Your X-ACTO knife is a key tool for many projects, but how do you keep it safe from curious hands in the classroom? A little trick is to keep your blade secure in your knife, but with the blade pointing inward. Unscrew your blade from the housing and carefully remove the blade. Put the blade facing in and carefully tighten and screw the blade back in. The sharp edge will be out of harms way from fingers and from chipping.

You can incorporate Earth Day themes into your classroom year round. The Earth's resources are so important to everyone's future, that it deserves daily practices. Encourage recycling when possible. Teach the concept of water conservation and how each student can help limit their global footprint. Education and information is the key to working together to ensure our world is full of green grass, blue skies, and plenty of resources to fuel this generation as well as the many more to come.

The X-ACTO 12” Personal Razor Paper Cutter goes where you go. It’s lightweight and durable while being able to perform the job of most stationary trimmers. The cutter has holes to fit into a standard 3-ring binder for easy transport. Its 3” wide base is the perfect size to align your pages for each cut. Be sharp and don’t leave home without it.

Secure a small mirror inside a clear glass cup or jar at a 45 degree angle. Then fill with water. Turn off your classroom lights and shut all curtains or shades to make room as dark as possible. Have a student help by holding a white board next to the glass. Shine a flashlight on the mirror creating a real rainbow that should shine on the white board. Experiment with the different light patterns you get when you move the light around the mirror. This is a great display of how water molecules bend the light to create a rainbow.

The X-ACTO Economy 3 Hole Punch makes paperwork a breeze. Its all metal construction and super sharp hole punches glide through multiple sheets of paper. The soft grip feature allows you to get the job done with comfort and ease. 

The X-ACTO Redline Half Strip Stapler is a FULL power tool, yet half the length of a standard stapler. This mighty little stapler doesn’t mess around with hard-to-find small size staples—it uses half a strip of standard. It’s as tough as a full size stapler for bulletin boards and term papers, but saves you valuable desk space.

Get the most out of the beginning of your school day. Morning bell time is the precious time when students are getting settled and attendance is being taken. This doesn't have to be wasted time for you or your students though. Get kids focused right away by letting them know every morning what your expectations are. This could be designated reading time, for instance. Since your students know exactly what to tackle at the beginning of each day, you can take this time to set up the rest of the school day in peace.

Have you ever had trouble getting old dry erase marks off of a board? Or maybe you have accidentally used a permanent marker on a dry eraser surface? No worries, this quick tip will help you keep a clean board in your classroom all year long! Simply draw over old dry erase marks or permanent marker with a fresh dry erase marker. Cover the whole area, then erase completely. You old and new marks should be completely erased!

What sharpens, grins and wobbles all over? The Wobble Topple Battery Pencil Sharpener! Its unique design gives this sharpener a playful wobble motion. Choose from three vibrant colors—apple green, purple, or orange. For extra personality, every Wobble Topple comes with wacky face stickers. Sharpening has never been so much fun!

The holidays inevitably make everyone's schedule and life more stressful outside of school hours. With a little planning, you can relieve some of that stress in the way you structure classroom time to ensure you fit in all of your holiday activities as well. Make sure to utilize independent study time to the fullest. Use this time to catch up on grading and planning. Try structuring in-classroom presentations instead of sending home more projects to grade later. Or try partnering students together in a mentoring capacity where the more advanced can help their peers. With a little extra planning now, you will be sure to fully enjoy the holiday season.

Don’t allow your paper to have dull edges! Add some zig and zag with X-ACTO’s Decorative Edge Scissors Zig Zag Pack. This pack includes 4 different designs: Zig Zag, Short Wave, Victorian, and Tiara. Each style brings more fun to your designs than the last! Get cuttin’!

Kids tracing their hands and turning them into turkeys has been a classic Thanksgiving project for many years. You can take it a step further, and have them turn their "turkeys" into a "Top 5" list of the things they are most thankful for this season. Using thin colored markers to color code, have their write one of their thoughts of gratitude on each finger. The writing and texture of the words creates a cool texture for each "feather". Add an eye, beak, and waddle and have them doodle in their names on the body to complete the thankful turkey. Display around the classroom for a great menagerie of thankful thoughts!

Teach your class that you don't have to celebrate gratitude only one day a year. Start a thankful classroom chain, and fill it up until the end of the year. In the season where many are making their holiday wish lists, it is a great opportunity to remind them about also making a gratitude list. With small strips of colored construction paper, have your class once a week, or once a day, fill out a thankful thought and join them together with a stapler to create a cool paper chain. String all along your classroom for an instant holiday decoration that reinforces thoughts of gratitude.

