Office 'Ed

Individual student whiteboards are the 21st-century version of the chalk slates used by students in colonial times.  As thousands of teachers have found, whiteboards are a great way of actively involving students in the learning process and a terrific tool for immediate feedback and assessment.

So here are some tips to get the most out of using individual dry-wipe boards, such as our Show-Me boards, as a teaching tool.

You will need a ready supply of dry-erase markers. The markers can be kept in a communal place and handed out at the beginning of the lesson or you can encourage responsibility by giving each child their own marker to keep in their desk/bag/locker

  Provide a ready supply of paper towels or tissues for cleaning the boards. Alternatively, you could have each child bring an old sock from home (let’s face it, we’ve all got at least one odd sock somewhere!).  They can use the sock as their eraser and possibly keep their marker/s in the sock when they’re not using them. Make sure the boards are wiped after use otherwise they may stain (tips to follow later on removing stains from a whiteboard)

    Determine in advance whether students will keep the whiteboards in their desks or in a common area of the classroom. If you keep them in a common area, students might write their names on their whiteboards at the end of each activity. Wherever you keep them, place each whiteboard in a re-sealable storage bag (like a sandwich bag) along with a sock and a marker.

  Set pupils a question to answer (perhaps on your main whiteboard) before you give the boards out. It gets them focused straight away

* Alternatively, if they have the creative urge to draw pictures; embrace it. Lots of children, particularly younger ones, will be unable to resist the urge to scribble/doodle when given a blank board.  So give them one minute to draw the best picture of something – perhaps related to the lesson you’re about to give, perhaps not.  This will hopefully get the urge to draw out of their systems and they know they get the time to fulfil their creative desires and then they will focus on the question in hand.

* Get them to answer their question on the mini-whiteboard but then to all raise them together. This means pupils can’t copy the answer.

* Go around the room and grab a selection of whiteboards with answers on. Some correct ones and some with misconceptions. Shuffle them, then discuss key issues. That way it is not immediately obvious whose wrong answer you are discussing. The pupils often then feel less worried about making mistakes and are more willing to have a go.

* Don’t forget, individual dry-wipe boards are not only useful for teaching and learning.  It’s also worth keeping them handy for rainy break times for games of noughts and crosses or hangman or even a more organised quiz.

  We’ve looked at the benefits of using individual whiteboards, like those in the Show-Me range, in previous articles.  Here are a few ideas for specific activities that they can be used for to achieve learning objectives.

Silent conversation

Walk into class, not saying a word and proceed to write the following on the main whiteboard.

‘Today, we are not going to speak for an hour. But we’re going to have a conversation. A conversation on paper. Here are the rules:

You’ll work in groups of 3.

You will discuss the following topic I will give you.

You can interrupt your partner but by writing.

Try to avoid very long paragraphs. Don’t make your partners wait too long while you write.

Here’s your topic: …”

The topics can range from ‘What did you do this weekend?’ to ‘Tell your partner(s) about the different members of your family’ to controversial statements like ‘Men should stay at home while women work to support the family. Do you agree?’

As the students are writing, walk around correcting spelling or grammar as necessary.

Children from KS2 onwards will find it engaging and it’s a great opportunity to encourage handwriting and debating skills (depending on the subject).  Older students also often realize how similar this form of communication is to chatrooms and instant messaging, and therefore find it extremely useful. Teachers might find the hour’s silence appealing!

Develop listening and communication skills

Get partners to sit back to back.  Student A draws a picture on their mini-whiteboard. They then try to explain and describe the picture to their partner who will then proceed to draw it on their own mini-whiteboard. At the end, both hold up their mini-whiteboards for the rest of the class to compare and see how similar (or different) they are.

The subject of the picture can depend on the subject area – maybe a map/plan of their house to learn about directions for Geography for example.

        Quiz Quiz trade

To start this game, each learner generates a question on a given topic and writes it on their mini board. They write the answer on the back. Then they move around the room until they find someone to answer their question. This pair now answer each others’ questions. When they get the right answers, they swap boards and continue to move around the room.

This encourages interaction with partners your students might not ordinarily chose.  The questions will vary in difficulty as they are posed by individual students, thereby there will be natural differentiation.

Guess the Word

Engage students in a game that reinforces phonics and language skills.

Provide students with a list of ten words. The words can be from a current topic area or spelling list or tied to a timely theme.

Say, "I am thinking of a word on the list. Which word am I thinking of?" Students guess the word and write it on their whiteboards. Then provide students with three clues to the actual word. For example, the first clue might be

The word I am thinking of is a two-syllable word. The word I am thinking of is a compound word.

The word I am thinking of is a synonym for the word …….?.

Others clues for the next words might include

The word I am thinking of includes two consecutive letters that are the same.

The word I am thinking of is a noun.

The word I am thinking of is a verb

This could be used in English or even during Modern Foreign Language lessons. Or perhaps in Chemistry or Biology lessons you could use the Show-Me boards below and give clues to certain elements on the periodic table (i.e. this element is a metal) or to certain parts of the body.

      Jeopardy

You might remember the game show.  We in the UK didn’t get it for very long but the basic premise is the quiz master (i.e. the teacher or a fellow student if you use it as a partner activity) write the answer on the whiteboard and the contestant (i.e. the student) has to guess what the question is.

The Generation Game

Whilst I’m in nostalgic “game shows I was forced to watch as a teen” mode, how about incorporating the conveyor belt game into your lessons.  Maybe in a Modern Foreign Language lesson (or in any other lesson for younger children to reinforce vocabulary and memory skills).  Show a Powerpoint presentation of pictures of certain items, then get your students, perhaps in pairs, to try and write as many as they can remember on their whiteboards after the presentation.  Don’t forget to teach them the French (or other) for “Cuddly Toy!!!”.  Bruce Forsyth impressions are not compulsory.

Hopefully that’s given the teachers out there a few interesting ideas on how to use mini whiteboards as more than scrap paper.

  Obviously, Classroom displays will be ever evolving and will change throughout the academic year to encompass changes in Topics etc. but, as we enter the summer term all teachers will be thinking ahead to fresh and new classroom displays for the new academic year.

