Using Colorful Duct Tape to Bind Printed Books

Aesthetics affect me, and I think they affect my students too.  I find a sloppy, crowded classroom really disheartening.  I know that it's not exactly direct evidence of how much learning is going on, but I still think students deserve to learn in a bright, cheerful environment.  I'm always trying to spruce things up or add elements that I think my students will enjoy.  At my school, we use a lot of printed books to differentiate learning.  In general, this is great! Students are all reading from different texts at their own levels rather than reading from one standard text that could be far above or below their own levels.  That being said, I hate seeing flimsy black and white, stapled together books everywhere.  I've started printing some books I know I'll use over and over in color and then laminating the front covers for durability.  That helped a lot, but they still looked a bit sad with their exposed staples.  I copied this pin and bought some patterned duct tape to use to bind the edges.  No more sharp exposed staples and they look a lot nicer too!