Ready Made Magnets
At the 2010 CTA Good Teaching Conference held in Los Angeles, a sweetheart of a teacher by the name of Anaya Padilla brought a set of magnetic tiles one of the parents at her school had made for her.
Long story short, I was eventually introduced to the gentleman--Dereck West--who now makes magnetic tiles that I sell at seminars. They're also available in our on-line store.
For $8 a set, you get tiles numbered from 1 to 36.
Here's a sample tile.
Note: The thicker black border at the bottom of the tiles eliminates any confusion between tiles 6 and 9.
Not one to leave well-enough alone, I asked Dereck to make sets in two new colors. My thought was that teachers could dedicate a particular color to a specific task.
Color, as I've maintained for years, lends a bit of clarity to students. If, for instance, red tiles are used to track vocabulary and the green are for math, a quick glance at the white board will provide you and your students with additional information regarding the status of everyone's progress.
