word "Book Title."  Click Done when you are finished.

5.  To get another question added to your form, click on the "Add Item" button in the upper left-hand corner.

When the drop-down menu pops up, choose the question type you would like to use.  For this form, I always choose "Text."

6.  Author's Name.  Fill out the question section just like before, only type the words, "Author's Name" in the Question Title section.  

7.  Add another question (just like in Step 5).  Fill out this question section with the word, "Genre" in the Question title section.  

8.  One other thing you can do to add a personal touch to your form is to add a confirmation note.  Click "More Actions" at the top right of the screen.  When the drop-down box appears, click on "Edit Confirmation."

A box like this will pop up and you can type in whatever you want.  What you type here will be what your students see after they click the "Submit" button.  I like to type something like, "Thank you for checking out a book from our classroom library.  I hope you enjoy it!"  or whatever personal greeting you'd like your students to see.   Make sure to click "Publish Response Summary," and then Save. 

9.  Finally, click the "Save" button in the upper right-hand corner of the form.

Here's the cool part... you can now embed this form into your blog or website!! (If you are not familiar with embedding, it basically is where you can insert this form onto your website instead of sending students to a link.  It actually makes it a part of your blog or website.)   I am going to show you how to embed it into a blog.  If you are familiar with HTML code and have a website, you should be able to embed it yourself there as well. 

How to Embed Your new Book-Check Out system

1.  Open a New Post or a New Page.  (I prefer to embed it on a page.  This way it will show up on my sidebar for easy access for my students.  Check out my Setting Up a Classroom Blog Series if you are not sure what I am talking about.)

2.  Type in whatever title you want up in the Page Title section.  Then click on the "HTML" button at the top left of your screen (highlighted in red below).

3.  Go back to your Form you just created.  In the upper right-hand corner click on the "More Actions" button.  When the drop-down menu appears, click on "Embed."

4.  A box will pop up with some HTML code.  Copy this code. 

5.  Go back to your New Page.  (Make sure the HTML button is still clicked.)  Then simply paste your code you just copied to the page.  It should look like this:

6.  Finally, click Publish.  Voila!! You are finished! Your form will now appear on your website! :)  If you want to see what the final product will look like, click HERE to see what mine looks like.  Keep in mind that I have 3 Language Arts classes, so mine looks just a tad different.  But this should be what yours looks like! 

To add a little flare, you can click the Theme:Plain button on the top left-hand side of your form.  You can choose all sorts of cute themes for your forms.  I chose to leave mine plain because of the size of my blog the theme background spills over into the rest of my blog and it looks yucky... but that is up to you! Play around with the themes and see if anything works for you :).

Also, you can go back and edit this form at anytime by going to the spreadsheet for the form, and click the Form button at the top.  A drop down menu will appear and simply click, "Edit Form."  Your form will re-appear and you will be able to edit it any way you want!

How to Use your New Book Check-Out System

1.  Have one computer set up for book check-out.  Let students type their book info in (one at a time) into the form.  Whenever they click the "Submit" button, it will automatically go to a spreadsheet form in your Google Drive.  (p.s.  as soon as they click "Submit," there is a button at the bottom of the form that allows them to "Submit Another Response."  Have them do this to check-out more than one book at a time.)

Here's an example of what your spreadsheet will look like when 3 students have books checked out:

2.  I am going to personally check-in all of the books.  I will have students put their books in my book Book Return Bin (see yesterday's post).  

-Then when I am ready, I will open up my spreadsheet with all of the checked-out books in it.  

-Right-click on the number of the row you want to delete.  This will highlight the entire row and a drop down menu will appear.  Choose "Delete Row."  Do this for all of the books in the Book Return Bin.  

-Your spreadsheet is now up-to-date and you know who still has which books out. 

Here's an example of the same group of students above.  John K. turned his book in, so I deleted the row.  Ashley L. and Kari S. still have their books checked out.

