Back to School

Pens, pencils, and notebooks, oh my!  It's time to restock your school (and office!) supplies.  Here's what's new and trendy this fall.

One of our favorite items is an erasable highlighter.  Personally, I use these to highlight numbers in an industry phone book for my own quick reference.  When I get the new phonebook for the quarter, I pass the old one along to one of my colleagues.  If they come across a number they won't use, they can easily erase it with the other end of their own erasable highlighter!

They're also a great affordable giveaway, starting at $0.55 each!

A Sharpie Gel Highlighter came across my desk the other day, and I was really intrigued by it.  There's no ink, so no smudging and no mess.  It won't dry out, and will highlight anything, even glossy paper.  It's hard to describe what the highlighting substance is like, possibly close to a transparent crayon.

I suspect these will be a new standard, especially in households that might share highlighter-age school kids with smaller kids who like markers.  They start at $1.48 each.

While we're talking about annotating and marking, what I like even better than markers are sticky notes.  More than for leaving notes to coworkers, I like to use them to bookmark important pages in books.  They're great for shared or library books, because comments can be made on the sticky notes instead of on the book itself.  I like to have a variety of sizes on hand for different uses.

Prices range from $0.49 to $5.00 for simple booklets of flags, to large desktop caddys, to combos that include flags with rulers, highlighters, or letter openers.

Pencil and paper alone doesn't cut it for school anymore.  We're well into the 21st century now.  For example, I have a pen with a stylus on the end that I keep in my padfolio that also holds my iPad (with adjustable velcro to hold Nook, Kindle, and other tablet devices as well).  Starting at $17.96 for the set.

But the biggest technology needed for school is flash drives.  USB memory comes in a variety of styles now, including on pens, lockable, in fun shapes, and by reliable well known brands.  1GB seems to be the starting point in size now, and prices start at $5.83.