So why have classroom displays?  Well, the simplistic answer is that we live in a very visual culture and we are surrounded by images that are designed to catch and keep our attention.  Displays can just be purely decorative – they can make the classroom a brighter more interesting place.  Children can use displays as learning tools, not just in their content but in their creation.  Environment can have a huge impact on learning and children who feel engaged in their classroom are more receptive to learning.  In short, a stimulating learning environment makes for a stimulated child.  In more mercenary terms, school displays are now often included in performance management and teachers are inspected on their room environment (and graded) regularly. For those teachers still fighting their way up the pay scale that can impact on their pay.  And then of course there are the dreaded OFSTED inspections to consider….

And whilst the temptation in the past has been to cover every available surface with some kind of display – either displaying pupil’s work or displaying teaching aids – more recent research has shown that children learned more in rooms without a lot of stuff on the walls. Displays need to be relevant and useful.  Visual clutter on every wall, window, door and many things dangling from the ceiling are not going to be conducive to a good learning environment. 

Consider using more temporary displays that can be updated regularly with minimum effort but equal impact – perhaps a number of felt backed boards and everything attached with Velcro for example.

  These can also be used for more interactive learning displays and pupil lead learning, such as boggle displays. See http://displays.tpet.co.uk/#/search/boggle for resources. 

  For more traditional displays, blu tack, adhesive spray mount or Sellotape products can obviously be used.

     It’s also wise not to underestimate the importance of whiteboards/dry wipe boards.  Most classrooms will have an interactive whiteboard , possibly with one dry wipe board as a back up, but why limit yourself to that?  Multiple whiteboards can be fantastic learning aids.  They’re temporary, useful for encouraging interactive learning (which child doesn’t want to be let loose with a marker pen?!) and when there’s nothing relevant or current needed, then they create the all important “blank/white space” which research has shown is beneficial. 

      They are available in all sizes and can even be given to each individual child to be used effectively as a “notepad”.  To a child (or even an adult!), a blank whiteboard with the ability to quickly erase or correct mistakes is likely to be much less intimidating than a blank piece of paper. If they need to write a story – encourage their creative flow with a story board.  And think of the environment and savings in paper! A weekly spelling or maths test?  Do it on the whiteboard, check it, record the results somewhere and wipe clean ready for the next use.

      For further information visit

You may not know, but 14th-22nd June is National Bike Week. Bike Week is a special time each year to promote cycling and show us just how easy it is to make cycling part of our everyday routine.

Across the country there will be thousands of cycling events that you can take part in.  And, it really doesn't matter whether you’re an old pro or new to cycling.  Check out the National Bike week website to see if there is an event near you http://bikeweek.org.uk/events/ 

If you don’t want to join in with a pre arranged event, or even consider organising your own, then maybe just use Bike week, the impending Tour De France and hopefully the onset of some decent cycling weather as an impetus to get on your bike, so to speak. 

There was a time not so long ago when cycling amongst adults was the domain of couriers, students in Oxford/Cambridge and die-hard passionate cyclists.  Of course, we may all have cycled as kids or might even be tempted to hire a bike to pootle to the local pub on holiday but the amount of bike owners and lycra clad enthusiasts who cycle several times a week has increased massively in the last few years.  But why?

Well, many more people chose to commute by bike to work now.  Traffic on commuter routes can be a nightmare.  Fuel is expensive.  Cars cost a lot of money to run.  People are generally more environmentally aware.  People are possibly more health conscious. The government capitalised on all of these factors and introduced a series of initiatives and introduced an annual tax exemption, which allows employers to loan cycles and cyclists’ safety equipment to employees as a tax-free benefit.

So, the cycle to work schemes may be responsible for some increase in cyclists commuting to work, but what about the hundreds of MAMILS (Middle Aged Men in Lycra) on the roads at the weekends? Cycling is the new golf for men of a certain age.  Indeed, a large golfing retailer has seen it’s turnover fall in recent years, as more and more people swap their carbon fibre drivers for carbon fibre frames. This recent phenomenon is down to, what is known in cycling circles, as “The Wiggins Effect”.  Yep Sir Bradley Wiggins.  Heard of him?

So it began, quietly and gradually in the 2004 Olympics in Athens -  Chris Hoy’s gold in the kilometre time-trial and Bradley Wiggins’ gold in the individual pursuit were the first signs of things the come.  By the time we got to the 2008 Olympics, Nicole Cooke’s epic win in the road race on the rain-drenched hills around Beijing began a medal landslide for Britain’s cyclists, winning a total of 8 gold medals (with Wiggins being involved in 2 of them) and positioning the British Cycling squad as the most successful British sports team in Olympic history.  They won the “Team of the Year” Award at that year’s BBC Sport’s Personality of the Year awards.

 Wiggins switched his efforts from track cycling to road cycling after the 2008 Olympics and finished fourth in the 2009 Tour De France (later upgraded to third after the retrospective disqualification of Lance Armstrong). This was the first podium finish by a British rider in Tour De France history.

And so, this undoubtedly prestigious bike race, but one that had really remained the domain of the Europeans and a famous cheating Texan, suddenly started to become of interest to your regular Brit – not just the “Cycling geeks” amongst us.  And as a result of Wiggo’s and the British Cycling Team’s efforts, more people started to become interested in taking up cycling as a hobby.

Wiggins was obviously not content to leave matters there – in 2012 he went on to win the Tour De France and another Olympic gold medal in the 2012 London games. By doing so he became the most decorated British Olympian, with 7 medals, surpassing the 6 won by Sir Steve Redgrave. This record is now shared with Sir Chris Hoy, who also obtained his seventh Olympic medal in 2012.  Wiggins entered the Guinness World Records, becoming the first cyclist to win an Olympic gold medal and the Tour de France in the same year. 

In geeky cycling terms, Wiggins became the first, and is currently the only person in history to win the Paris–Nice, the Tour de Romandie, the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour de France in a single season.  In normal non geeky terms, he also won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, completing a hat trick of cyclist winners in the previous 5 years, with Chris Hoy winning in 2008 and Mark Cavendish winning in 2011.  2012 was also the year he became knighted for his services to cycling. 

