Hello and Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m sorry to be so long away from the keyboard- I’m afraid other keyboards have been calling.

              Our school district usually spends down every penny around this time of year. And given the current economic climate there aren’t that many pennies around. I was thinking of all the things we scrounge up to make our classrooms work and I thought I’d share a few ideas from “The Queen of Free” (what one of my principals used to call me.) 

             The first rule is that if you don’t ask, the answer’s always NO.  Apply for grants (assuming the time spent doing it is worth the shot you have of getting it.) Think local- your Target and Wal-Mart stores are a good source of grants, but some of the local grocery stores love the idea of partnering up with school programs. Check with your local music stores too- perhaps they’ll give a monetary or in-kind donation depending on the amount of kids who rent instruments from them. Check with Five Below about hosting a Music room shopping night where a certain percentage of the evening’s sales come to your classroom. (I’m going to do this one before Christmas next year.) Even Pizza Hut does donation nights.

            Ask for samples of textbooks from distributors. When you go to conferences take an empty tote bag (or ask for a freebie while you’re there!) and scarf up all the samples and teacher’s editions you can. If your district purchases a new series (lucky you!) find out who your local rep is and hit them up for supplemental items. What can they say, no? So if they do what have you lost except the 3 minutes it took to compose an email?

            Look online for free resources and programs you can download and use. I’ve enjoyed using Audacity which is free and easy to use recording  software. I plugged in my Rock Band USB linked microphone and recorded a set of auditions for my honors chorus using audacity. I could easily replay them at my convenience and be sure I had chosen my singers wisely.

            Think about what in your room you can get paid to recycle. I just received a $20.00 Staples gift certificate  for recycling my printer cartridges. Ask your friends and relatives to save theirs- you can recycle up to 10 per month so you could earn some serious credits at Staples to equip your room.

            Finally, look for free resources that will take you to other free resources. I’m a fan of Tech and Learning which is a print and online technology magazine. I’ve found tons of good ideas and absolutely free apps in it. It’s a little jargon-heavy but if you wade through the ads it’s great.

            Please take a minute and share your free or cheap resources. Remember you do not have to be a member of ECMMA to share. And it’s FREE!