Folders vs Binders

Way, way back in January I mentioned that I was going to switch from binders to folders for the new semester. Then I never brought it up again, so I'll now recap for you (click here to compare to my binder procedures).

First of all, I want all of my students to have a binder/folder that is usually kept in the classroom. That way the running back and forth to the lockers, the oh I left it at home, the I don't know where it is gets eliminated. I provide the binders/folders for the students because 1) some students take forever to bring one in, 2) I want to start the binder/folder procedures the first day of class, 3) I want the binder/folder prepped with names and beginning papers the first day of class, and 4) I want them all a uniform shape and size so that they can fit where I want them to fit in the classroom. My first couple of years of using binders I had the kids supply their own, and without fail in every class someone would bring in some enormous zippered monstrosity that wouldn't fit anywhere. But I digress.

Second, I switched to folders for two primary reasons. One, putting three-hole-punched-papers into the three rings of the binders seemed to be a task that eluded a majority of my students (primarily the 8th graders; the 7th graders seemed to be able to handle this rather well). Two, due to their size I couldn't effectively have the binders passed out before class, which resulted in much pushing, shoving, etc (a la junior high kids) around the binders as kids went to retrieve them. So, here's how I organized the folders.

I purchased 3-prong folders for every student, color-coded (of course) by class hour. Then I put a label on the front of each with the student's name, class hour, and school mascot - just like I did for the binders.

On the inside front pocket, I placed a label that read "Papers to Turn In." This was to remind them that all papers to be graded needed to be in that front pocket so that I could find them, and anything else they wanted to keep in their folders needed to kept in the back pocket so that I wouldn't have to paw through all of their stuff on a treasure hunt. On days that I collected the folders to be graded, I would spend some time in class helping them get organized - we would go over what needed to be in the front pocket, and in what order. Most of them were actually really good at complying with those directions, which made grading much quicker.

After grading their papers, I would print out a grade report for the week including those papers and all project/quiz/etc grades, then staple the whole bundle together. The rule then was anything that I had stapled needed to disappear by the next time I graded folders - again, helped keep stuff I no longer needed out of my way, making collecting grades much easier.

On the right hand side you can see that there are items in the prongs. I placed their table of contents, class syllabus, and class procedures pages (all color-coded) in the front of the prongs before initially giving them out. I also placed all of the papers from the first unit I wanted them to keep in their folders permanently in the prongs (handouts, note pages, study guides). That way all of those items were in there secured so that they wouldn't get lost, AND I wouldn't have to spend class time passing those pages out. Before starting the next unit, I would insert the next unit's packet in the prongs. A couple of my classes were able to handle this on their own (classes either entirely or predominantly composed of 7th graders), and I would pass out the packets and have them do it themselves. Other classes (entirely or predominantly composed of 8th graders) made a mess of things like this so I did it myself to save the headache of lost papers and destroyed folders.

Some other details. I tried out the "Missing Work Form" I've seen floating around the Internet this semester. Whenever a student didn't turn an assignment in, I slipped a form into their folders that required them to supply an explanation as to why they didn't turn it in. Then I held on to these for parent/teacher conferences, IEP meetings, etc. It worked great with some students, not so great with others. The best part is that for students who forgot to turn it in or planned on turning it in late, this served an extra reminder to get it in (for some reason a "zero" on the grade printout doesn't get their attention, but this sheet does. Sheesh.).

I kept all of the folders in these file crates, which were just the perfect size! At the end of each class, I would have each row stack their folders together on their row's supply table, and then I would collect them and store them in the crates (after a couple of weeks I had student volunteers do this for me in most classes). Then before each class began I could just place each row's stack on their supply table where they could retrieve them.

Here are the advantages of folders as opposed to binders:

#1: THEY TAKE UP MUCH LESS SPACE!!!!!!
(The rest are in no particular order)
-Easier for one person to collect and handout
-Less cumbersome to pull papers out of and put back in
-Papers in the prongs stay put, much less likely to accidentally tear, all in the correct order
-Easier for students to take home if they need to
-Forces me to have all handout/note pages/study guides prepared and copied for a unit before it begins
-The papers that I actually grade are loose and easy to handle - I don't have to flip through the binders to find things
-I have the option of easily taking the papers out of the folders to take home to grade, or can easily take home an entire class's folders without much hassle or heft (taking home a class of binders is quite a pain)
-Cost! 15 cents for a folder versus 92 cents for a binder - this adds up big time!