Cycling was no longer a minority sport.  It was a sport where we could finally celebrate some serious British success.   And so full on cycling mania, the appearance of MAMILS and “The Wiggins Effect” was born….

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you will know that the World Cup 2014 kicks off in Brazil later this week.  Have you downloaded our FREE planner?  Have you done your office sweepstake? Are you stocked up on snacks and beverages and ready to fly your flags? 

Whether you’re a die-hard football fan or just can’t help getting caught up in the thrills and spills of this 4 yearly event, here are a few World Cup facts and statistics so you can hold your own in those all important ‘did you know?’ conversations that always happen in pubs during major tournaments.  (I reckon Glenn Hoddle could’ve done with these to “fill” during the thunderstorm break of the England v Honduras warm up match last Saturday!)

  1.       The World cup is the world’s most widely viewed sporting event - an estimated 3.2 billion people worldwide watched the 2010 World Cup - 46.4 percent of the world.

  2.       Brazil has won the World Cup more than any other country; Five times, in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, and 2002.  The host country have won the cup on six occasions and only Brazil and Argentina have ever won a World Cup away from their own continent. Could 2014 be their 6th..?

  3.       The first World Cup was held in 1930 in Uruguay and has been held four yearly ever since, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 when the tournament was cancelled because of World War II.   During the inter-war years, Italian football Chief Ottorino Barassi secretly took the Jules Rimet trophy home from a bank in Rome and kept it under his bed in a shoebox to ensure Hitler and his Nazi troops didn’t find it. There it stayed until the 1950 World Cup.

    4.       The 2014 World Cup in Brazil will be the most expensive FIFA World Cup ever and is costing an estimated 14-16 billion dollars. This is nearly more than the last three world cups cost! Brazil is investing heavily in this prestigious sporting event and are upgrading infrastructure as well as building new stadiums and working hard to decrease crime and protect the visiting soccer fans.

  5.       This will be the first ever World Cup to use Goal-Line Technology.  The referee will have the benefit of 14 cameras and a mainframe computer to help him. If a goal is scored, the referee will feel a vibration through a special watch that he will be wearing and it will also display a message of ‘Goal’.  Frank Lampard must be kicking himself it wasn’t around in the 2010 World Cup (bitter? Much?!?)

    6.       Despite the rather nifty dancing and some rather good goals, Cameroon’s Roger Milla is the oldest player and the oldest goal scorer in a World Cup. When he last laced up his boots at the ‘94 finals, he was just over 42 years old.

    7.       Norman Whiteside is the youngest player to ever take the field at a World Cup. He was just 17 years, one month and 10 days when he played for Northern Ireland against Yugoslavia at the ’82 World Cup in Spain. That fact is pretty well known. What isn’t so well know is that when he got back home, his mam grounded him for a week for not calling her to let him know he’d arrived safely in Madrid!

  8.       No country from outside South America or Europe has ever won the World Cup.  Cameroon were Africa’s best performing nation, reaching the quarter finals in 1990 where they were narrowly defeated by England.  Korea Republic became the best performing Asian nation when it reached the 2002 semi-finals on home soil.

  9.       Which player has scored the most goals in a single World Cup match? No, it isn't Pele, Maradona, Gerd Muller or Ronaldo. Oleg Salenko, who represented Russia at the 1994 World Cup finals in USA, scored 5 goals against Cameroon which stands as the record for the most goals by an individual in a World Cup game.

  10.   England won the World Cup in 1966 – but then you know that already, right?  Football hasn’t “come home” since, despite Baddiel & Skinner’s protestations to the contrary. Look carefully at the photos of England’s victory at Wembley in 1966 and you’ll spot one of the biggest cultural shifts in British and English identity over the last couple of decades.

In 1966 nearly everybody was waving the British Union Jack, not the English St George Cross.

 Whatever your choice of flag, let’s hope there’s some reason to wave it this year! 

Don’t forget to download your free planners at www.theofficesuppliessupermarket.com

T - 2 Days until the World Cup 2014 quite literally kicks off.  Is your office prepared?  

Whether you’re a football fan or not, it’s almost impossible not to get caught up in the jingoism and excitement that comes with a World Cup.  If dealt with properly, it can be a great opportunity for employers to take advantage of the atmosphere and use it to encourage team building and social interaction within the office.

Why is Team Building Important?

  Just in case there are any office managers reading this and wondering why they would bother, it’s worth considering why team building is important.

  Team building in an office helps to foster better and open communication between the employees themselves, as well as between the employees and the higher management. It goes a long way in improving professional relations, understanding and co-operation, and this is very much reflected in the quality of work being done. Team building in the workplace significantly contributes towards

employee motivation and building trust among the employees, thereby ensuring better productivity.

  Ideas for getting involved

  A sweepstake

  Organising a sweepstake can be relatively straightforward and here at the Office Supplies Supermarket, we’ve made it even easier for you.  You can download our world cup planners for FREE here

   Firstly, you need to decide on the stake and how the winnings will be split (winner takes all? Or a sliding scale for 1st-4th placed teams? You could even complicate things by giving something to the winning team from each group stage).  Once that’s agreed and the organiser has informed everyone, simply put all the team names in a hat (it doesn’t have to be an actual hat, but you know that right?), get each person who wants to take part to pick their team at random and then write the results in a central place (a whiteboard in the staff room is ideal). 

  A sweepstake could even be an opportunity to do some fundraising for a charity (split the stake money - half for winnings and half to a chosen charity).  However you chose to do it, it’s a great opportunity to get even those who have no real football interest or knowledge involved.

  Fantasy Football Teams

  This one takes more organising and is probably better where there is a high proportion of football followers within the work team.  At the very least you’ll need the organiser/s to know what they’re talking about.  One of the national tabloids does a World Cup Fantasy Football League and I suppose, one could, in theory, use their information to make the task easier!

  So basically, every player (or potential player) in every team of the World Cup gets given a value. Obviously, the better the player, the higher the price.  I’d like to say that’s just like in normal football but as a bitter Liverpool fan still smarting over the Andy Carroll debacle, it’s not necessarily the case.  Anyway.  I digress.

