Flash Drives for Teacher

[WDW*Dreamer]

My DW is a high school science teacher. This morning she was telling me how her students are "always" coming to her asking if she has a spare flash drive they can use because they have forgotten or lost theirs. She was saying how she wishes she could buy a box of 10-20 small capacity (512mb) thumb drives that she could keep in her room for the kids to borrow. She figures these would be cheap since there is really no market left for flash drives this small, but they'd be plenty big enough for a student to use to save an assignment they need to work on at home.

I thought for sure I could go on-line and find someone dumping obsolete flash drives for cheap, but no luck. I even tried ebay.

Anybody have any ideas? I just know somewhere there is a computer store employee throwing 512mb thumb drives in the dumpster out back because they can't sell them anymore, and my wife could make good use of them.

Thanks

 

[scrapquitler]

Anybody have any ideas? I just know somewhere there is a computer store employee throwing 512mb thumb drives in the dumpster out back because they can't sell them anymore, and my wife could make good use of them.

Thanks

Maybe you can ask on Freecycle or Craigs List?

 

[MM27]

Does she really need enough for all the students? Do most of them have their own?

I bought 6 larger ones that I keep in my classroom handing on hooks on the wall. If a student doesn't have one or they have one but left it home, they are allowed to use one of mine. I wrote numbers on the side with a silver Sharpie and it's their job to remember which one they saved on. I tell them that I will not go through them to find their files.

If she doesn't want to purchase them herself, she could go to Donors Choose and put up a project. Some of the smaller ones get filled fast.

 

[kerstfan1]

why not email the assingment to them selfs

 

[ChrisFL]

There are places that you can buy bulk flash drives for about $4-5 each I think, search google for bulk flash drives

 

[NewCrew42]

Have you thought about ordering promotional samples? I think you can get some free. They usually have to be sent to a business address which I think the school address would work for that. You can have them marked with the school's name/logo or something like if you last name is Jones, Jones Science Lab or Jones Science. That way they are clearly marked as belonging to your wife.

 

[Straycat]

http://www.pricewatch.com/gallery/flash_card_memory/usb_512mb

Pricewatch.com is where you want to go ^^^. It looks like OEM PC world has them for under $5. I have shopped with that site before for RAM and would recommend them.

 

[qtwns]

Maybe she can approach the school foundation or PTA and ask them to foot the bill for 5-6 drives. Or maybe sahe can order through her schools acct with an office supply place and get a deep discount. I also bet if she put out the word, her students would have some spares they are willing to donate that she can wipe clean and use.

 

[mckryan]

http://quickturnflash.com/2GB-Flash-Drive-Grab-Bag.html

If you look at some of the custom flash drive sites, they might have something like this.

 

[mom0299]

The best alternative I have found is www.dropbox.com It saves your documents in the cloud. You can access it online or download the program on your computer, ipod, ipad, phone, etc... Whenever I make a change to a document it updates it in the dropbox. I have all my needed files at my fingertips at all times. And it is free.

 

[Imzadi]

Have you thought about ordering promotional samples?

I was at a trade show and some guy was giving them out for free. So they must have been really cheap to buy in bulk.

why not email the assingment to them selfs

Yes, they can create a Gmail account if they don't have one. They can attach & send themselves files up to 25MB per file. Of course this only works if there is Internet access on the school computers.

 

[daemom]

One of the branches of military came to our high school and gave some out to students........maybe check with them?

 

[tvguy]

I was at a trade show and some guy was giving them out for free. So they must have been really cheap to buy in bulk.
.

Yeah, we get press releases on them now, often disguised as something else. A winery sent me one in a wine cork. A co-worker got one in what looked like an old audio cassette.

Here's a place that has them for $3 a piece.
http://www.google.com/products/cata...og_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CEEQ8wIwAg#

 

[snowy76]

Yes, they can create a Gmail account if they don't have one. They can attach & send themselves files up to 25MB per file. Of course this only works if there is Internet access on the school computers.

If they have any e-mail at all, not just Gmail, they can use it to create a Google account that includes storage space on Google Docs. They can create or access files from anywhere that are compatible with Word, PPT, Excel etc. (or Keynote, Pages and whatnot for the Mac).

I'm actually using Google Docs for my students' research paper rough drafts this year. There is a file-sharing feature so I can correct the work, and students can see the changes I made right from home.

 

[WDW*Dreamer]

Thanks for all the great suggestions....

The websites look promising,

There is a rep from the Air Force Academy visiting Monday, I'll tell her to ask him about some promo units,

Gmail and Google Docs would be an execellent answer (we use both at home extensively), it's not always possible from school. They are SOOOO paranoid about allowing students access to the outside world from school computers. I think they've overshot the target a bit in their attempt to protect the kids from the evils of the internet (or protect themselves from the liability),

The best solution is probably going to be forking up our own money to buy a half dozen flash drives and implementing a "check-out" system.

This brings up a new topic for another thread. How much of our personal money should (and do) teachers spend to provide the best learning experience in their classrooms. We spend several hundred dollars a year.

Thanks again,

 

[TheIncredibles!]

Your daughter is clearly a very patient teacher - but perhaps the solution is not to have spares but to drive home the message that the students need to come prepared for class.

Many years ago when I started High School we had on teacher that was a stickler for coming to class prepared. She expected you to come with a pen, pencil, notebook and your book. If you were missing any item she would not allow you to share, ask a classmate for anything or ask her for anything. Coming to class unprepared earned you an detention every time.

Now I don't think she needs to be that rough but I do think spending her own money to help kids when they have not come with all the required tools is not the solution.

 

[IDoDis]

It was either OfficeMax or Staples who were giving these out for free to teachers at one time (with a valid teacher's ID). I picked up 3 of them and so did DH. Maybe they'll do this again sometime. They were the 512mb drives.

ETA: Tell your DW to go to donorschoose.org and set up an account. She can ask for a class set of thumbdrives (the amount $$ to pay for them). People check the site and give donations to teachers. Someone may donate the entire amount or partial amounts. We have parents from kids at our school whose companies must give a certain amount of money to Donor's Choose. One parent said she had $250 to give, but when she logged on to the website to find a teacher from our school, there were no active accounts. After I found that out, I set up an account immediately.

 

[NotUrsula]

The best place is promotional sites, the kind that sell things to be used at trade fairs, etc. Have her google promotions flash drive to find about a thousand places that do them. The key ring designs are best; if they can keep track of their keys they can keep track of their drive.

The best thing about these is that she can have them imprinted, with something like "Return to Ms. Jones, CHS"

All of the high schools around here now have spirit stores that are manned by volunteers and student clerks. They sell the small drives (printed with the school logo, of course) to benefit the school, and kids can get a hall pass to go down and purchase one.