Does all of this make sense?  Hopefully so!  I think this system will be great for me and my classroom!  One tip: I suggest once you've embedded the form onto your blog or website, play around with it.  Fill out the form, get practice deleting stuff and entering stuff so that you can easily use this system and show your students how to use this system by the time school starts.  

Happy Thursday, 

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P.S.  Did you know that I started my own company, Camp Partridge?  

⛺️ Camp Partridge offers online camps for children and teens ages 10-16 who want to be digital creators and authors! 

⛺️ Camp Partridge offers online courses for parents struggling with remote learning. 

⛺️ Camp Partridge offers resources for your classroom!

I would be honored if you would share Camp Partridge with people you know who need or would enjoy our camps and courses! 🧡

Classroom Library {Part 3} Book Check-Out and Return Procedures

Today I want to tell you about my check out and return procedures.... Last year was the first year I had students take home my personal classroom library books.  I never had to have a check-out procedure before and I knew I didn't want to put library pockets and cards in all my books... I felt like that was too tedious of a process and even then, if a student didn't check out a book properly, you wouldn't know who had the book anyway.  Also, I have a pretty large classroom library (about 700+ books) and that would be pretty costly to do that-not to mention time consuming!

So after a little research, I decided to have my students write down what book they were reading on index cards and keeping them in one place in the room (in a pocket chart).  When they were done reading the book, they would put one line through it and then they could check out a new one.  This system was ok....but I wouldn't recommend it.   It didn't flow.

So this year, I've done a LOT of research on other classroom libraries...  I've found some cool stuff that I want to share with you, and then I will share what I plan to use in my classroom.

Cool Stuff I've Found:
Booksource Classroom Organizer
Ok folks.... this is a FREE website that you can use to create a book check out system.  If you have an Iphone, you can scan in the bar codes as well with your phone... and it is FREE.  I am totally going to try this system out when I get the time! :)

BookCat w/ CueCat Scanner
This is an online system where you import all of your book titles and use a scanner (just like an actual library would) to check out books to students!  The upside to this system is that you know exactly who has the book and you can return them using the scanner too.  You will also have a complete list of all of your classroom library books.  The downside is that it does cost money (about $55 for both the program and the scanner) and you will have to spend the time to type in all of your titles.  I would eventually like to go to this system...it seems pretty awesome!

Book Check Out Cards
This teacher from Teaching In Room 6 blog has a free and easy way to manage her checked out books.


My Check-Out Procedure:
Due to the fact that I will have very limited funds to start off my classroom this year and will be new to the school (so I will need to purchase more supplies than usual), I will probably not be able to purchase the BookCat system above.  So, I've found another FREE alternative that will work well and will be easy for me as well.

I like the idea of the Book Check Out Cards in the link above, however, I would rather have an online system.  I found THIS system from the blog, Go Fourth with Mrs. Owens. (She also has a lot of other great ideas on her blog- I definitely recommend checking it out!)  Basically, you use Google Drive (formerly Google Docs) to create an online "form" that your students can fill out any time they check out a book.  Whenever the form is filled out, it automatically goes to a spreadsheet in your Google Docs folder! This way you will know who has which book and when!   Tomorrow I will be doing a more in-depth tutorial (with screen shots) to show you how I modified her idea to more fit my classroom.

But I think that the most important thing, no matter what system you choose to use is to have ONE day where students can "shop" for books.  Have them choose several books on that day and after having checked them out, have them keep those books in a book box or bag somewhere in the room- so they will always know where they are located and they will always have extra books to read during the week so that they can never say "I don't have a book to read," and waste their whole reading time searching for a book.

Also, having ONE shopping time for the class will enable you to help students check out all of the books and to make sure that they are doing the check out process correctly.  (After the first couple of months of training the students how to do this, you could then release that job to another student.)

My Return Procedure:
Last year, I just let the students put the books back when they were finished with them.  A lot of times, this resulted in the books being put back in the wrong places.

So, this year I will have a Book Return Bin.  Basically it will just be a crate or a basket with a label on it.  That way, I can check the books back in (see tomorrow's post).  This way I can be sure that whoever checked it out turned it back in.  I can also see which student was responsible if there was damage to the book.

