The Mailbox Delivers

The Mailbox is a magazine publication which is the brainchild of former teachers, Marge and Jake Michel, founded in 1973. It is a resource of creative, innovative teaching tools, made by and for teachers. They've been a successful resource for over thirty years and with good reason. Every page in The Mailbox has consistently proven to be an invaluable source of inspiration for teaching. According to their "About Us" section on their homepage, their staff consists of former teachers, who love to teach and to make teaching fun and easy.

There are reproducible forms for creating amazing bulletin boards. Hey, what teacher doesn't like an interesting bulletin board? "Hot Doggin' It" and you can photocopy large hot dogs that the students can decorate with their favorite sport. "We Fall Into Place" and you have large Fall leaves. I mean, sure, you're probably creative, but c'mon, wouldn't you rather spend your energy preparing lesson plans than staring at your classroom's blank walls? It's about shifting balances.

There are great organization ideas: use a recipe card box to organize stickers, to yet another inventive way to organize students: providing colored folders, which are labeled and match their textbooks. You'll also learn about holiday and seasonal activities and you'll see great units for literature, math and science. Again, where do you want to spend your energy?

If you cannot subscribe to the magazine itself, the Michels have also produced "The Best of the Mailbox", a compilation of ideas in book form, for varying grade levels. I like this version because it's jam-packed with hundreds of ideas for planning, boards, teaching for specific grades. However, their magazine version does come in different forms, elementary, for example, or intermediate. You should subscribe to them for at least one year, then plan on keeping the issues. You'll find yourself returning to them time and time again, to refresh your approach or brighten up your walls. Don't be surprised if you end up subscribing again. The Mailbox is definitely a teaching resource that delivers.