Does anyone have a drive-cut machine? My mom was thinking about getting me one as a gift. I like them, but they are a little pricey. I haven't used one before, so I was wondering if it would be useful!
Cricut is used with your computer and many crafters and teachers love them. Schools typically may have a manually operated device called a die cut. Many elementary schools have them for faculty use.
The cri-cut is amazing! I borrow a co-workers from time to time and wish I had my own! If you teach a primary grade, you will love love love it!
I have a Cricut. I love it. I used to work at a craft store, so I have even taught basic classes on it. None of the models HAVE to connect to a computer. Some of them CAN. Others need a special separately bought program to hook up to a computer. Just a tip- watch for 'retired' cartridges for big savings. I have only purchased ONE current cartridge. Most of mine I have paid $10-20 for. Sometimes the craft stores get special shipments of retired cartridges for cheap. You can usually find them for cheap on eBay.
I keep mine at home, but I use it way more this year than last year. And I'm in 6th! I just made a bulletin board with wildflower cut outs. I even covered the corner with "grass" cut out by my Cricut since I...no joke...ran out of border like a foot and a half before I was done with the board.
I have a cricut and love using it for my class. I keep it at home for crafting but brought it in for the first week or two this year while I got my room set up. I can't count how many letters I cut out for my room :lol: I used it to put a large quote on the wall, to create labels for my board (I glued them on sentence strips and had them laminated), on bulletin boards, for my word wall and welcome sign etc. I love the cohesiveness it gives my room to have the same font everywhere, and that I wasn't limited to the boring plain letters our schools die cut machine makes.
I'm in high school so I don't have as much need for one in the classroom. The things I do are honestly more for me than for the students. I would use it all the time if I were an elementary teacher.
I teach high school too. I think some of the kids think it's lame but others get into it. So many of them didn't experience crafty stuff growing up so it's fascinates them. Our room is decorated for fall and they love it. I think the same applies to die cut stuff as well. I'm thinking I'll bring the cricut in and use it with them when we decorate for winter.