After I've checked the book back in, then I will put it in another bin marked Ready to Reshelve.   I am going to have one of my classroom jobs be the Classroom Librarian, who will return the books to their correct baskets when they are in the Ready to Reshelve basket.

Update 4-29-13
I have tweaked my book return system.  Now, instead of just having a bin where they return the books, I only allow them to return books on certain days (for me it is Thursdays and Fridays) so I do not have to keep an extra bin cluttering up my room all week long and so that they do not waste class time returning books.

My New and Improved Book Return Procedure:
I had a lot of trouble at first when trying to check in books- I had students put their name on a sticky note and then put their books in a stack on my desk.  Let's just say massive piles of books on my desk and students with giant backpacks knocking these over made for a very stressed out teacher!  

So, I cut some construction paper to index-card size (you could just use index cards- I didn't have any at the time) in 3 different colors (one color for each block I see).  Then I put their names on the cards and laminated them.  

On check-IN day, students take any books they want to return and put them in a ziplock gallon-sized bag with their name card facing out.  Then they put the bag in the return bin.  If they have books too big for the ziplock, they put their name on each book that won't fit with a sticky note.  

Then, whenever I am ready to check them in, I can! No mess, no hassle and it makes the whole process SO much easier! :)

Note:  I keep all of the plastic bags folded in half in a small plastic tub along with the name cards for easy storage.  When I check in books, I will take one student's books out of the plastic bag, fold the bag, delete the rows (see Part 4 of this series on how to delete rows), put the books in the Ready to Reshelve basket and the card back in it's pile.  Then I move on to the next student's books.  It might take 30 minutes or so to do 85 student's books- keep in mind not all students check out books or return books each week.

Here are some FREE labels for your baskets!  Print these labels on colored cardstock and laminate... they work great with any color scheme in any classroom!  Enjoy! :)

Book Return Bin & Ready to Reshelve Labels

Update (8-8-12)  I also found this cute Book Hospital Sign & Book Return sign for free! :) 

I really think that this system will work well for me and for the students.  I am totally excited to use it!  How do you check out books in your classroom?


Thanks for sharing!

-------------------------------------

P.S.  Did you know that I started my own company, Camp Partridge?  

⛺️ Camp Partridge offers online camps for children and teens ages 10-16 who want to be digital creators and authors! 

⛺️ Camp Partridge offers online courses for parents struggling with remote learning. 

⛺️ Camp Partridge offers resources for your classroom!

I would be honored if you would share Camp Partridge with people you know who need or would enjoy our camps and courses! 🧡

Classroom Library Week {Part 2} How to Organize Your Classroom Library

Good morning everyone! :)

Today I want to talk with you-all about organizing your classroom library.  Please note that there are SO many ways to organize your classroom library-you just have to choose the way that suits you best.  I am going to show you how I organize my classroom library.

Some people like to let their students sort the books into different genres- I am not opposed to this, however, I do not let my students sort the books, I do this at the beginning of the year.  This is for a number of reasons.  First of all, this year I will have 3 different LA classes instead of one...so that means some of my students might not get as much practice with sorting the books into the appropriate genre baskets.  Secondly, when my students walk into my classroom for the first time, I want them to know that I keep things organized and in their place, and I expect my students to do the same.  It also helps me to feel like my room is complete and not disorganized.  Remember, this is just my opinion, and if you choose to do it a different way, that's totally fine :)

How to Sort Your Books
I like to sort my chapter books by genre and my picture books by subject.   I put each genre or subject into its own basket (sometimes it takes more than one basket).  After that, I make a label for each basket and attach it to the front of the basket.

This was my classroom library last year (I was fortunate enough to have a lot of shelf space!).  The sets of books were used for my book clubs and students were not allowed to choose these books.  The picture books on the right hand side are my mentor texts for lessons.  Students are also not allowed to choose these books as most of them are meant to be a cold text (and I want the story to be interesting and special when I read it aloud to them).  But any of the books in the baskets were for students to read.  I've found that putting the books in baskets like this helps keep the books organized and it also gives you a little more space (especially with the chapter books).  It is also easy for a student to pull out one or two of the baskets to look for a book instead of just standing in front of the shelf the whole time.

