Save Those Receipts

The end of this school year I left my job of the past eight years for a summer of working 12 hours a week instead of 40 and a new position in a new agency. Sadly, because of political circumstances at my old job I was forced to leave behind the collection of materials a teacher gathers over the course of more than a decade. From a box of bulletin board borders, Boppy Pillows, drawers and drawers of files and a hand adapted globe for the blind to a huge bin eBay assisitve technology purchases I made (because I love to disassemble and reassemble old devices - yeah, call me a geek) I left it and so much more behind. And yes, because I was asked by a reader, all 17 of my Donors Choose grants were left behind as well.

As much as I am grieving leaving my students and my friends I am also grieving leaving behind the memories in the things I left behind. There were files of bulletin boards I made as a resident advisor in college and re-used periodically in my classroom. There was work samples of former students. There were non-discarded communication boards and books I labored on for days and always imagined some other student might use.

Yet, I have decided this is to be a learning experience. I have already advised a graduate student finishing her degree to inital and scan onto a computer receipts for anything she buys out of pocket and then laminate the receipt and attach it to the item.

That is my plan from now on as well. Though I have changed teaching jobs twice before this job change I have never had this issue before, but I certainly want to be ready if it happens again. I plan to purchase (again, since I left one behind) a Mini-Laminator and a Neat-Co Receipt Scanner.

What will be fun about this is thinking of all the other ways I can use the Receipt Scanner in the classroom. (This being my second mini-laminator I already know how I will use that - laminating quick symbols, name tags and IDs, photographs of students family members and more.)