We hope teachers appreciate our new class of sharpeners. The X-ACTO SharpX Performance Electric Pencil Sharpener is the “smart” sharpener! Its patented X-ACTO fly-away cutter system senses when the pencil is sharp. With its multiple pencils selector and LED indicator, it’s sure to be at the head of your class.

Looking for a great spooky holiday classroom display? Try this fun craft and hang spiderwebs that glow all around the classroom for a webby wonderland. Give everyone a piece of black construction paper and some glow in the dark glue or puffy paint. Squeeze some in a cup or small plate on each table, and have them use toothpicks or paintbrushes to draw and create their own spiderweb designs. The best part is that they will stand out in the daytime, and glow when you turn off the lights. Tie the craft into a lesson and explore the different types of web-like traps and the science behind it. Did you know that spiderweb silk is stronger than steel comparatively in terms of weight? Amazing!

It’s every kids dream—no more dull crayons. With the CrayonPro^® Electric Crayon Sharpener, dull crayons become like new again. This one-of-a-kind tool features a heavy-duty motor and automatic paper-peeling function.  More sharp crayons means more happy, busy kids.

Ever find yourself doing 6 things at once? Then this X-ACTO Palm Tacker Stapler is the tool for you. No more lining up papers and placing them into the stapler. This time-saving tool staples multiple pages with just one hand and a tap. It also has an ingenious wrist wrap that makes a job, like a bulletin board, a snap–or rather a TAP!

Prepping and planning your classroom decor is an integral part of prepping for a successful school year. When it comes to hanging headlines on your bulletin boards, there are just a couple things to consider. Whether you buy ready-made letters or cut your own for your classroom bulletin boards, follow these simple tricks to become a headline pro. First lay out your letters on a table. Find the center of the bulletin board and mark it. Attach your letters onto the bulletin board starting from the center and working your way out on each end. This will ensure that your spacing stays centered. Headlines are usually spaced tighter than small letters, so don't be afraid to let some letters touch if the spacing works. Also, consider that some rounded capitals, like the O or C, are a little taller than the more square counterparts like the M. Make sure to accommodate accordingly. Using these tips can ultimately save you time and create attractive headline displays.

The X-ACTO Designer Series Rotary Paper Cutter precisely cuts up to 5 sheets of 20 lb. paper at one time. It is small and compact with a concealed blade, making it a safe paper cutter to use in any classroom. When it comes to desk accessories, this one makes the cut.

A great way to learn new teaching techniques or classroom projects is to collaborate with others in your field. Just as you collaborate with your colleagues, there is also a huge community of teachers who share ideas and inspirations on the internet social platform called Pinterest that you can tap into. If you have pinned ideas or clippings before on a bulletin board, you will love "pinning" ideas found on other websites onto this electronic bulletin board tool. Once you are a member, you can create your own boards, follow other boards, and search for ideas. Pinterest may become your favorite electronic teaching assistant.

The Designer Series Retractable Knife is the ideal classroom accessory for teachers. Its comfortable grip and sharp blade make it the go-to knife for bulletin boards and classroom prep. And with its retractable blade, you can feel safe with it hidden away in your desk.

Try this interactive classroom activity next time you are making new group seating assignments. Have each group create a team name, and design their own team banner or pennant. Supply each team with precut pennant or banner shape to decorate. Display them in the classroom on each group of desks or around the room. Use this to build team spirit by having team behavior bonus points or awards.

One of a crafter’s most versatile and satisfying tools can be a set of decorative scissors. You can easily bring new life to a paper project with a simple, yet special cut. But have you ever tried to sharpen your decorative scissors? Not so easy. One simple solution is to use everyday aluminum foil. Simply take a sheet of aluminum foil and fold it over many times. Cut into foil with your scissors a couple times, and you should be good to go! This works for paper punches as well!

The right tool can get any job done quickly. Jenny's corkboard project could have proven daunting if she approached it with everyday scissors. But the small, sharp blade of an X-ACTO knife gave Jenny the control and precision she needed for the task. X-ACTO blades can help teachers like you cut around the ins and outs of anything, even the United States! 

One of the best win-win time saving tips for teachers is to make a list of jobs that your students can help with. Assign a new group of kids to take care of each job each week/day and you will have your classroom running like a well-oiled machine. The kids will take pride in their accomplishment and responsibility, and you will know that the little jobs are taken care of.

It’s easy to stay organized when you add a little color coding to your files. Color code your folders and divide each into tasks (for instance, to do, to file, to read, to hold). Many teachers find it helpful to also color code files for different categories, like blue for student info, yellow for lessons, etc