Book Basket Labels
My book basket labels were nothing fancy- I just took neon index cards and wrote the genre on them.  Then I laminated them, hole punched them in two places on the top and then my wonderful husband put a string through the holes of the card and the holes of the basket and tied it in a knot.  This method worked well and I never had any of the genre cards fall off.

However, they aren't very pretty.  So this year, I decided to change it up!  I found some FREE book basket labels online.  Click HERE to access them.  I'm pretty sure these are the ones I'm going to use this year.  She's included every genre and topic that you'll need... and I like the pictures that go along with them as well!  She suggests printing them on cardstock and then she puts them in a floppy disk protector...but my baskets have holes in them and I don't think they'll stick that well.  So, I found this awesome idea on another website:

She uses binder rings (found at any wal-mart or target) to attach the book labels to the baskets!  (of course laminating the card first).  But how cool is that! So simple, yet so awesome!  If something happened to your label you could just easily replace it! I also think it would allow the card to swing more freely and would hopefully allow the card not to be damaged! :)  The idea came from Teaching in Room 6's blog.  I HIGHLY recommend her blog...so full of SO MANY great ideas! 

If you didn't like the labels above, I found these for free on Teachers Pay Teachers.  I found THESE super cute labels that are also free! And also know that there are many other book basket labels out there... they just aren't free :).  Although, if you've found some great FREE labels, please share the link in a comment below! :)

Genre Stickers
Last year, I had a terrible time with my students forgetting which basket a book belonged in.  So this year, to solve that problem, I am going to have one classroom librarian who will put all of the books away after they have been returned.  (In the next couple of days I will be talking about my check-out and return procedures.)   I am also going to put a small round sticker dot (like a yard-sale sticker dot) on the back of each of my classroom books with a genre code on it.  For example:  if it is a Realistic Fiction book, then the sticker dot on the back of the book will say "RF."  I will also have this same "RF" sticker dot on the book basket label.  This way, the classroom librarian will know exactly which basket to return the book to and will be able to do so quickly.   I am also going to be teaching genres a whole lot more in depth this year as a lot of students seem to have a hard time grasping the concept...

Anywho, that's my classroom library set-up! :) Hope this was helpful!   If you have any great classroom library set-up tips, please leave a comment below! :) Thanks for sharing!


Happy Reading,

P.S.
Ok...while Googling for more book basket label choices for you, I came across this Pinterest Board called Labels.  Check it out for lots of free labels for things in your classroom!  Just thought I would share! :)

Classroom Library Week! {Part 1} About My Classroom Library

So, my last post was about how to score good deals on books... check out my Fabulous Resources page to get some more tips on where to buy great used books.

I am a firm believer in the fact that students who have more access to a wide variety of books within the classroom will enjoy reading more and will therefore become better readers.  If you have little or no classroom library, your students are responsible to check out any books they want to read.  Usually school libraries only allow students to check out a couple of books at a time.  This limits them in their search for a good book.

Also, when I taught in middle school, our middle school library had very few picture books.  Although I encouraged my 4th graders to read more chapter books, reading is reading.  Heck, sometimes I like reading a good picture book!  It's a nice break from reading longer novels and I love the illustrations and poetry of good picture books. (It also helps students to feel more accomplished... they've read "books" instead of just one book.)

So you may be sitting there thinking, well, I don't have the money to purchase a good classroom library.  I'm a new teacher or just starting out building my classroom library and I don't have any money yet... I don't even get paid until September!

I hear ya!!

I remember being a first year teacher and not having any money and wanting a good classroom library.   First, let me say that building a good classroom library takes TIME.  My awesome classroom library (which has over 700 books in it) wasn't purchased in a day or even a year.  It was a few years before I felt like I had a good classroom library with a variety of books for my students to choose from.  I scoured thrift stores, yard sales and book orders for the best deals.


