Teachers, What Can You Take Off Your Plate?

I’m here with a super quick post that
will help you save some money and maybe more importantly, time.

I know everybody loves
Astrobrights paper, but now and then I’m seeing it used for things like
printing math centers. Teachers then laminate all of those centers, and then
they cut out all of that laminate. That seems like a lot of time and money. Those are two things I know I’m always running low on.

Astrobrights makes beautiful paper, but when you’re
using it to make everything you print pretty it gets a tad bit spendy. I use
Astrobrights paper for things like newsletters, flyers, or if there’s a piece
of paper that I want keep track of I’ll print it on a nice bright color.

When it comes to math centers and things that students are
going to be handling it’s cardstock ALL. THE. WAY. If I print something on
cardstock for student use I never wish that I would have laminated it. I
never laminate any of my math centers, because there’s just no need. The
cardstock holds up fine.

As teachers, we’re always looking to find things
that we can take off of our plate. We’re looking for things that don’t impact
student learning and this is certainly one of those things.

Astrobrights does make cardstock, but I buy mine at
Michaels using a 40%, 50% or sometimes even 60% off coupon. I get 200 sheets
of cardstock in a variety of shades for less than $5. If you want to get even
more realistic, half the time I just grab construction paper from our
production room and use that. Let me tell ya, it works just as well in those
math centers. The cards don’t get destroyed. I use them from year to year and I don’t have sit, and cut, and laminate.

I know that as teachers, we love laminating and it’s so beautiful and it’s so pretty. When it comes down to things that I’ve just learned to let go, laminating things I don’t need to laminate is just one of those things. I’m going to show you also a trick for how I print and copy all of my math centers super quick, while saving ink. Even if math centers, that I buy from TPT or that I make on my own, whatever, come in color. I print them in black and white. I think all the color is super cute, but my kids don’t really care, and I don’t have the money to keep spending on colored ink. I just print them on colored card stock or colored construction paper.

Sure there are posters and things I want to save and keep
beautiful year after year. Those are the things I will laminate. Cards,
games, and centers hold up great without cutting and laminating. Plus I have
a tip for keeping them from getting mixed up. I’m sure you’ve found a card
for a math center lying all by itself on the ground. If you don’t have some
way of identifying which center it goes with you either sort through all the
centers and find it’s family or if you’re like me you say, “Screw it.” and
it’s tossed in the trash. Here’s what you do:

Step 1: Figure out how many sets of one math center you
need. Usually I need six sets.

Step 2: Figure out how many pieces of paper one center/
one set requires. Let’s imagine that it’s three pieces of paper.

Step 3: Gather set of 3 pieces of paper in six different
colors. For example, 3 pieces of blue, 3 pieces of pink, 3 pieces of green, 3
pieces of yellow, 3 pieces of orange, 3 pieces of purple.

Step 4. Stack each set together and place in the bypass
of your copy machine.

Step 5: Place the original of the math center in the top
of the copy maching.

Step 6: In the copy machine punch in 6 copies. Hit the
sort buttong and push start.

Now you have 6 sets of math centers in 6 different
colors. If you find a yellow card on the ground hand it to a students and ask
them to put it with the yellow set.

If you want to keep laminating your math centers and
cutting them out because that’s what makes your teacher heart happy then
keep doin’ your thing. If you’re sick of cutting and laminating and buying
color ink then you have found a simple solution. We all have to do what works
for us. We all have to decide what’s important and take the things off of our
plates that aren’t. This was one of those things for me. I’m not always good
about prioritizing, saying no, or giving things up, but this was something
I could deal with.

What have you taken off your teaching plate? What have
you discovered isn’t important when you keep your purpose in mind? Share with us,
because chances our it’s something one of us hasn’t thought of. Inspire us.