Whoever is taking part acts as a football manager and has to buy their team.  As with real football, you start with 11 players.

Your chosen players cannot have a combined value of more than £50 million and your team must play one of the three formations: 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or 4-5-1.

During the games of the world cup, each player gets (or loses) points based on their performance.  You could use something along these lines

Points are awarded as follows:

All Players

Each Goal Scored (excluding own goals)  +5 points

Hat trick (3 or more goals)  +5 points

Yellow Card  - 1 point

Red Card Eligible Player Scores: - 3 points

Man of the Match (you need to define your source for this)  +5 points

Goalkeepers

Penalty Save or Miss Eligible Player Scores: +3 points

  Defenders and Goalkeepers

Clean Sheet (no goals conceded) +5 points

2 Goals Conceded -1 point

Each Goal Conceded Over two goals  -1 point

Midfielders

Clean Sheet (no goals conceded) +2 points

Penalty Takers

Penalty Save or Miss (as defined above)  - 3 points

Like with a sweepstake, an initial stake needs to be decided, as well as the format for the payment of the “winnings”. 

SOCIAL EVENTS

The third England group game takes place at 5pm (the others are 11pm and 8pm), so it might be ideal for employers to offer some kind of social event for employees to enjoy the match.  This doesn’t have to be extravagant, it could just be a tv in the boardroom with a few drinks/nibbles laid on.  Or even just convening to the local pub and perhaps getting the first round in!  Or maybe your rich boss can go all out with a Brazillian themed party at his house.  No? Lager and dry roasted peanuts it is then.

FLEXI TIME

Ok, this might not be necessary if we don’t get past the group stages but even in the group stages, assuming you don’t arrange a social event for that 5pm game and your employees are not due to finish until 5.30 or 6pm, then the productivity levels of an office full of football fans sitting at their desks knowing they are missing an England game is going to be minimal.  Create goodwill, increased productivity and employee motivation by considering allowing some form of flexi time to allow those who are interested to watch the game.

Beyond the group stages, the matches would be at 9pm.  Productivity levels the “morning after” might also be pretty woeful, so perhaps consider a later start on those days.  And please be aware of driving into work the morning after if you’ve been indulging in a few (hopefully celebratory) beers the night before.

We’ve already discussed how you don’t need to archive everything and part of the plan we discussed was that you should maybe keep some stuff but send some others to the great recycling box in the sky. However, even though you don’t want to keep it, you should make sure that nobody else gets to see it either.

For example, if all your bank statements are electronic and you decided to get rid of the paper ones, you could just put them in the recycling, however those documents are dangerous if they end up in the hands of the wrong people.

Simple solution? Shred everything.

Archive, then shred

It’s a simple process. Every document that you have and need to keep should be scanned (both sides) and then the original document should be shredded. There are plenty different types of shredders available depending on the security you require, but whatever you do, at least buy a cheap shredder and destroy statements, quoted, visa card letters – everything that contains personal information.

High Security documents

Some documents are very important. Some documents would be worth spending time trying to piece back together and for these you must maybe look at a more secure type of shredder. There are plenty available that will turn your paper into confetti (don’t use it as such though, it’s dangerous!) and make it impossible for it to be put together.

Believe me, people do this. People will spend hours on end trying to match bits of paper together in order to get to the numbers hidden on them. So our advice? When paper has reached its end of life, whack it in a shredder then recycle.

For a great range of shredders visit

The obvious answer is that someone would invent them, but let’s just think about it for a second – the humble box is ubiquitous, we take it for granted but have you ever thought of the actual physics involved?

Boxes are incredibly strong, even though they appear to be made out of a paper-type material (it’s sometimes a wood fibre) and they’re also very light, yet the printer I just bought is really heavy and the box is barely troubled by it.

It’s all down to the way they’re made and that incredible corrugated formation of the cardboard which gives it its strength. As you know if you try to hold a cup with a piece of paper (even high GSM paper), it’ll be difficult to lift without tearing and if you get it wet, it’ll just fall through.

Until someone had the idea of that neat corrugated material to give boxes strength, all storage boxes were either metal or wood. That’d put your baggage allowance right off the scales before you’d even got anything in them.

In 1856 someone actually patented corrugated paper but it was used to prop up tall hats. In 1871, someone finally had the bright idea to use it for wrapping products but it wasn’t until 1890 that an accident with a metal ruler and some neat folding lead to the invention of the cardboard box.

It was how the board was made that gave it its strength, those corrugated bits allow the paper to take on a lot more strength than you’d expect. For example, ½ pound of paper when formed into a box can hold 1000 pounds of weight. Pretty good eh?

So this changed the world completely. Can you imagine what shipping goods would have been like if we didn’t have cardboard to wrap them? No Amazon for a start, or Ikea.

Now storage boxes are taken for granted and the archive of your big office is absolutely stacked to the roof with them containing the obligatory six years’ worth of accounts and records.

I’m pretty sure the world wouldn’t be able to function without storage boxes or the cardboard used in their manufacture.

For all your storage box needs visit

The day you returned to work after the Easter break, did you make a promise to yourself that you’d clean your desk every day and make sure you filed everything away properly? Did you, like many others, conclude that the reason working life became a chore and stress levels rose was because your desk looked like a miniature version of the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark with boxes, files and paperwork in piles all over it?

Maybe your co-workers had forgotten what you looked like because they couldn’t see beyond the paperwork that had gathered for weeks lying unread and un-actioned. Or maybe it was that fateful moment that a deadline passed, you missed it because you’re so messy and the boss decided to tear a strip off you in front of Debbie from accounts.

Whatever, it was incredible to see the number of clean desks after Easter in our office as people obviously decided that this year was going to be the one they sorted everything out. Filing, that job most often given the office intern or latest work experience appointment suddenly became the route to a clearer desk, clearer mind and happier lifestyle.

However, we’re nearly at the end of May – how’s it looking now?

My guess is, like mine, your desk is a mess already.

It could be that you’re the creative type (something we’ve already talked about), but it might be that you’re just lazy. If that’s the case then you ought to do something about it, but why did you end up here in the first place?

