I keep reading about teachers that have personal laminators. What are the pros and cons of having one? If your campus has one, why do you need one, other than convenience? I'm seriously considering one; is it worth it? What brand? I found a truckload when I googled....
The lamination is much thicker and doesn't peel. That is why I love mine! Mine is Scotch- Amazon has a great deal at the moment!
I have one because our school has an old hand crank one. For smaller jobs, it works great but the sheets can get expensive. For larger jobs I have to go 30 minutes in the opposite direction of my school to get done at our "teacher center". It's a pain, that's why I go with my personal one for as much as possible.
I bought a small one for a few reasons. 1. Our school laminator is TERRIBLE!!!!! I was sick of things getting ruined. 2. Since our school one was terrible I was paying to take it to Copy Works...I got tired of paying for it. 3. It's convenient! Copy Works is over 30 minutes away and our school only laminates once every other week.
I did a review on my blog with pictures of the lamination here: http://thepencilmonkey.blogspot.com/2013/07/laminator-review.html
To add to the OP's questions, what do you laminate?? I have a very small laminator that I've used on insurance cards and personal things like that, but I have never run across anything in the classroom that made me think, "I must laminate that!"
Everything. But I am elementary Posters on the wall, center games, letters for bulletin boards that I use every year, border that goes in the hallway (it tends to get brushed against and ruined), etc....
I would agree with giraffe, elementary teachers laminate a LOT of stuff, but middle and high school teachers may not really need it so much
May want to look here http://forums.atozteacherstuff.com/showthread.php?t=174885&highlight=personal+laminator
This occurred to me, but I noticed that Barbd and muinteoir aren't elementary, so I thought I'd put my feelers out.
Some days, I'd laminate the KIDS if I could! Seriously, I use mine a LOT! I make 8.5X11 anchor charts, laminate student work, laminate card stock for kids to use as dry-erase boards, task cards, flash cards, game pieces, charts, you name it!
I'm considering getting one. I had a really expensive thing ruined in the school laminator the other day, and really about half the stuff I have done at school is ruined. I had a friend laminate something imporant for me, and loved how nice and thick it was!
I LOOOVEE laminating! Sometimes I laminate a really good anchor chart among all the other things people have said. I just picked up the Scotch laminator for smaller things. I haven't tried it yet. It seems like the personal ones have thicker/better lamination. We'll see!
I just bought a Scotch one for $25 on Amazon and got 200 pouches for $28 on there as well. I ***LOVE*** it!!! I've been laminating tons of things for my classroom - name tags, book basket labels, schedule cards, names for the bulletin board, etc etc etc. I have tons more to do, too. Lots of stuff for math and ELA Daily 5. I got it because we can't laminate our own stuff at school and the person who does it sometimes runs it through to fast, causing it to peel. I usually would go to Lakeshore but this is so much quicker and easier. Also, the lamination is so much thicker so everything feels like it will last a long time! It was worth every penny for me!
After reading the threads here, I just bought myself a Scotch one at Target for $23.00. I was going to order one on Amazon, but the shipping was double the cost of the laminator! Haven't tried it yet, but I'm excited to give it a try! We don't have laminators in the schools. We can send it out, or go to a central office to do it ourselves, and have it billed to the school, which is great for big batches or large items, but this will be perfect for some of the small things.
Is that because you're in Canada? I've had Prime for so many years that I sometimes forget you would actually have to pay to have something shipped from Amazon...lol. My Prime membership just feeds my Amazon addiction. It's scary. Enjoy your new laminator!!! I'm constantly finding things to laminate now because I love using it so much! :lol:
It must be. I was shopping on amazon.ca, and the price was around $30.00 (if I remember correctly). Imagine my surprise, when checking out, to find my total at well over $80.00--I took that out of my cart pretty quickly! I was able to pick one up at Target in Ohio when I took my daughter down to school last week; I couldn't find one in the store here.
I also bought a Scotch one this weekend. I am making 6 sets of multiplication flashcards to hang on a BB for student practice. I need to buy more pouches. I can fit 11 flashcards in one pouch, and I used 52 pouches !!! Still need about 27 more to do all the cards. I love how sturdy they seem! I also did a bunch of stuff today at school, and it seems so much flimsier.
This past week, I also bought one of those $24.99 (usual, not sale price) thermal laminators by Scotch at Target. I'm excited to try it & I'm glad to see that some of you like it too.
If I could find one for $23, I would buy one, too. Like MrsC, I looked on Amazon and the shipping cost more than the laminator. I'm heading to the city in a few days. Maybe I'll take a look around there. I play a lot of math games that require "cards" that I'd like to laminate.
I planned to get one as well. I want to laminate sheets to cut and label my groups by continent - this way the cards are safe from constant contact by teenagers. Since I'll also teach Language Arts, I can create bookmarks for the students.
I got the Scotch laminator from Walmart and I'm kind of obsessed with it! I just got it last week and since then, I've laminated a few mini-posters, copies of our duty schedules and bell schedules, labels for my cabinets, group names, task cards, and my bathroom pass card. We don't have a laminator at school (small school and I'm probably the only one that would use it). I could go to the district office and use theirs, but I like the thicker lamination from mine. My classroom is kind of humid and things tend to warp after a while so I'd like to laminate as much as I can.
Chiming in to profess my lve for my Scotch laminator. Actually, I just finished laminating some calendar pieces! I have unlimited access to a decent laminator at school, but I do anything letter-sized or smaller at home. If you go to Amazon, the sheets aren't that bad. The plastic is much thicker. I have had some games from 5 years ago still going strong. It's worth every penny!
This thread motivated me to get one from Walmart, too! I am already in love! I will look for cheaper sleeves online, but it is so much better than the district one I have to drive 20 minutes to get to and sucks. I will probably still do big jobs at the district, but this is so worth the money!
For those with an OfficeMax in their area, I saw it is on sale for $25!!! Wish I had money to buy it today, but will have to wait until next week.