Here are the disadvantages:
-Papers are not nearly as easy to add to prongs as to rings
-Because of the above, you can't pass things out piecemeal, you've got to have everything together in advance
-Papers cannot be rearranged without a big hassle
-Cannot clip concept card pack rings around prongs (another future post)
-Much easier for students to lose if they take them out of the classroom
-Having to open and close the prongs on over 100 folders before every unit (this one would not apply to my new hs students - they should be able to handle this)
-Very difficult for students to quickly find their own folders if I don't pass them out (no labels on the side); this is challenging when a student comes in during a different class to get their folder for some reason, or if I were to put the responsibility for getting all of your materials on the students again

I'm torn on what I want to do for the coming semester. For the most part, the advantages of the folders outweigh the disadvantages. The sticking point is that with going back to high school I'd really like to make the students responsible for getting out their own folders/binders, and that's hard to do efficiently with folders because you can't put name labels on the sides like you can binders. I don't want it to take 10 minutes for kids to find their folders; kids can find their binders in just a few seconds. I don't necessarily want to have someone "in charge" of passing out the folders either, because almost every day they need to start using them immediately.

Maybe I could put some kind of class procedure in place where the first person to arrive spreads the folders out on the table where the crates are kept - that way it will be easier to for kids to find theirs? Most of my class sizes are pretty small, so I don't think folders getting knocked around and onto the floor will be a problem - especially since we're not talking about junior high students anymore.

Any opinions out there? What do all of you do?

***UPDATE***

I have modified my folder system a bit for my new school. If you are interested in starting or tweaking a folder system, check out this post to see the changes I made to see if any of the new ideas would help you out.

Product Testing for Pie Making

Pies. I love 'em. I love getting to teach pie-making in foods class - if there's anything 'retro' about Family & Consumer Science, it's that if you take a foods class you should be able to leave knowing how to make an apple pie from scratch. In my opinion, anyway.

There is of course the downside to the pie unit. Complaints of "The dough is too cold and hard to work with," "I can't roll it out evenly," "I can't make a circle." Then there's the MESS: the over-flouring, the flour all over the counters, all over the floors... the flour that's STILL all over the counter after it dries, because they didn't really wash the counters they just moved the flour around and it dried in hard, flat blotches all over the counters... you know what I'm talking about.

So about two years ago I found this handy little contraption, the Harold Pie Crust Maker, and I decided to try it out today (yes, it took two years for me to get around to it, but in all fairness I didn't teach pies this year!).

Essentially it is a zippered bag that you roll the pie crust out in.

It comes in two sizes - 14" and 11". I purchased the bigger one because I could adjust for smaller crusts if need be. Here's how it worked; stated directions are in standard type, my comments are in Italics.

The directions say to lightly flour both of the insides of the bag. I also added just a pinch to the dough itself. I used much less than a tablespoon altogether for the dough and both sides of the bag.

Zip the bag up all the way around, then roll. The dough was extremely easy to roll, and I think faster than standard methods. I didn't go all the way to the edges, because I didn't need a full 14 inches. I think it's probably best to try to avoid going all the way to the edge, because the dough can get caught in the zipper when you open the bag.

Unzip the bag, carefully peel the top side off of the crust. Then invert on the pie pan, and carefully peel back remaining side of bag. I couldn't believe how easy it was to cleanly peel both sides off, as well as invert it into the pan without disaster.

The crust turned out a great thickness, and there was almost no flour or sticky/crumby dough left over in the bag - and none on the counter!!!

Hand wash the bag with soap and warm water. The bag was extremely easy to clean. Drying was a little tricky just because of it's awkward shape, so I just hung it over the faucet to blot with a towel and then I let it air out there so that the zipper would fully dry. Julie, that's the Snoopy quilt you made for me years ago in the background on the couch! Kristine, that's the afghan that you made for us for our wedding years ago!

Kind of irrelevant, but here is the finished product I created with the crust - it is a "Sawdust Pie" from this pie cookbook. If you're into baking pies, I highly recommend the book!

