It's back to school time and Pendaflex has come to the rescue for teachers around the country.  If you're a teacher, read about their online resource center and products, especially for you!  At the end I have listed some links to additional Teacher planning books available online.

September 2, 2008

Pendaflex Launches a Resource Center for Teachers Featuring a Guide to Classroom Organization and Offers a Back to School Kit to Help Keep Desks Clutter-Free

Today, Pendaflex announced the launch of an online resource center for Teachers called the Classroom Resource Center. Designed to help teachers get ahead of the game, the site features a download, Guide to Classroom Organization, that will help teachers quickly set the game plan for a successful year. Pendaflex has also released a Teachers Plan and Back to School Kit that contains all of the essential items teacher's need to manage the unending amount of schoolwork that clutters their desks.

Teachers don't have time to redo the filing system, as the papers start piling up for the year. This resource kit will help teachers get and stay on track.

Melville, NY (PRWEB) September 2, 2008 -- Today, Pendaflex announced the launch of an online resource center for Teachers called the Classroom Resource Center. Designed to help teachers get ahead of the game, the site features a download, Guide to Classroom Organization, that will help teachers quickly set the game plan for a successful year. Pendaflex has also released a Teachers Plan and Back to School Kit that contains all of the essential items teacher's need to manage the unending amount of schoolwork that clutters their desks.

The beginning of the school year is an exciting time. Fresh notebooks with uncracked spines, pens that haven't yet been uncapped and neat rows of bins waiting to be filled. Fast-forward two weeks however and some teachers are already feeling overwhelmed and rushed for time.

"Teachers can't help it if the principal stuck three extra kids in their class, and the students tore through that first week's worth of lessons in two days, so they've been scrambling for new material," shared Sharon Mann, President of the I Hate Filing Club. "Teachers don't have time to redo the filing system, as the papers start piling up for the year. This resource kit will help teachers get and stay on track."

The Pendaflex Guide to Classroom Organization helps teachers bring order to their classrooms. Here's how it works:
1.   Teachers should identify and sort classroom props, such as:

• Different sizes of worksheet papers
• Markers, paints, glue, and other project supplies
• Oversize paper, like poster board
• Other instructional materials uses regularly

2.   Teachers should create a simple system for managing, filing, and returning student work -- and it'll be incredibly simple for both the teacher and the students to prepare for parent-teacher conferences.
3.   It's easy to keep things organized when teachers have a designated place for each classroom activity. They will know where and how each item should be stored by the end of this short course.
4.   Often teachers have to move their classrooms on a moment's notice. In this course, they will learn to create a mobile office that they can take anywhere with very little preparation.
5.   Teachers find that when their desk is neat, it sends a great message to their students.

Through this short course they will find some of the ways they can eliminate clutter and work more efficiently.

Teachers can can also find products to help them stay organized at Pendaflex.com Products.

The Teachers Back to School Kit contains essentials that help teachers keep their desktops organized and important materials within reach. Included in this money-saving kit are the following items: Teachers Plan Book, PileSmart Desktop Tray, Oxford At-HandTM Sheet Protector Dispenser and a Leitz Allura® Stand Up Stapler.

The Teachers Back to School Kit is perfect for teachers who need to manage the endless amount of paperwork - lesson plans, notes and papers ready for grading - that clutter up their desks.

About Pendaflex:
Pendaflex is one of the world's premier manufacturers of organizational solutions, bringing innovation, efficiency and style to workplace and home settings. Committed to simplifying consumers' lives, Pendaflex produces a broad range of filing and organizational products, as well as provides solutions and resources through our website Pendaflex.com and PendaflexLearningCenter.com. Located in Melville, NY, Pendaflex is the principal U.S. brand of Esselte Corporation, a $1.2 billion office products company with subsidiaries in 28 countries and distribution in more than 120 countries.

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More Teacher's Plan Books:

The Scholastic Teacher Plan Book

Teacher Plan Book

The Elementary Teacher's Plan Book Plus!: 

Planning and Record-Keeping Pages Plus Hundreds of Great Ideas for Classroom Management

The Middle Grade Teacher's Plan Book Plus!: 

 Planning and Record-Keeping Pages Plus Hundreds of Great Ideas for Classroom Management

 

 

CPSC Offers Tips for Back to School Safety

WASHINGTON, D.C. – More than 50 million children are headed back to school this fall and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is urging parents to pay special attention to safety this school year.

