What do you do to keep yourself comfortable and happy at school?

I haven't been very happy at my current school this year. Because of that (and I'm hoping to transfer) I haven't wanted to settle in and I haven't wanted to buy things related to school or to keep at school. I relented this week, made a trip to the dollar store, and myself and my kids have been much happier. It makes my day go more smoothly, and at makes me happier.

Here are a few items that I bought:

The tootsie rolls are for the kids for prizes (I do a lot of free prizes, discussed in another post) but sometimes it's good to have something material and small to hand out for prizes. And I'm sure I'll eat a few :).

The soap is for myself and my students. Being a science room, there is a sink but no soap or paper towels.

Band-aids are for my students. I don't know if its the same where you are but kids get a hangnail, paper cut, or some other minor injury and they are very upset, disruptive and want to Go to the nurse. Rather than write them a pass, and have them miss half of class, I can often hand them a bandaid and have them sit down and stay in class.

Some of the others are for me. I'm finding it to make a huge difference that I'm comfortable. I can put my hair up mid-day, rather than waiting until the end of the day when I get home, and the same with lotion.

To add to that list -- pencils. But I don't get those at the dollar store. Watch your staples stores in August. They usually have a two or three day sale when packs of pencils are a penny each. There is a limit of two, but with a teacher ID, the limit is raised to 30?? That is another situation where, although I want kids to have pencils and return borrowed pencils sometimes its better to just give them something to write with and keep class moving!

(If my policies seem harsh, remember I teach middle and high school).

What do you keep in your desk or classroom to keep yourself and your kids comfortable and keep class moving smoothly.

To me, it was a good use of a few dollars!