My overall opinion: I am definitely going to try using these in class the next time we bake pies! They are not that expensive - the big one bounces between $6-$7 dollars on Amazon, the 11" is usually just under $5. They're also available at a lot of kitchenware stores for a similar if slightly higher price. You'd have to make sure the kids clean the bags well, but they are much more likely to do that successfully (and in a timely fashion) than clean up their flour messes. It also takes the stress out of trying to make a circle for a novice baker, as well as makes cold dough easier to work with. I imagine it would work well with pizza dough, another bonus - I'll have to try it out the next time I make pizza at home.

If you face any of the issues I mentioned at the beginning of this post, my suggestion is pick up one of these bad boys and try it at home for yourself - I think you'll be just as impressed as I was!

And seriously, check out the "Pie" cookbook!

Chalkboard to Dry Erase Board

Got one of these in your classroom?

While I understand that some people like going old school (literally) in this way, I am not a big fan - particularly when it comes to being covered in chalk dust all day long. But before I lucked out with a SMART Board, this was what I had (note the yellow arrow for the ever clever way I posted my bell ringers each day). After they installed the SMART Board and moved this puppy over to the side, I decided it was time to make a conversion.

Enter dry erase rolls!

Sticky dry erase paper which works ever so well atop chalkboards. You can get super large pieces to cover an entire board, but because I knew I was going to divide the board into sections anyway I went with smaller dimensions to save some cash.

After taking careful measurements, I cut the roll into the size sections I wanted. Then, I washed and dried the chalkboard really, really well. After this I began hanging the dry erase paper on the chalkboard. Warning: do NOT attempt this alone, even with small dimensions. You need at least four hands to keep the bubbles smoothed out.

I then created headings for the top of each section using cardstock, scrapbook paper, lamination, and magnets. The final step was backing the ribbon with magnetic tape (easy to take down to clean the board).

And there you have it! No more chalk dust, and it definitely adds needed color. Still have to take care of that stupid wallpaper border. And the stencils. And the gap of chalk board at the bottom. But all in all, great project. The only flaw I've found with the dry erase rolls is that bubbles do tend to seep in when the humidity is high, but they're easy to squeeze out.

I completed this over the semester break, so had the dry erase board available to me the entire second semester - it worked beautifully. So if you have a chalkboard to replace and little funding, I highly recommend this option!

2012-2013

2012-2013...SURVIVED! Hooray for summer!

And I am proud to say, I cleaned/purged/organized 99% of my classrooms over the year, so next year I will be able to hit the ground running. One of my major projects was a storage area in between the two rooms, which I have converted into... my office! I LOVE it! Check out some pics:

This it the view from the door. The top shelves were cabinets I removed the doors from and added a maroon backing (school color). I have on the shelf my high school diploma, my BS, my master's degree, and my preschool diploma! And yes, I do feel silly bubbling out my name, but you know. That's a freezer off to the side, which I didn't utilize at all this year but is great for hanging my pictures on : ).

Gee, how many Pinterest ideas can you find in this photo? I especially love having my lesson plan binder displayed on the plate stand. The volleyball is signed by my favorite team, from two schools ago - I still carry their picture in my purse. Those kids just graduated from high school last week. Crazy how fast time flies by!

The End is Near...

This weekend held my last still-trying-to-clean-out-my-classrooms-Saturday of the year. We have one more weekend left before the last day of school, but I'll be out of town then so this was it. Good times:

Yep, over 20 #10 cans of random food. No dates on the cans, but the careful observer might notice the OLD food pyramid printed on the label of one of the above. Frightening. And there is a label on the tray holding the mixers declaring "Broken Mixers." Why, why, why keep them when they have obviously been replaced? Questions that will never be answered. Back to the cans, check out the bottom of one:

Um, ewwwwwwww.

My other task for Saturday was to begin packing up that which needs to be locked up over the summer. I'm thinking it best to box up my pretty colored kitchen equipment and to store it in one of my many (now empty) cabinets.

Lots to do before the last day of school, June 3rd!

A Few More Kitchen Tips

One of my pet peeves is when measuring cups and spoons are thrown pell-mell into a drawer; it's messy and it takes the kids about ten times longer to find the tool they need. Because of this I have them put these items back on a ring after they clean up. I highly recommend to them that they take them off of the rings to begin with so that they don't have to wash all of them, but at the end they need to be hooked together again, in nested fashion.

The problem with this is that the rings that measuring cups and spoons come attached to are usually difficult to work with. You have to struggle to get them to open wide enough, and to keep them open as you add things on or take them off. Hence, I toss the plastic rings and replace them with book rings... much more user friendly!

