Originally launched to help our customers at the Education Show in Birmingham get their purchases and brochures home, the Teacher Trolley grew last year when we sourced a larger one: It had a longer handle which kept the users back straighter and was more comfortable to pull.

But why are they flying out the door now?

I’ve canvassed the office and our top ten suggestions are as follows:

1. Gifts from teachers who’ve used them to their teaching colleagues
2. For autumn garden clearance
3. Used instead of a basket in the supermarket for easier manoeuvrability
4. House to car to house solution for holiday travels
5. Pet transport for pets too posh to walk
6. Storing and transporting recycling
7. Becoming the ultimate party guest by arriving with a trolley full of Christmas Party drinks
8. Mail distribution whether in offices or by the paperboy
9. Transporting  kids party supplies to the venue, and the pressies home again!
10. Getting your washing to the washing line without straining your back (in November?!)
11. Craft fairs – getting your goodies there to set up your stall and sell
12. Carrying sports kit and instruments  for kids whose bags seem bigger than they are!

And that’s discounting the suggestion of one member of the team (name withheld) of using  a Teachers Trolley as a skateboard-come-go-kart…

The fact that they fold-away when not in use and can fit in the car, or on a desk without the handle extended, makes these Trolleys so versatile .

The fact that there is £5 off them until Wednesday 17th November makes them a steal whatever the pupose.

PS/ I know there aren’t actually 101 uses listed here, but I know you will think of lots more and am confident we can come up with 101 between us…I’ll be looking out for your ideas on the comments below.

Take one child, one bike and one dog; combine  all three together with my good self and  a desire to avoid a fast-approaching lake and the result was a defensive skid that could have taught John Terry a thing or two, plus a huge rip the left knee of my jeans

What about you guys? Has anyone put our pencils or oil pastels to the test against more well-known brands? If so, drop me a comment below – I’d love to hear from you!

PS / Even more gutting was the fact that I had the expensive jeans on when I fell!!

It’s no different today: Walls adorned with learning material, make us secure that even if the minds in our classroom start to wander, they might wander across some useful facts.

But, on one issue there is a point of debate.  How often should classroom posters be changed?

It is an issue on which there doesn’t seem to be much agreement, except that those teachers who have commented on the subject on discussion groups tend to agree that they would like to change their posters more.

Whilst the topic-led displays of pupil work get changed as the class moves through the topics, often the posters remain untouched, meaning they risk becoming wallpaper.

So here are some quick-fix ideas to refresh your classroom posters:

1. Switch positions; a simple swop from one side of the room to the other exposes new pupils to a new poster message without the need to move everything else on the walls to accommodate something new
2. Exchange posters with colleagues in the same year group; they will still be age appropriate, but will be fresh to your class.
3. ‘Drip-feed’ new posters onto the walls, so your pupils are only exposed to one new poster at a time

SuperStickers has over 15 posters sets on offer, from punctuation and languages, to hygiene, history and values, and with prices from £1.39  per poster, it’s an inexpensive way to maximise the learning opportunity from your classroom walls.

If you would like to share with me how often you change the posters in your class, I’d love to hear all about it.

The trouble is, when this occurs, it is often best to stay quiet.  For example when, as a visitor, one says, “why are you doing that – it would be quicker / easier / simpler / safer if you did this?” it can seem terribly rude and lead to the offer of a cup of coffee in the staff room being withdrawn.

After all, one is invited in as a guest, not as a critic.  One can imagine the dirty looks, the narrowing eyes, and the subtle question, “you’re not from Ofsted are you?”

So when visiting schools I tend to accept the hospitality, stay quiet and keep calm – but in so doing I suspect that I might be doing the school a disservice since I don’t tell them how they could make their jobs easier.

Take the issue of moving equipment and books around the school and out to the car.  I regularly see members of staff struggle to carry such objects around, often making two or three journeys, and risking a back strain.

