Thread: Preparing!

Garage Sales.

Public libraries sell books cheap to make room for new books.

Lauren, it might be helpful if we knew what subject/grade level you will be teaching. You'll likely get better responses that way!

btw, welcome to TF. We're glad you joined.

You may also build as you go. If you order books via the Scholastic monthly book orders, Scholastic will credit you with a certain number of points per books sold to students. These points may be redeemed for free books.

Another good source of books is a used book store. You won't get the bargains that you'll find at a garage sale or public library sale but you'll have a better selection and can look for specific books appropriate to your class needs.

As a former elementary teacher I should caution you that it took me several years to build up a respectable library. These things don't happen overnight unless you're willing to spend a ton of money on books.

Scholastic will also have warehouse sales.

Thanks so much for your responses everyone! I'm going to be teaching 2nd grade this year, so if anyone has specific suggestions, that would be great! I'm going to look into Scholastic and the public libraries around me this weekend! Thanks, again!

I'd also suggest not going TOO overboard with buying stuff for your classroom until you start and see what you really might use. I found that a lot of really nice looking books weren't all that applicable for me to use.

Ebay is a good place to look for used books, too.

Yes, that's good advice. I'm going to wait until I've started working in the classroom to make bigger purchases, I just thought I'd learn about some of the options from experienced teachers! Thanks everyone!

You also might want to wait and see what type of lesson plan format your administrators require, as well as looking through the curriculum frameworks book for your district. Make sure you know exactly what has to be taught and when before you devote a lot of time to creating lesson plans. Your school's teacher guides for reading and math will have ideas for lesson plans.

Thanks for the suggestions about lesson plans!