I am back in my office and getting ready to jumpstart the 2023-2024 school year — my 25th year in education! Thus, I am declaring this year the BEST YEAR EVER! In honor of this anniversary, I wanted to post the classroom “must-haves” that helped me create my classroom. Even as an Associate Principal, I still use many of these items. Each item has a link where you can find it!

So, without further ado, here we go!

1. THE ONLY PEN I USE — Pilot Precise V5 Stick Liquid Ink Rolling Ball Pens – my husband and I go round and round — he is a G2 guy (clicker pens are his gig), but I still stand by my capped pens. You won’t know until you JUST TRY THE DIFFERENCE!
2. THE ONLY PENCILS I USE — Blackwing Pencils! This company not only makes fantastic pencils, but they champion small businesses, support and promote independent artists, and develop/implement music and art programs. The list of people who have used Blackwings is legendary: John Stenbeck, Looney Tunes creator Chuck Jones, Disney animator Shamus Culhane (who was buried with his Blackwing 602) — and so many more! They can be pricey, but they are WORTH IT. I am a collector and love them. You should try! You can visit the website HERE — or just purchase on Amazon!
3. WORD ON ALL MY WALLS — I loved putting quotes on my walls – so I would cut out individual letters to put inspiring words and phrases on every surface of my classroom. This was achieved by using a CRICUT. My first cricut was pretty old school, but now they have some pretty amazing tools. Completely worth the purchase!
4. BULLETIN BOARDS — I was able to CUT MY COST in half when I started buying cheap wrapping paper to cover both my bulletin boards and my walls. By the way, if you want to cover walls without using rolls and rolls of tape, utilize a cheap GLUE GUN to hang the paper! It’s a brilliant tip I picked up early on – and I began wallpapering my classroom walls with EASE!
5. THE COFFEE STATION — This was a big hit pre-COVID — and now you can probably get back to this. I taught seniors, so I had a robust coffee station with a coffee maker, Keurig, hot water heater, and all kinds of coffee, tea, and cocoa. The students provided the supplies and their own mugs. I provided the machines and the storage. Check out my post about this HERE! Students made the coffee each morning and heck, I had access to non-stop coffee all day long!
6. MY FAVORITE JOURNAL – I keep track of all of my “thoughts”, to-do lists, and a-ha moments in a Moleskine journal. I have many that I have collected over time, and whenever I want to be INSPIRED, I open one up and read all the quotes, resources, books, and thoughts I’ve added from a specific school year. Moleskine also has a robust history – used by Van Gogh, Picasso, Hemingway and more. Their website is fabulous, but you can also find them on Amazon.
7. MAILBOXES – I was blessed to have a friend “gift” me with homemade mailboxes that gave ALL of my 120 students an individual mailbox. This means I NEVER WASTED TIME PASSING OUT PAPERS. This is a GAME CHANGER, folks. If you can make this happen, DO IT. It was similar to THIS Amazon product, but had 120 slots – it was handmade. Seriously, if you can get this done, it will change your use of classroom time EXPONENTIALLY.
8. DICE – I had a tub full of dice that could be used for multiple activities (even in my English classroom!). They give the students some agency when choosing questions to answer out loud in a group or large setting – and many other options! Order a 50 pack for 5.99 HERE!
9. PLAY-DOH – Read my post about ways to use Play-Doh in the classroom HERE. SO MANY WAYS – even with middle school and high school students! They LOVE IT! Buy a 36 pack so everyone gets their own – or add it to your classroom wish list!
10. LEGOS – Just like Play-Doh, students love every opportunity to utilize their hands and create objects for the classroom. Legos can be used to help students create timelines or scenes from a historical event or story. The ideas are endless! Grab a classic set!
11. FIDGET TOYS – Everyone has those kiddos who just need to do something with their hands. I always had a few fidgets in the table organizers (see next item) on each desk. Students were able to keep their hands busy without getting into trouble. There are 800 pieces in this set.
12. TABLE ORGANIZERS – In my high school classroom, I put one organizer in the middle of each table of four students. The organizer had everything the students might need for my class. See below for more items contained in each organizer. I chose black, but here is a set of 6 with different assorted colors.