I couldn't find any yellow ones, but they are available in colors, if you'd like them to match your kitchens. Check out the pretty green book rings:

I also have all measuring equipment kept together in one crate; that way again we're not searching for random tools. As long as they pull out the "measuring crate," they have everything they'll need to measure. A few years ago WalMart had these mini crates for sale in a myriad of colors, a perfect fit:

Finally, I just found these baskets in the $1 bins at Target about a week ago:

I load these with dish towels and dish cloths before the first lab of the day and place them in the kitchens; the students are then responsible for refilling them as part of their clean-up at the end of the lab, so that the next class will be set up. One less thing I have to do myself, and prevents later classes from running back and forth to the laundry baskets.

Simple little things like these can make all the difference, don't you think?

Sewing Tool Box and More!

Here is one of the greatest purchases I have ever made for my sewing classes:

 A sewing tool box! All of your notions in one portable container - perfection! Every one of the yellow compartments is removable, so you can lift one out to pass out safety pins, take one out to put in a slightly larger object (like the scissor sharpener in the lower left), move them around without emptying and refilling... or you can take the whole thing with you somewhere. At the end of class, just snap the lid shut, place on a shelf or in a cabinet, then pull it back out when needed. I seriously love this tool box! It also has a support for the top shelf when you open it all the way:

I wish I had purchased something like this years ago, it has been so beneficial. Under $30 at Lowe's, worth every penny.

And while we're on the subject of sewing, a few of you have asked if I have done away with machine sewing since I drilled shut the cabinets. I still do a machine sewing project, but I rotate the kids through only two at a time. Here's my little sewing station at the back of the room:

Life is sooooo much easier when only dealing with two early teen melt-downs at a time. I have a third machine ready to go on the filing cabinets in the background, so if there are any machine issues that arise that would take more than 30 seconds to fix I just swap 'em out on the spot and deal with it later - should've thought of that forever ago!

And speaking of the filing cabinets in the background, I did more makeover work. Have you seen the idea on Pinterest for turning file cabinets back to back and making them a magnetic bulletin board?

This was of course brilliant. I had two cabinets that I wasn't even using back in that corner, so I turned them back to back, covered them with patterned contact paper, threw on a border and added a few signs (measurements for our current project, and a few of my "famous" sayings - now I can just point instead of always repeating myself).

Looks a heck of a lot nicer, and comes in handy too!

Poster Storage

I have soooo many posters (thank you Learning Zone Express for your amazing sales), but before I had a good storage method they very often just stayed piled up in their poster bag.

Incidentally, this is a great bag for moving posters or long-term storage. It just isn't convenient to have to sort through a big pile to find what you want... or worse yet, forgetting what you have.

The border storage bag, however, I find to be all-around useful, and highly recommend.

Here's how I have tackled the poster monster.

Shopping list:
-a few packs of cheap hangers from WalMart
-big pack of small binder clips
-pack of colored (color not necessary, but I love color-coding!) round key tags

I sorted my posters into subject areas (foods, child development, etc), then into smaller subgroups.

From there, I clipped the smaller groups together onto hangers.

I assigned a color to each subject area (foods-blue, child development-yellow, etc).

Using the proper color, I numbered each key ring and then slipped them over the hangers.

I created a poster inventory sheet to hang on the door making it easy to find what I want. I just slipped the list into a sheet protector rather than laminating it so it will be easy to swap out whenever anything new is added.

So there you go, about 70 posters plus borders hanging flat in a closet space less than a foot and a half wide. Can't beat that! Also, there's enough room below to hang a second bar and another row of posters. Great way to take advantage of unused space!

You can't see them but I have also created "Property of" labels and slapped them on the back of all of my posters. Just in case. Here's a sheet that came out of the printer misaligned, but you get the idea:

Also gives me a way to add more Snoopys to my life.

One of the (many many many) items on my school to-do list for this summer is to put together a collection of bulletin boards so that I can have all of the materials ready to swap in and out quickly and easily throughout the year. I get so tired of looking at the same old thing for so long because I don't have time to create!

Fabric Storage

Here's another Pinterest theft that - not kidding - has been life-changing. Okay, that's a bit dramatic; let's say uber life-enhancing.

Here's the Pinterest photo:

Admire the beauty of fabrics all folded the exact same size? The answer? Comic book boards!!!