Why people give up

The problem is, when we give ourselves crazy goals, we very often end up missing them. Saying that you’re going to keep the desk clean and file everything is probably going too far. Some things are just meant to be put in a pile somewhere and others should be filed away. The trick to getting this right is to learn what should go where and deal with it appropriately.

Now, I can’t tell you what you should file and where you should file it, but I can tell you what I do and maybe it will help a bit.

Piles

Some letters just need to be handled, but not yet. If you file every letter away then the old rule of “out of sight, out of mind” comes in to play. I’ve filed stuff before now that I thought I’d get back to and then when the inevitable call comes and someone asks “did you action that letter?” I completely forgot I’d even got it.

For this, you need a pile. You can’t have a file for every occasion, so just have a pile on your desk, in view of stuff you must action, then action it at the end of the day. I actually have two piles – one for “this must be done end of day” and another for “can wait until end of week”.

Sorted.

Files

Anything to do with a project or customer gets filed. Now this can mean a cross-over between my piles and files but I make sure that if it’s information I’ve been sent regarding a customer or project then it gets filed away somewhere appropriate. If it’s something that needs to be actioned, then it goes to the pile first before being filed as soon as it has been actioned.

Yep – very simple and hardly worth a post really, surely these tactics are obvious, but when I pointed this out to someone yesterday they said “blimey, I never thought of that”, so here it is for you to read, too.

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The pine or beech office desk is probably the most popular yet most forgotten about piece of office equipment. Once it’s in, it’s in and they tend to last pretty much forever, only being thrown out when there’s a full office re-fit taking place or the decorators manage to totally destroy one when fitting the new ceiling lights.

However, the desk plays an important part in the office, a part maybe more steeped in politics than functionality as even the cheapest ones do their job of keeping things off the floor pretty well.

The operator desk

If you happen to sit in the office hierarchy as an ‘operator’ then it’s fairly common you’ll have a pretty basic desk. Solid, square with a divider between you and the next operator and if you’re lucky, a pedestal of drawers underneath. Perfectly fine for the role at hand, after all, you’ll just be typing at a computer most of the day and shuffling paper around.

Concentrate on the seat here, that’s more important and a good one that ensures good posture all day without slouching is absolutely essential.

The office manager’s desk

Someone has to manage the operators and that’s usually the bossy person sat in the corner of the office. Their desk will be larger because, well, they have to sign all the bits of paper the operators bring to them and they’ve probably got a second monitor.

Also, they’ll have an extra corner bit so they can have meetings with staff. You’ll also find they build a fortress around them with other bits of desk equipment!

The director’s desk

The most impressive of all. During my early years of working I was always impressed by the account director’s desk which was totally black, almost always empty save for the one bit of paper he was currently dealing with and it had a big square of leather in the middle.

This impressed me because it was just like the one that Lieutenant Marty Castillo had in Miami Vice!

The director must show his status and so these desks are usually very big, made from a hardwood and nearly always very tidy.

Check out our full range of office desks at

So many office managers and indeed, whole organisations try to ‘persuade’ workers to ensure their desk is clean and tidy at all times. At many companies you’ll find they adopt a ‘clean desk’ policy that is adhered to all the way through the business and actually put it into their terms and conditions.

However, research from University of Minnesota has found that different desk environments result in different types of work and that guy in the corner that has stuff all over the place may in fact be the most creative person in your organisation.

The title of their paper really says it all. Those who have physical order in their work environment will make healthy choices, are more generous and tend to be conventional. However, disorder produces more creativity.

As is often the case, people react to different situations in different ways and whereas it might hold true that a clean desk leads to better and more efficient workers, it may be at the expense of creativity. The report points out:

“The human mind likes order, rules , and tradition .Yet ,disorder, unruliness , and unconventionality also hold appeal. In fact, both order and disorder are prevalent in nature (Koole & Van den Berg, 2005 )and culture( Baumeister, 2005 ). Order and disorder therefore might be functional , particularly insofar as they could activate different psychological states and benefit different kinds of outcomes.”

Of course, this doesn’t mean a desk should become filled with pizza boxes, apples cores and lumps of partly chewed sweets. The report was based on disorganisation and untidiness, not hygiene and a desk that is inches deep in filth is still a bad thing. The worker may be incredibly creative but if they’re spreading disease then that’s no good for anyone.

So what can we take from this then? Well the key here is that in many organisations the most desirable outcome would be efficiency and generosity. These are great attributes for anyone to have, but in many companies you also need those with a more creative aspect to their work. As with so many things, you can’t categorise people easily and the best we can advise is that you treat everyone as an individual.

That can’t be a bad thing, can it?

For all your office supplies visit

The process of setting up a conference room can be overwhelming and daunting for some people who have never done it before and with so many options available, it’s easy to get frustrated. Before the purchasing aspect happens, first it is best to identify the purpose of the conference room. Will the room be used for a large group or a small group? What kind of activities will take place in the room? Will it be used for secure agreements, brief staff/clients, solve a problem, exchange information, initiate policy or product launch? Knowing the many ways you intend on using the space, helps the rest of the process move along smoother. How many attendees are invited? Is the room large enough to accommodate the furniture and attendees? What style suits the event? Does the furniture need to be modern, traditional or modular? Now that the basics are covered, it’s time to think about how to setup the perfect conference room.

  Conference room needs

Every conference room regardless of style will most likely have these basic items to conduct an effective event.

  Conference tables

·         Are available in modern, traditional and modular designs.

·         Come in rectangular, round, square and unique shapes.

·         Can be small, medium or large in size.

·         Made out of glass, metal, solid wood and wood veneer materials

·         Consider the seating capacity of the conference table.

·         The shape of the conference table plays a major role in the design layout of the conference room.

·         Should be durable enough to last for many years to come.

    Chairs

·         Should be comfortable enough to sit in for long periods of time.

·         Are available in many colors to match conference room décor.

·         Can be traditional, reclining and modern.

·         Made out of leather, faux leather, mesh, fabric and other materials.

·         Should match the style of the conference room.

    Window blackouts

Depending on the style of the conference room, there are several different applications to achieve total darkness. A window film, roller shades, blinds, and motorized shades.

Are very customizable to fit the style of the conference room.