Ways to get FREE books to start your classroom library:


Public Libraries
Do you have a public library within a reasonable driving distance?  Our local library will let you check out 100 books at a time!!!! 100!!  I had no idea!  What an awesome thing for a first year teacher!  If your library lets you check out many books at once, go ahead and take advantage of it!    Just make sure to check out books on different subjects, fiction and non-fiction and at a variety of reading levels.  

Donations from Parents
At the beginning of the year, send a letter home with your students, asking for any books that they  may not need or have outgrown to be donated to your classroom library.  Totally free and easy to do!

Church
Do you attend a church?  Is there a bulletin board or a church bulletin or newsletter that gets sent out each week?  Most people in your church family would be willing to donate books to help out a new teacher that they don't need anymore.

Your School
Sometimes schools get books donated to them and they place them in an area where all teachers can access them.  Check with your principal to see if your school has books that you can add to your classroom library.


Do you have any other ideas for getting FREE books for your classroom?  Please share! :)

P.S.  Don't stress out if you are trying to build your classroom library and you don't have a huge selection at first.  Like I said, it takes time! You will get there :)


Adios,

Books, Books and More Books!!

I have to share with you-all my purchase of the day!   My husband and I went to a local small flea market.  We actually just went to look around and not to buy anything.  In fact, I didn't even bring any money with me.

As I was looking through some books at one of the booths, I found one of my most favorite books, Stand Tall Molly Lou Mellon.  It was marked $1.  I asked my husband if he had any money... and he had $2 in cash in his wallet (which he so kindly gave me for books :).  So I found one other book that looked pretty interesting (also marked $1) and I told the lady that I was buying the books for my classroom and asked if she'd take $1 for both.

She said, "Of course...and go ahead and take a few more too."  I was surprised by this because I was just happy she let me have 2 for the price of one!  So I took a few more books (I didn't want her to feel like I was trying to take advantage of her), and then she said, wait a minute- and she dug around in a box underneath a table and pulled out about 15 more books.  She told me that she was just going to donate these since they hadn't sold and that I'd probably know who to give them to if I didn't need them.  Her generosity caught me off guard... it was so awesome and so kind of her!

Then later we stopped by a new thrift store (another of my favorite places to pick up books), and I only had $1 left... books were 50 cents each or 5 for $2.  My husband went to the car and emptied out all the change in our car and we came up with another dollar- so I could get 5 books.  When I was chatting with the owner of the thrift store (while waiting for my husband), I mentioned I was buying books for my classroom- and she said that I could have 10 books for $2 instead of 5.  She also said that anytime I wanted to come back I could have the same deal! (P.S. These titles are great! Check out the greatness below!)

Both of these ladies mentioned that others in the past had donated stuff to them for a good cause and that literacy was very important.  Seriously....anytime you are purchasing something for your classroom, it doesn't hurt to ask if they would take less (because it's for your classroom or your students) or if they can give you any kind of a discount!

In all, I received FORTY-SIX books for only $3!!!!!!!!!!! How stinkin' awesome is that?!?!!?!?  Yeah classroom library! :)  Check out my stash below!

One important note- don't expect everyone to give you a discount.  People can sense when you are being genuine and are asking for a discount or if you feel like you're entitled to one.  I know that we teachers spend  our own money to purchase classroom stuff ALL the time- but keep in mind that these people are trying to make a living by selling you these things.  Don't let that stop you from asking for a discount, just keep in mind not to expect one.  (Also, I try to just slide it casually into the conversation that I am a teacher, purchasing stuff for my classroom...most of the time people give me discounts without me even asking for them!)

Also, I came across this site the other day and while I knew some of these stores gave teachers discounts, I didn't know about all of the discounts!  Check out The Frugal Girls.com to get their list of teacher discounts! (I would also like to add that if you are interested in Adobe products like Photoshop, etc-they give teachers & students MEGA discounts!  And I LOVE Photoshop...I cannot sing its praises enough!)


Hope you have a great day! :)