This pack of 100 cost me less than $12 on Amazon (with free shipping, of course), and completely transformed my fabric storage world. They are 6 3/4" x 10", and are perfect for creating mini bolts of fabric!

The teacher before me left a very generous amount of fabric, but it was all piled into an enormous box that came all the way up to my chest, not kidding. Without time to unpack this GI-NORMOUS box I had no access to any of it other than what was at the very top. I finally got around to emptying the box onto some shelving, but even with folding it was still pretty unruly. Enter the comic book boards.

Again, how I wish I'd taken more before and after shots (you really should have seen The Box!), but I was so excited once I started I just couldn't stop folding!

And now you know one of my secret shames {blush}. 

To-Do List Scrapbook?

I found these in the bargain bin area of Michael's for $3 each, and had to share:

Tear-off notepads! I don't know about you, but I start a new "list" everyday that I keep on a clipboard close by to write down to-dos that come to mind, things I need to pick up, phone calls to make, etc. At the end of the day I snap a photo of the paper with my cell phone so that I can have the info with me and toss the paper.  I usually just use whatever's handy, but these are fantastic! It'd be easy to make something like this for yourself, but once you covered the cost of the colored ink I think the $3 pre-mades are the better deal. How fun would it be to use one each day, keep it when finished with it, then bind it at the end of the year as a kind of behind-the-scenes scrapbook? I'm thinking I'll try it out these last few weeks!

Flag Storage

I've mentioned before that I love using Snoopy flags for classroom decorating - thank you eBay, for providing me with such an extensive collection. Here's how I store them so that I don't have to spend time ironing every time I change them out:
 

The large one I attach to a cheap-o wire hanger with binder clips. The hangers aren't quite wide enough, but come close enough for my purposes. The flag is a little too wide for the depth of the cabinet anyway, so it helps to have the corners curve a bit.

For the garden-sized ones I clip several to one hanger:

Skirt/slacks hangers would of course work well for these and eliminate the need for clips, but that gets expensive when you have a lot of flags!

Over on the far left of the closet I have some of my computer cart covers.

Seasonal Snoopy fabric makes everything more fun!

The wire hanger/binder clip combo is also part of my poster storage, but that's for another post. If you're in need of something to cheer up some wall space, go get yourself a couple of flags!

When the Best Lab Plans Fail

February 2, 2016 Update: Over 100 new FACS resources including those listed here are available in exchange for a small donation to fight blood cancer - see details here!

Don't you love it when a colleague says "Oh your job is so fun and easy - you just get to cook and eat with the kids all day long!"

Right. Easy.

It's amazing how many teachers (parents, administrators, etc) think teaching a classroom full of public school kids how to cook something is the exact same as teaching one of your own children/grandchildren at home. Amazing, and maddening. Why is it that I can pick out about 42 issues with "Freedom Writers" and "Dangerous Minds," but the English teachers all seem to think that "Superbad" is a fair representation of home ec classes? Neat rows of well-stocked two-man lab stations, and time to make homemade tiramisu in ONE class hour? Wha?

We all know that just handing a recipe to a group of kids and saying "Go cook" is not going to work. Even if you've gone over the recipe. Repeatedly. And demonstrated. Repeatedly. Once they get into the kitchens, it's always a free-for-all. Always. No matter how many times you warn them "Now, once you get into the kitchens, it is not a free-for-all - that's why we spend so much time learning the rules and preparing." So much oxygen that we'll never get back.

Part of that is just the nature of trying to fit a round peg in a square hole. Recipes are typically designed for only one cook who then sets aside the time he/she needs to create the final product. In our classes kids work in groups to prep, create, eat, and clean all inside of 44 minutes (or 88 minutes divided, etc). Real-world recipe reading skills are not the same skills needed to succeed in a classroom kitchen setting. 

All this to say that most FACS teachers strongly believe in lab plans, meaning making the kids sit down and write out who is going to do what and when. That way on the day of the lab - theoretically - there are no arguments over who does what, and the tasks are completed in a timely dovetailed fashion rather than all of the group members standing around watching one person complete one step at a time as you would do if you were cooking independently in your own kitchen. Theoretically.

The first few labs are always the toughest - after all, the kids have to learn for themselves that if they stand around and watch one person do one thing at a time they are not going to have time to eat AND they will not receive a pass from their beloved teacher when they stay after the bell finishing clean-up. After the first few they get the hang of it and things begin to run pretty smoothly.