Can be various lengths and widths.

Should be able to blackout as much light as possible during presentations.

Also add privacy to conference room.

    Projectors and screens

•             Need to accommodate the room size to be visible for all attendees.

•             Should have good enough image quality for data, presentations and video.

•             Can be small and compact or large.

•             The screen should be in relation to the native resolution of the projector.

•             Some are equipped with interactive features.

•             Screens come in wall/ ceiling, electric/motorized and portable applications.

  Presentation boards/flip charts

•             Used for showcasing presentations.

•             Great for conference rooms without an interactive projector.

•             Can be used for quick and simple projects.

•             Come with whiteboards, cork boards, magnetic whiteboards and/or all-in-one features.

  Conference phone

•             Must deliver great voice quality

•             Should have expansion microphone pickup 360 degrees.

•             Meets the acoustic requirements for different types of rooms.

  The perfect conference room needs to have the best efficient layout for everyone to have a productive session. There are many different layouts depending on the purpose of the conference room. Let’s discuss some of the most popular layouts.

  •             Theater setup- Great for short presentations with more audiovisual aspects and projection. When the attendees are more of an audience, listening and watching presentations from the speaker. This setup is not best for taking notes or referring to material in portfolios or binders.

•             U-shape setup- Good for attendees to communicate easier, projection presentations and presentation boards.

•             Conference setup- Great for teleconferencing, visual presentations, brainstorming and discussions.

•             Classroom setup- Appropriate for long lectures, projection presentation and allows note taking but little interaction between attendees.

•             Hollow rectangle setup- Functions well with larger groups that require attendees to interact.

  Now that you have an idea of the style, supplies and designs for the conference room, creating the perfect conference room is going to be less daunting. These tips should help pinpoint the important elements needed to have a perfect conference room that fulfils its purpose.

For all your conference room needs visit

Now whether you believe reports in the Daily Express that we’re in for the “Hottest Summer Ever” (oh yes, 2014 is going to be a SCORCHER!!  Again.  Apparently) or whether you’re more prone to believe the slightly less optimistic and cautious view of the long range weather forecasts from the Met office (the usual – it could be sunny, there will probably be some rain as well.  But actually, beyond that, they haven’t got much of a clue!), the chances are, at some point during the summer, there will be at least a smattering of days where it gets a bit hot and stuffy in your office.

Firstly, it’s worth pointing out that air conditioning is much more effective at reducing the temperature in an enclosed space than an electric fan.  So if you’re lucky enough to work in an office with good quality air conditioning, in perfect working order and you sit close enough to the vents/units for it to be effective, then congratulations!  You will not have to resort to running your wrists and possibly even feet under the cold tap in the washrooms on those rare (but wonderful) days where the temperature hits 80 degrees plus.

If, however, you work in a small office with no air conditioning or one in an older building with air conditioning which is about as useful as a chocolate teapot (and you can’t convince your employees to invest in one or two  portable air conditioning units) then it might be worth making sure you’ve got plenty of electric fans as an alternative.

So as stated above, fans don’t actually lower the temperature of a room.  In fact, they actually add heat to a room! One way to think about it is like this: If you have a perfectly insulated room and you put an electric fan in it, then the room will get warmer. All the electricity that is driving the fan turns directly into heat.

So a fan does not cool the room at all. What a fan does is create a wind chill effect.

When weather forecasters talk about wind chill on a cold winter day, what they are referring to is how the wind increases convective heatloss. By blowing air around, the fan makes it easier for the air to evaporate sweat from your skin, which is how you eliminate body heat. The more evaporation, the cooler you feel.

Fans come in all shapes and sizes (well not all – but there are options) and the type you buy will invariably depend on where you want it to go. 

For desks which might be lacking in surface space but have partitions, a clip on fan might be ideal.

If desk space is available, then a desk fan might be an option.  These are usually blade or “windmill” types, albeit we do have a mini tower fan available.

  If you need the fan to benefit more than one desk space (in a boardroom or staff room situation for example), then a larger floor standing fan would be the best option.  These are available as traditional blade fans or tower fans.  The latter has the advantage of having a smaller foot print than most fans. They are also generally quieter (even on high) and are obviously less likely to have someone get their fingers in the blade because the cover has much smaller holes.  It’s personal preference, but some might also say they’re more aesthetically pleasing.

    So whilst not as good as air conditioning, with a few fans, plenty of water/fluids to rehydrate yourself and perhaps a bottle of deodorant for Bob in accounts, you can survive all those lovely hot summer days we have to come.  Now, if it would just stop raining…..

A long time ago I was sat in my office watching the temperature rise gradually and, to be honest, enjoying it immensely. It had been a long and cold winter and it was good to see the sun out for a change so nobody was really complaining. It was the fifth really hot day in a row and so we lapped it up.

These were the days when the main company computer sat in its own room, air conditioned, with access via a keypad.

Then an alarm went off. The air conditioning had failed in the computer room and the temperature was rising. Computers seemed to run incredibly hot in those days and if you didn’t cool them down, things would start to go wrong very quickly.

What could we do?

We headed down to the computer room and opened all the windows as a first step which didn’t really help, it was about 28C outside, a bit warmer than inside so it probably made things worse so then someone had the bright idea of bringing a load of fans in from the offices – it’s an emergency we said.

And then we learned a very important aspect of physics, fans and the circulation of air. You see, fans don’t cool rooms down at all, in fact, they probably increase the temperature of a room because a fan just moves air around. They cool people down because people sweat and when the air from a fan hits you it blows the moisture away which in turn takes heat with it and therefore you feel cooler. Unfortunately, large computers don’t sweat all that much.

All we did then was heat the room up a little bit more.

Then it was a quick call to a local air conditioning company. “Could you get a portable air conditioning unit here today?”

The answer was a laugh followed by “you know it’s 28C and rising for the rest of the week, yeah? I’m afraid we’re all out of them”

Luckily, this was a big company and we had resources so due to some major string-pulling we managed to get an engineer to come out and fix it. It took a while though and to be sure nothing got damaged, we turned everything off for a few hours.

