When you walk in for your first day of student teaching, you do not know what to bring, what might come in handy. You bring a notebook, a planner, and maybe a couple pens or pencils. As the days and weeks go by, you realize quickly that there are more things you need on an everyday basis. Here is a list of 11 things you will need as a student teacher.
1. A Planner
I know I already said that you will most likely already bring one, but you must make sure you get a good one. You need one that has plenty of room to write everything you must remember for all of your classes.
2. Pens and Pencils
Again already bring, but make sure you have plenty of them and a variety of colors (makes organizing and grading easier). Also bring something to store them in because they tend to disappear.
3. Paper clips
These will be your best friend when it comes to organizing your assignments. Binder clips can also be handy to group graded materials together. Either way, just make sure you have a good box to put them in or they will end up everywhere.
5. Binders and dividers
This is how I organize all of my assignments; both my own and the ones I assign my students. Everything is organized by subject with everything from the semester in each.
6. 3-Hole Punch
Whether there is one in the classroom or not, you need one for home. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to organize and get things ready for the week and not having a hole punch so you can put them into your binder as you are going.
7. White out
Sometimes you find these awesome worksheets online and everything fits except like one thing and the easiest way to fix them and give them to your kids is whiteout! It comes in handy a lot because you cannot edit PDFs on the computer without special software and this is just easier.
8. Thumb Drive
SAVE EVERYTHING! Even if your not sure if you will ever use it, save it. You never know when it will come in handy. Make sure you keep it organized to so that you can easily find it.
9. Folders
I do not care if it is just manila folders, but you need them and tons of them. This is more of that organization aspect. You will have so many papers...to grade, to give, to pass back, and somehow you need to manage to organize it all!
10. Lunchbox
It may sound weird, but you will spend so many lunches in your classroom that you need a decent lunchbox. I just finished week seven and have left for lunch one time. Nearly everyday, I have kids in my room either needing help or making up work.
11. Yeti
Or at least the Walmart version. These are great because you have ice all day long. You stand up there talking all day you have to drink something and there is nothing better than ice cold water.