However, I have run into two problems with this at my new school. One, we only have a few labs, so there's really not much time for that "getting the hang of it" phase. But the second one is the biggie.

Attendance.

Now I have faced attendance issues at every school I've taught at, but this one takes the cake. At the beginning of the year I spent time on lab plans, then came to discover it was a massive waste of time, no matter how far out in advance we began to work on them. There was no way of knowing how many people were going to show up on lab day or who they would be. I couldn't even assign groups the attendance problem was so ridiculous.

At the high school level when there were attendance 'surprises,' the kids could pretty much handle the adjustments - we'd have to combine groups, someone would have to change roles, someone would have to do two jobs, whatever it took. The situation usually worked itself out.

At the junior high school level, the abstract thinking abilities are just not there yet for a substantial number of the students. Which makes perfect sense, if you know your Piaget; however, it also means that making lab plan changes on the fly is not a realistic possibility.

All this to say that I had to throw out the lab planning concept at the end of the first semester and come up with something different. 

And that's when I began developing Cooking Lab Task Cards***.

We still go over the recipe in detail. I still demonstrate the labs (actually, I've taken to creating videos and showing them on the SMART Board. That way everything is close-up and everyone can see very well. They can also watch them at home if they're absent, as I have posted them on YouTube). We still go over the different jobs. But on the day of the actual lab, whoever shows up is handed a task card.

THE EVOLUTION OF LAB TASK CARDS

Even though the first two classes to cook this semester were small and filled with very cooperative kids, I was dreading the first lab and trying to think of ways to make it run more smoothly. Then I thought, why not give them each a to-do list for what needs to happen before the lab? I hand wrote a list of supplies on little slips of paper, creating a set for each kitchen. When we went into the labs I handed each kid a paper, and magically they all did what the sheet said!

It was at that point that I began developing the actual cards. On the front of each card is a list of that person's assigned prep responsibilities - tasks that have to be accomplished BEFORE any actual work takes place.

Once that is accomplished, then they have the steps that they are responsible for on the back.

These cards have worked wonders! Somehow, with a short, detailed list of what to do in their hands they are able to more or less stay focused and get things done the way that they should be done.

I went through quite the evolutionary process with these - as mentioned I began by handwriting supplies on slips of paper for my first experiment during my first rotation this semester, which worked pretty well. Then I reworked the lists, added the jobs, and typed and printed them on labels and slapped them on index cards, which worked well until a class in the second rotation decided it was okay to just ball them up and throw them away rather than give them back (really? You really thought you should throw that away?). 

Now that I've used this method several times, I've created a more permanent product for my third rotation. 

HOW-TO:

1. I create a "prep" label and a "steps" label for each person (A/B/C: if there is a fourth person, I double up the weak readers; has worked well so far) for each day of the lab. For this I use Avery 5168 3.5" x 5" labels.

2. I cut colored 8.5" x 11" cardstock (one set for each kitchen in its corresponding color) into four equal pieces.

3. I affix the labels to the cards, and laminate (not the flimsy roll stuff. I do not want these getting trashed - I go for the 5mm, yeah buddy).

4. I hole punch the cards, and use a book ring to hold together all of the cards for that recipe.

5. I store the cards in a 4 x 6 inch index card box (check out these from Amazon!).

Admittedly, this is a LOT of work initially. However, they are enormous time-savers (and frustration-savers!) once created. Additionally, each class only cooks three or four times, so I only have to create four recipe sets, which are then used in 12 different classes throughout the year as I go through my rotation.

I'm just bummed I didn't have this together 7 or 8 months ago!

And since I have to change everything up for next year, I'll have to make four more recipe sets, but I'll have the summer to do that... and then I'll already be set for the following year!

Again, if we spent more time in the kitchens (or if I were working with an age group more capable of formal operational thought), I wouldn't employ this method. But, when only offering a small number of labs within a short period of time, I want the emphasis to be on their hands-on foods experience rather than their ability to break down new and complicated text into a series of dovetailed tasks. 

And of course I would also like to retain some fraction of my own sanity and sense of well-being.

***Update: Sets of task card labels are now available in my TPT store for $1 per set. Recipes are also available for free download. Check 'em out at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Facsclassroomideas.

Please note that only the labels are for sale - you'll have to do the card making yourself! : )