The moral of this story? Well, you may think that because Summer doesn't seem to be in any major rush to arrive that you don’t need to worry about your air conditioning, but before you know it we’ll (hopefully) we basking in wonderful sunshine and sub-tropical temperatures so check your air conditioning now. If you do find it needs a service or even replacement, you’ll discover it’s easier and cheaper to get it done before the temperature starts to soar.

For replacement filters and portable air conditioning machines Visit:-

Which one do you need amongst the different types of safes available on the market? Key considerations in buying the right investment to protect your valuables are what you intend to put in it and the threats you want to guard against e.g. burglars, fire, floods, heavy impact, explosions.

Safes come with varying degrees of protection and different features that make it suitable for many uses from storing jewellery, coins, cash notes, printed documents and memory storage devices through to antiques, silverware, paintings and many other items of great personal and monetary value.

It’s also important to know where you intend to put it—in your home, office or business; embedded into the floor, behind the wall, bolted to a heavy object, or simply ‘camouflaged’ in plain sight.

Safes come in various sizes, shapes and features, but are generally classified into:

1. Home or residential safes

·         Fire safes. These are entry level safes you can easily find in your local home improvement store. Its main purpose is to guard primarily documents of extreme importance such as wills, vehicle and property titles, stocks and bonds certificates, passports and social security papers, etc. against the extreme temperatures of fires. There are different stages of protection offered by fire safes. They are able to maintain a low enough temperature inside for different amounts of time (depending on the model) by releasing moisture into the safe.

·         Burglary safes. If you want a higher level of protection against burglars this type of safe is ideal as it is heavier and has more sophisticated locking mechanisms. A security safe offers maximum security with its substantially thick steel door and steel walls able to withstand the attacks of even the more sophisticated and determined criminals. Some models have an added fire protection feature, making them hybrid burglar / fire safes. Depending on where you intend to place them, they can be:

§  Standalone home safes. It is a versatile type of safe you can put any place you like (just make sure you have enough room to open the door fully!). They can be mounted to the floor or bolted to another heavy object, or just placed free-standing (their immense weight deters burglars from simply carting them away). It’s an ideal option if you want a more mobile safe.

    §  Wall safe. Talk about ‘blending into the background’. The safe is built into the wall and covered up with a painting or furniture, making it an inconspicuous way of hiding things. This popular type of safe keeps criminals guessing its exact location especially in a large room or house. It’s also very convenient for homeowners since it’s placed in the wall so they don’t have to stoop to use it.

§  Underfloor safe. They are embedded onto a concrete floor, making them very much immune to removal. Its location can also be conveniently covered up with a rug, mat, or carpet. If you don’t plan on opening it for a very long time, you can also put a bed or cupboard over it, making it a lengthy affair for burglars to open even if they knew its exact location.

  ·         Gun safes. It’s a necessary investment to house your rare gun collection or even just to keep it out of reach of active little hands or off the hands of a curious teenager. They come in various sizes (to accommodate either long or short firearms or both), strength of security and resistance to fire.

    ·         Key safes. They are designed to securely store keys, ranging in size from compact key safes storing one or a few keys through to larger solid steel boxes holding a lot of keys with key tags to help organise its contents. Outdoor key safes are embedded into concrete or brick on the exterior of a house or building and accessed with a combination code, which can be easily changed to accommodate security needs.

·          Jewellery safes. If you prefer your expensive sparklers to be near you instead of in a bank vault this is the way to go. Most jewellery safes are well-designed, ornate boxes themselves with beautiful wood and velvet interiors worthy of housing your precious gems collection. As dainty as its interiors are, its exterior is just as tough and difficult to crack.

      2. Business or commercial safes. Many of the types of home safe can be and are also used by businesses. However, there are other types more specific for business or corporate usage owing to the much higher level of security required by large organisations (e.g. storing important tax and accounting documents, contracts, business plans, blueprints, property titles, legal documents, as well as large volumes of cash).

·         Office safes. It is a stronger and more secure than the typical home safe. They are also usually fireproof, with much higher fire ratings. Many models are drop tested to ensure they will not unlock when dropped from a given height. In most cases they are fitted with an electronic lock.

·         Hotel safes. These are provided by hotels to guests in order to deposit their valuables during their stay. They do not offer the strongest protection but are much better than having important travel and business documents and cash strewn about, vulnerable to being misplaced, damaged or stolen. They are usually mounted to the wall, and some models automatically lock out in case of too many attempts to open it.

    ·         Drop safes or deposit safes. They are used by businesses, banks, postal offices and offices where quick secure deposits at regular intervals are made without having to open the safe door everytime. The item to be deposited is dropped onto a small hatch at the top or front of the safe. Drop / deposit safes are used to hold valuables temporarily until they can be transferred to a bigger, permanent safe or processed in some way.

·         Vault. Also known as a strongroom, it differs from a conventional safe in that it is part of the building it is located in. The room is closely guarded by a heavy, close fitting steel door and a complex lock mechanism. While we usually associate it with a bank, it is also built in buildings that house valuables such as museums, grand hotels, rare books libraries and even some government ministries.

·         Data safes. These are used to keep digital media. Fire resistant data safes are designed especially to protect tapes, computer media, external hard drives, USB drives, CD-ROMs, DVDs and negatives from extreme temperatures, magnetic fields, dust and smoke. The insulation on this type of safe is significantly thicker than a safe intended for paper documents because the materials that make up electronic media melt at lower temperatures compared to paper. Its interior is also generally smaller.

Safes are protected by an array of locking devices:

·         Key lock. With this type of lock, the safe opens with a key. It is ideal if you are prone to forgetting number combinations.

·         Dial combination lock. Safes with this type of lock require the user to dial a number sequence to open it. It is ideal for those who tend to misplace their keys often. Opening a conventional dial lock takes longer than an electronic lock.

·         Electronic lock. Like a dial lock it also has a non-key entry feature where the user can create a digital code and input it on a digital key pad and / or use a magnetic card strip to open a safe. It is very convenient because it does not take a lot of time to open, and is also ideal for when several people need to use the safe without having more than one person or all of them present at the same time to validate entry (although this is possible for safes with bespoke locking mechanisms). If access should become compromised, you can always programme a new code. Its sophisticated variants utilise fingerprint or iris recognition technology and is considered very secure.