Whether it’s wearing a helmet while they ride their bikes, watching out for dangerous drawstrings in children’s jackets, or checking the safety of school soccer goals, CPSC has important safety tips that can keep children from being sidelined with injuries.

Helmet Safety

Wear a bicycle helmet when biking or riding a scooter to and from school. Make sure your child’s bicycle helmet has a label stating it meets CPSC’s mandatory safety standard. Wearing a bicycle helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by as much as 85 percent.

CPSC staff has reports of an annual average of 80 children under 16 years of age who died in bicycle-related incidents in recent years. About half of the 500,000 bicycle-related emergency room-treated injuries in 2007 involved children under the age of 16. When taking part in other recreational activities, wear the right helmet for that activity. Read CPSC’s “Which Helmet for Which Activity” publication, which helps parents choose the most appropriate helmet, at http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PUBS/349.pdf (pdf).

More than 80 percent of the nearly 50,000 emergency room-treated injuries involving unpowered scooters in 2007 were to children younger than 15. In addition to wearing a helmet, CPSC recommends elbow and knee pads when riding a scooter.

Avoid Children’s Clothing with Drawstrings

Drawstrings at the hood or neck area are a strangulation hazard. They can catch on playground equipment and other items. Remove hood and neck drawstrings from upper outerwear clothing already in your child’s closet, and do not buy children’s clothing that uses them.

Since 1985, CPSC received reports of 27 deaths and 70 non-fatal incidents involving the entanglement of children’s clothing drawstrings.

Movable Soccer Goals

Unsecured movable soccer goals can fall over and kill or injure children who climb on them or hang from the crossbar. Make sure soccer goals are securely anchored when in use. Never allow children to climb on the soccer net or goal framework. When not in use, anchor goals or chain them to a nearby fence post or sturdy framework. Since 1998, CPSC has reports of at least 7 deaths and an estimated 1800 emergency department visits by children younger than 16 years of age that are related to soccer goal tip-overs and structural failures. For more information on soccer goal safety, visit http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PUBS/5118.html

Playgrounds

Each year, more than 200,000 hospital emergency room visits are related to playground injuries. Most injuries occur when a child falls onto the playground surface.

Check with school officials to make sure that equipment has been inspected and maintained. There should be at least nine inches of safe, shock absorbing surface material, and proper clearance around the equipment. Make sure exposed hardware or free-hanging ropes are not part of the equipment. Ropes and clothing catching on exposed hardware can be strangulation hazards. Elevated surfaces, like platforms and ramps, should have guardrails to prevent falls.

School officials should be aware that shading at the playground with trees or other structures is an important consideration to reduce children’s exposure to the sun. Schools should also be aware that hot sun can make playground slides and black rubber matting burn hazards for children.

Source: CPSC Press Release #08-366 - Aug 19, 2008 

You wouldn't expect to hear that clutter is one of the current issues in Congress, but there's a crackdown for lawmakers to clear their hallways or have it be removed.  Citations have even been issued, but many lawmakers are refusing to move any of it because the "clutter" includes memorials of soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Read about it the argument here in Jennifer Dlouhy's report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

If you have a stockpile of unpacked shopping bags containing never used household decor, appliances and clothing, you may have an addiction to shopping and spending. 

Mental Health professionals are seeing a tremendous growth in compulsive shopping disorders, where individuals are unable to control their shopping and spending habits, resulting in clinics and self-help groups popping up around the country.

According to the Illinois Institute for Addictive Recovery, compulsive shopping and spending is "..a pattern of chronic, repetitive purchasing that becomes difficult to stop and ultimately results in harmful consequences. It is defined as an impulse control disorder and has features similar to other addictive disorders without involving use of an intoxicating drug".

Read more about compulsive shopping in yesterday's LA Times article, Shopping's Dark Side: The Compulsive Buyer:

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-shopping21-2008jul21,0,272632.story

 

Check out the current issue (July) of Corridor Inc., a local newsmagazine distributed in the Baltimore/Washington region.  I'm on the front cover! www.corridorinc.com