The solution of course is to introduce a trolley – and I did suggest this once when in a school in the United States, only to find myself getting a set of very strange looks.  (It turns out that in America a trolley is a bus which is powered by overhead electrical cables linked by a fixed arm – what we used to call a trolleybus.  It took me ages to point out that I was not suggesting the introduction of double-decker passenger vehicles in the school’s corridors and staff car park.

So I tend to play it safe these days and talk about carts – which are just about the oldest form of vehicle on the planet.

According to Wikipedia (which is of course by and large generally wrong, but which still makes good reading) “the oldest known wheeled vehicles were found in Sumer and Syria and date from around 3500 BC”

Incidentally I would not recommend getting onto a handcart.  In the days of the Roman Republic, defeated leaders were often carried in a handcart as a sign of their loss of fortune – and it is not a good idea to give the wrong impression within the school’s corridors.

I did report back to my colleagues at SuperStickers on the misunderstanding that can arise from the use of the word “trolley” in the USA, but the powers that be were more concerned that teachers might think we were suggesting pushing the supermarket variety through their schools!

However, seeing is believing and 100s of teachers at the Education Show understood exactly how a trolley could ease their burden at school. So, we still have the trolley.  In fact we have the Large Trolley

I would add something else.  Sometimes I am told “we don’t have any money to afford luxuries like trolleys.”  But consider this.  Supposing one member of staff takes one day off sick because of back strain from carrying goods that could have been placed in a trolley.  The cost of the supply teacher for that day would be greater than the cost of the trolley – which will last years.

So there you have it.  No electrical cables, no defeated Generals and cheaper than a supply teacher.  Just you, your equipment, your books, and a nifty way to avoid multiple journeys and a back ache.

This torturous process was made more simple as I have two favourite brands; Top Shop jeans at about £40 a pair and Deisel jeans at £100 a pair.

Both options are available locally. Both firms have jeans that fit me and seem to suit my particular body shape and size, and apart from the label, at a quick glance, I don’t think the jeans can be told apart.

So the issue therefore comes down to a simple point; which is the best deal:? Do Deisel jeans last longer than Top Shop jeans?

In the end I bought one pair from each shop (thanks credit card!) and I am going to find out which last longest, so I will have the answer once and for all.

Now, all this may seem utterly beside the point, except for the fact that a similar issue arises when thinking about buying things like pens and pencils for the classroom – oil pastels, colouring pencils, jumbo pencils, water colour pens, pencil sharpeners…  that sort of thing.

Once again the question is: is it worth buying the more expensive product from the famous name manufacturers, (on the grounds perhaps that these companies’ products last longer) or should one save money with the less expensive items, which (not to put too fine a point on it) are available on our web site?

In the case of art essentials I have no doubt – buying the lower cost products from SuperStickers is always a much better deal, simply because there’s no difference between the quality of our products and those of more expensive competitors. 

But I don’t expect you just to take my word for it.  If you want to prove it for yourself, you can do an in-classroom trial (just as I am doing at the weekends in my jeans). 

Try any one of our Classroom Essential products and send me a report and let me know.  I’ll put a sample of the replies I get on this blog.   Each one published will receive one of the classroom essentials free.

You can also report on how long your jeans last, and I’ll publish any good comments I get, but unfortunately I don’t have the wherewithal to supply you with free samples of clothing!

Of course it depends on what one means by “the most important thing”.  Is it one issue that had a big impact at the time, such as a singular event, or it is a change that has evolved day by day? 

Was it for example the July 7^th bombing in London, which brought home the fact that London could be attacked by terrorists?

Or could it be something with international reach, such as the rise and rise of digital technology, leading to the modern mobile phone, broadband and so forth.

Or was it (for those in England) the 2002 Education Act with its power to innovate, school budget reforms and earned autonomy clauses? 

Or possibly something very local to you – such as the abolition of tolls on the Skye Bridge.  Probably of little interest if you live in the Isle of Wight, but of huge interest if you live on either side of Loch Alsh.

Now there is a reason for my asking such a question: 

Everywhere we look there are so many bits of information, there are so many possibilities, and so much is happening, that it is often impossible to know what the main point is.

