What should I put in my teacher bag? A question I ask myself every September.
If you are a trainee teacher or even a seasoned Head of Department, I can guarantee that at the end of the Autumn term your teacher bag was a teeming mess of papers, post-it-notes and paperclips, right?
Oh, and if your ‘teacher bag’ is a free canvas bag from your union or even a bag-for-life from Sainsbury’s, it still needs sorting out.
Why an organised teacher bag is essential
Let’s be honest, it’s a given now that we’ve been travelling from room-to-room more than we would usually. Gone are the days we could stay in our little home-from-homes with our secret snack draw. Instead, we find ourselves sitting in the chair of the weird Geography teacher who actually sports arm patches as some cringe-worthy, attempt at ironic wit. Yes, he exists in every school.
We need to be organised AND to minimalise our bag.
By the way, I have a separate bag for my personal items and one as a school bag. Honestly, you don’t want to drop a £30 blusher on the table when setting up for period 1. Keep it separate.
It will help you:
- Save time.
- Make the start to lessons quicker.
- Ensure none of your stuff goes missing in the changeover rush (or gets stolen).
- Be less likely to lose a set of year 11 controlled assessments (yeah, that happened to me).
What to include in your teacher bag
1 – A fully stocked pencil case
Don’t underestimate the absolute power of an organised pencil case – the MAGIC of having a set of working pens and board pens. This is even more important when you are in Mr Geography teacher’s room and his drawer is locked and you’ve got your difficult year 10 class when your only chewed-up pen runs out.
You need a good marking pen for live marking if you are doing it and some pens that you truly love to write with for under the visualiser. I find a ruler is almost as important as pens for reading under the visualiser too.
And, board markers! What gold dust! Listen, don’t rely on those fancy interactive whiteboards. Batteries run out; at least you know how long left you’ve got with a trusty board pen!
2 – Spare pens
A pack of cheap pens from Poundland is a teacher’s best friend. The students I teach would use the ‘my pen has run out trick’ to avoid work at all costs in the return to face-to-face teaching. I couldn’t bear to part with some of my own pens but with something that is worth pennies and is going to be crushed in a teenage-angst heap of rage anyway? Not a problem. Have two and take your hood down.
So, silently hand those pens out and carry on with your lesson.
3 – Tissues
Everyone and his dog has got a cold in January. So, what should you do? Well, to avoid the constant stream of hands going up to ask to excuse themselves so they can get some tissue from the toilet, buy a bulk of tissues and have them at the ready. No more having to explain to SLT why there are so many students from your lesson out in the corridor. Bingo!
4 – Post-it notes
Ah! The handy post-it note. These little things are great for student motivation. So, write something positive on your post-it when walking around the classroom and pop it on their desk or book. Notice the vibe from that student when you are spready positivity. And more than that? Notice how the other students (yes, even Year 11) want one too.
You could also keep track of behaviour sanctions if the classroom doesn’t have a board to write on or to write notes to the teacher whose classroom it is by sticking them on the computer.
5 – A large wedge of A4 lined paper
There is always someone that has run out of paper in their books. What happens when you are in another department’s classroom? You don’t know where the paper is and you can’t issue them a maths book in a French lesson. This is an absolute essential. And like the trusty board pen, A4 paper is truly like gold dust in my department. Take one. Hide one.
Let me know what you have in your bag! Happy organising!
Take a look at the FREE printable to help you organise your life.
The Invisible Teacher has been working in inner-city secondary schools for 12 years across the heart of England.