13. MARKERS – I made sure that each organizer had markers,
14. POST-ITS – post-its for classroom activities and interactive discussions, and
15. HIGHLIGHTERS of different colors. This was in addition to dice, play-doh, legos and fidgets. And if you ever want to remove the supplies for a class period, it was easy to remove the organizer caddy for the period or the day!
16. ROLL STICKERS – At my current school, I pass out stickers to students EVERY FRIDAY. Roll stickers are the best way to go because you can rip them off (on the paper) which prevents students from sticking them on the wall (haha, I learned this in my first year). Students LOVE THIS — and several teachers have begun this tradition in their individual classrooms. We pass out themed stickers, holiday stickers, and just fun ones. It’s a fun way to create a positive culture! If you’d like to contribute to the DeKalb High School Sticker Friday for 23-24, please check out our list and contribute!
17. GAME PIECES – I gave each student an Emoji Page with different ways to identify how they were feeling each day. During their bell ringer, students would get out their emojis and place a game piece on the one they most identified with. I started this post-COVID and it really helped open up conversations with the kids. See my post about it HERE — and grab cheap game pieces HERE.
18. PUZZLES – This started when a student gifted me a puzzle. I set up a table in the back of the room and spread out the pieces. This became a great “quiet space” for students between classes or when they just needed a BREAK. Any puzzle works- and there are plenty of places (including Goodwill) that sell them cheap! Here is one of my favorites.
19. MASKING TAPE – This was a NUMBER ONE MUST for me. This activity was life changing for both myself and my students. Read about it here, and then BUY SOME MASKING TAPE HERE!
20. MUG – It was always important to me that everything I display would say something about what I believe. Since my mantra is CHOOSE JOY, many students bought me items that heralded that phrase. I currently have one on my desk, a gift from a staff member – and I love it. It reminds me to CHOOSE JOY every day. And also coffee. 🙂
21. STRESS RELIEF LOTION – This is something I have used the last three years, but I tell you what, I now order it in bulk. Whenever I need a moment, I put this on my hands and breathe in the eucalyptus and spearmint. I have given it to students in my office who need some stress relief as well. Seriously. Get some for yourself HERE.
22. CUSTOMIZED STAMP – When I became an AP teacher, I constantly had to put student scores on their papers – breaking down the parts of each score. There were several categories for the score, so I made a customized stamp to make my time more efficient. No matter what, it’s fun to have your name or your motto – or maybe something you say often – on an easy stamp to use on student papers. Grab yours (with up to three lines of personalized text) here.
23. MINDFUL MINUTES FOR EDUCATORS – I have created monthly mindful minutes – just a little “thought” to concentrate on every day and month of the year. You can purchase them here at my Teachers Pay Teachers page. It is always good to concentrate on the POSITIVE things, and the mindful minutes are meant to give you something to focus on as each day begins. I start the beginning of every day in quiet gratitude and meditation – and it helps my day start the right way!
24. WALL OF PHOTOS – You can check out my TikTok (@carriewisehart) to see how I collected the graduation cards of my seniors and covered my door, walls, and white boards with them. The students love seeing themselves and one another featured on the wall! You could do that with school photos or candids – but it really personalizes the room for them and helps them to feel ownership!
25. PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES – It was always important to me that my classroom gave students opportunities to be better people. So every week I gave opportunities to make a difference, give a compliment, get to know everyone in the room a little better – my goal was for students to know everyone’s name in the first couple weeks. Check out this blog I wrote for Keep Indiana Learning – it was an opportunity I gave students every couple weeks to cultivate a relationship with me in safe ways.

What is your “must-have” list? I would love to hear your ideas! Add your comments below!