An office operator chair is intended for people whose functions and job description involve sitting for a long period of time. These include computer, telephone and switchboard operators, writers, editors, data entry specialists, data analysts and those working in a call centre environment.

These workers will need to be protected from back pain resulting from the large amount of stress on the lumbar area resulting from sitting in a chair for most or all of their working hours. The requirements and adjustments for the chair suited to them vary from workers with light to moderate chair usage.

Here are top six features to look for in an office operator chair:

Adjustable back height. There should a capability to adjust seat height via a gas lift mechanism as well as an adjustable back height movement. Ideally, the chair user should be able to adjust the height even whilst seated. This feature is called ratchet back height adjustment.

Adjustable backrest angle. A backrest of adequate size and with the proper tilt is important for the user to lean comfortably. It’s a good thing that the office chairs being manufactured today already have wide instead of tiny back rests. The backrest angle should be adjustable independently of the seat. This allows the user to have their most comfortable posture.

Adjustable seat angle. The seat angle should also be adjustable independently of the backrest so the seat can be tilted slightly forward when the user needs to lean close to the computer screen to lean forward to write on the desk. Having the ability to lean the seat forward relieves the buildup of pressure and stress in the legs, thighs and buttocks. When it is appropriate to lean backward to relax or ponder on something, the seat can then be flattened or reversed.

Seat depth adjustment. People have different thigh lengths, so anyone sitting on the chair must have the ability to slide the seat further forward or backward than the factory-set standard position to accommodate each individual user.

Arm rests. There are a good many options for this feature to allow its users the utmost flexibility of movement while seated. A height adjustable arm rest is a necessity to provide support to the hands and shoulders. There are also arm rests that can be adjusted forwards or backwards, and can be folded down when the user doesn’t need it at a given time.

Adjustable lumbar support. The chair should have a built-in lumbar support to avoid a costly but important add-on should a buyer neglect to consider this at purchase. There should be a manual hand wheel on the side of the chair at the back. When turned, this increases or decreases the amount of lumbar support provided to the user. There should also be a height adjustment capability for this support.

In choosing the correct chair amongst the many options available, it is important to take into account three important factors:

The user’s body dimensions. Not everyone has the same height, body type, thigh length, hip-to-leg ratio, etc. so there is no guarantee that one chair will fit all of its intended users. You must ensure that the chair you will buy can make all appropriate adjustments when necessary.

The workstation where the chair will be placed. Different tasks and functions also require a different arrangement of workstations. Some people may need to operate several machines and work with less paper whilst for others the opposite may apply. A good chair should allow the user to manoeuvre effectively to reach all areas of the desk comfortably.

Maintenance and repair. Maintenance and regular inspection are important to keep the chair in good working condition. You might want to check with the manufacturer as to which items you should regularly check for, whether you can easily find and replace defective parts on your own (to save you the hassle and expense of bringing the chair to the repair facility) and how often should inspection be conducted.

More information

The Office Supplies Supermarket has a wide range of office chairs available here : http://www.theofficesuppliessupermarket.com/product-search-results?search=operator+chairs

About the Office Supplies Supermarket

Theofficesuppliessupermarket.com is a subsidiary of TheSupermarketOnline.com Ltd, a company who dedicate themselves to providing office supplies to the UK market using the most innovative, different and successful methods we can find. If it’s new, you can bet we’re on it … or at least thinking about it very seriously over a brew at our Monday meeting. Although innovation is what get’s us going in the morning; if we didn’t deliver the correct office products to you at the end of the day, we wouldn’t be doing our job properly. In order to ensure we achieve this objective, Supermarket Online uses its network of over 350 office supplies specialists based throughout the UK and Ireland in order to deliver, fit and service all your office supplies requirements.

When you make paper at home, you are not only doing your part for the environment by recycling but also you are taking part in an old tradition. The art of homemade paper can be used for a number of things including artwork and decoration and although there are various processes in making paper, the basic steps remain intact. The following method, if followed correctly, will result in good, quality paper.

1. Find old scrap paper that is no longer needed in any size then get scissors and make a pile of scraps measuring no longer than an inch in length and width.

2. Put your scraps into a bowl of warm water and let soak for 30 minutes minimum, if time isn't an issue overnight is recommended.

3. Find a disposable square pan, no longer than 6-8 in and cut a rectangular hole, ensuring you leave at least 1/4 on all sides. Next, cut a piece of screen or wire mesh the same size as the inside of the pan to avoid paper from falling out. Note: This step can be done while paper is soaking.

4. Put warm water into a blender, filling it halfway and add about a handful of the shredded, soaked paper. On medium speed, blend until the mixture is soupy. Next, pour the mixture into a large tub with warm water, stir until well mixed.

5. Place the pan inside the tub and let the bottom cover with paper, move it as needed to get an even layer.

6. Lift the pan while keeping it level and let the water drain by pressing the paper to the screen or wire.

7. Place the pan, paper side down on a dry towel and lift the pan and screen off leaving only the paper and place another towel over the paper and gently press on the paper to force drying. If you have a rolling pin, you can use it to assist in the drying process.

8. Lift the towel off the paper then carefully peel the paper off bottom towel and allow it to try overnight. In the morning, you should be able to use it like regular store bought paper.

If you'd like the drying process to be quicker, use a hair dryer. Secondly, be by adding flowers or even glitter to your paper mixture which can make projects or wrapping paper that much more personal.

About the Office Supplies Supermarket

Theofficesuppliessupermarket.com is a subsidiary of TheSupermarketOnline.com Ltd, a company who dedicate themselves to providing office supplies to the UK market using the most innovative, different and successful methods we can find. If it’s new, you can bet we’re on it … or at least thinking about it very seriously over a brew at our Monday meeting. Although innovation is what get’s us going in the morning; if we didn’t deliver the correct office products to you at the end of the day, we wouldn’t be doing our job properly. In order to ensure we achieve this objective, Supermarket Online uses its network of over 350 office supplies specialists based throughout the UK and Ireland in order to deliver, fit and service all your office supplies requirements.