It is a bit like looking at a friend or relative who is having a tough time.  You may perceive something is not quite right, but your attempts at direct questioning might be rebuffed.  So you are forced to look at every aspect of the person’s life, to try and find the key issue – the main point.

And doing that is, in fact, a skill.

Children find getting the key information out of a situation very difficult.  Their attention can be dominated by the first piece of information they get, and if they are pointed away from that there can be a tendency simply to jump over to something else.   

What they have to learn (and what they can find very hard to learn), is how to take in all the available information, and then extract the core point, ignoring all the trivia.

Of course it is not just children who have that difficulty.  Indeed some adults  I know seem to have the same problem, getting easily sidetracked by the first point they think of, and through that failing to find the heart of a situation.

Indeed I find this occasionally when an idea is put forward which will make matters work more smoothly at school, only to have one person object by saying “that won’t work because…”   Typically that individual then focuses on one particular scenario in which the new idea would not be appropriate – ignoring the fact that the rest of the time it would be a major help.

My suspicion is that these people did not get much help at school in handling “main idea” problems!

And that’s really what it is all about.   Children, and some adults, can find it hard to distinguish the “main idea” when there is a lot of other data around.  Which is why we have introduced the Main Idea Reading Comprehension game.  It is one of a whole series of self-checking reading comprehension activities that we have on page 137 of the new 2010/11 Rewarding Learning Catalogue.

I do hope you’ll have a look.  And if you do have a vision of what the most important thing is that has happened in the past ten years, I’d love to hear it.

One can say, “well done,” one can give out a sticker, one can put up a chart showing the best examples, the most improved, the hardest working, and so forth.

There are the awards for improvement, collecting a certificate in assembly as a recognition of success, having the rest of the class applaud…

But…

The problem is that for children there is a fine line between rewards which are familiar and welcome, generating the excitement of who won it this week, and rewards that become stale and dull because they have been given out too often.

Which one way or another can lead to William Cowper, and the lines…

Variety’s the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavour.

Cowper was (of course) not writing about rewarding children in the classroom.  He had no children himself and he was a man who for much of his life felt sure that he was going to be doomed to eternal damnation – perhaps because he wanted to marry his cousin (although he was consistently refused permission by his father).

However his work “The Task” (which contains the “Variety is the spice of life” line) is still read, and everyone knows his most famous phrase 200 years after he died.  Indeed he is remembered with a window in Westminster Abbey, which is a rare honour.  He has left his mark.

Anyway returning from this meander into 18th century poetry and accepting Cowper’s most famous phrase, (while ignoring the desperate sadness of much of his life), I finally drag myself back to the point in hand.  How do we ensure that our rewards for children are continuously varied?

One answer that I rather like involves the use of the Quick Note Pads each of which has 60 sheets.  There are 28 different pads available – and you can select any five for £10.   The full details are on pages 66 and 67 of the catalgoue.

I think they would cheer even up even William Cowper.

I say up to a point, because there’s that name list that comes out of the government’s national statistics office each year and which tells us exactly which names are the most popular.   From that we all know we are going to see a lot of Jack’s and Oliver’s in the year’s to come – because those were the most popular names in 2008.

Of course it is different in America (it always is).  There the fifth most popular girls’ name is Madison, while Ethan makes the top five in boys names.  Not names I have come across much in my part of the country.

Here’s another thing about names… In 1904 the most popular boys’ name was William, followed by John, George, Thomas and Arthur.  For the girls it was Mary, Florence, Doris, Edith and Dorothy.

Whatever the name, using it wields a kind of power: “Well done Lucy!” is simply more weighty than a general “Well done!”.

Challenging behaviour has long been associated with attention seeking in the most genuine sense – a cry for individual recognition. Here’s where Customised Stickers step in:

Choose stickers with images reflecting the likes of the child and add their name alongside encouraging praise on a sticker: It’ll help address some of their need for attention and feed their self-esteem at the same time.

This applies just as well to the struggling child: Giving them a praise sticker mentioning them personally, means their name is no longer synonymous with a sinking feeling of inadequacy when asked a question they can’t answer. Rather, it’s associated with praise, achievement and positivity.

Or use Customised Stickers with your own name on, to booster parent teacher links, so that the parent sees that the reward came from you.

Whatever the approach there are thousands of Customisable Stickers ranging from animals to languages, subjects to sports….Pages 26 to 35 of the SuperStickers catalogue – if you haven’t got one, give me a call on 0800 318192.

Equally confusing is the fact that here is absolutely no agreement as to where and when pencils were invented. There’s talk in some books of the mid 16^th century and elsewhere the late 19^th century gets the award. Some speak of graphite being discovered under the root of a felled tree, while others mention and skulduggery 300 years later as two families fought to produce the first modern pencil.

(Personally I always feel that any discovery made under the root of a felled tree is more Alice in Wonderland than pure science, but who am I to argue with wikipedia?)

Certainly a lot of writers go for the UK as the centre of pencil development since graphite was discovered in England (under a tree), so I guess we might as well accept that it was either one of the very early or one of the very late developments of the industrial revolution.

But perhaps the most interesting thing about the pencil (other than the fact that they don’t by and large kill people who use them) is that the simple implement (named from the Latin “pencillus” meaning “a pointed brush”) has taken on a psychological status.

If the pencil a child has is just any old pencil picked out of a box, then it tends to be used to produce any old work, and the care level invested by the child in the work declines.

But if the pencil is one the child values, a ‘special’ pencil, then the work produced with it is enhanced.

That was the original thought behind our reward pencils which carry all the messages you can imagine from “You’re a math-a-magician” to “My teacher is proud of me”, from “Star of the week” to a range of stars and smiles.

It seems a tremendously simple idea. But then, I guess, so is the notion of writing with graphite.

You can find details of our psychological pencils on page 60 of the SuperStickers catalogue, or at www.superstickers.com/pencils on our web site.

So this week, in the spirit of being someone who does their bit to help, I highjacked the PTA social to ask the Teachers what efficiencies could be made in my daughter’s school.

I am not going to bore you with the whole conversation (which I must admit got a little excitable at times, due to the fact that we held it in Pizza Express – it’s the little things!) but the teachers came up with a really simple idea:

Supposing every time you wanted to comment on how a piece of work was done, you didn’t write anything down in the child’s book, but instead just stamped it with a comment. That (they reckoned) would save fifteen seconds per book.

At that point (just after the nuts and before the pizzas) it was argued that one never has enough stampers to cover all possibilities. But it was argued that with a set of three or five stamps we could cover about 90% of the options. The rest would have to be written – but there would still be a time saving.

For example, you might have one stamp that says, “Independent Work”, one that says “Teacher Assisted” and one that says, “Pair Work.” That just about covers most circumstances under which most pieces of work are produced.

On the assumption of a class of 30, and three pieces of work a day that need a comment, that is a saving of 15 minutes a day. Not sensational, but a start.

But then we talked about feedback and rewards. Supposing you had five stamps and one gave the target to be achieved, one said “well done”, one was “nearly there”, another said, “see me” and another had “great work” then again that set would save another 15 minutes a day. A total of 30 minutes saved.

By the time the cheesecake arrived (except for those who refused because of their current weight regime, and then pretended not to look enviously at those of us who were indulging) we had saved nearly two and a half hours per week.

Of course we did consume a little alcohol with the meal, and our maths may have gone slightly askew towards the end, but we left Pizza Express with the feeling that the efficiency lark might not be as impossible as we thought.

Quick Stamp Stacks containing selections of three or five stamps covering different outcomes and message are shown on pages 46/47 of the SuperStickers catalogue.

Oh and Mr Cameron would be so proud; Five High Quick Stamp Stacks are also over 11% cheaper than standard stamp stacks.

If you have a story about efficiency, Pizza Express, or any product that’s saving you time, please share by adding your comment below.