Tomorrow is the first day of this school year! I am super excited, my class seems really sweet, and so do my parents! I have been spending a lot of time in my classroom getting it ready, and I THINK I am finally ready for tomorrow! Below are some snapshots of my classroom right before "Meet the Teacher Night" this past Thursday.
Here is a shot of my favorite place in the room, our classroom library! I have books leveled by DRA level. I use it to help guide students pick "good fit books". I test them and make them choose at least 2 books in their independent level, 1 at their instructional level, and 2 can be whatever they want.
Here are all the baskets where students placed their school supplies throughout "Meet the Teacher Night".
Here is a shot of my room from the back door, you can see my guided reading table way in the back, in front of my teacher desk.
Here is my little wishlist I put out at "Meet the Teacher Night", I put post it's out so parents can pick them up if they are willing to purchase it for our classroom. I put things like hand sani, clorex wipes, sharpies, zip lock baggies, and air fresheners.
Here is a shot of my "learning carpet", this is where I do my read alouds, whole group instruction, etc. The frames behind my rocking chair is where I list our TEKS we are doing that week.
Here is a shot of my whiteboard/smartboard area. I have my group area in the front of it.
This is a picture of the one side of my room, my student computers, and smart board computer are on this side. I use the big bulletin board to display student work. The bookshelf by my smartboard computer houses all my math manipulatives. The jobs are on the cabinet, students clips are attached to the different job titles.
I've tried to double up the space in my room (since it's small to begin with) by placing my word wall on the back of one of my metal bookshelves. I also have a "boggle" game on the back, students play this during word work for Daily 5, as well as when they have free time after independent work.
This is a quick shot of my little "command center" by my phone. I a little pen and some paper to take notes if I need to when on the phone, as well as hand sani to grab on the way out the door for lunch. The clear jar is what houses our marbles, once it is filled, we earn a prize as a class. Students earn marbles by working hard and following the rules as a class.
Here is view of the one side of my room, my writing/word work bulletin board and my math bulletin board are on this wall. The bookshelf on it's side is housing all my things for math centers and daily 5 centers. Students know to go there to get supplies to work during their center times.
Here is a picture of my reading area, you can see my books all sorted, and their book boxes. These boxes is where their place their "good fit books" and read throughout the week. They get the opportunity to choose new books once a week from our classroom library.
Here is a corner view of my room. I have a couch this year, last year I had a reading hut, which was AWESOME, especially since I was "Holden's Happenin' Hut", but the fire marshal made me take it down :(. So I had to do something to make my reading area fun!
This year, I am trying to have a tray for every subject for my students to turn their work into. Last year I had one turn in tray. I had to either keep up with collecting papers and making stacks on my desk throughout the day, or sort through them all at the end of the day. Hopefully this will help! I've also added some of my favorite quotes on this back wall!
This picture shows my little calendar area, and our daily schedule, as well as our rotations for Daily 5 and our math centers. I do a big hooray on the smart board for calendar time, so this is just for a quick reference for my kiddos.
This year, I am trying something new with my kiddo's journals. Last year they had THE hardest time staying in order or finding where they left off in their journals. So referring back to any old information was impossible because they were flopping all over the place. I'm putting bookmarks in their journals. I just cut ribbon to size and then duck taped it into the back cover. I'm hoping this will help, fingers crossed!
This year, I am going to try to implement more technology in my classroom, I think I mentioned in my last post that I am going to be doing a classroom twitter page. This way students can easily keep up with what their student is up to throughout the day. I am going to make it a goal to post at least twice a week, hopefully once a day (going to try my best!, but definitely once or twice a week!).
There is also this really cool website, classdojo. This is a classroom management site, it is also an app. Some teachers I know say they keep it up on their smartboard computer all day, and then use their app to add or take away points. When you award points, it makes a ding sound, and when you take away points it makes bum bum bum sound. Students can tell that you took points from someone by the sound, but they don't know who so they all straighten up and behave, is what I'm told. I'm going to try it out this year, I'm hoping it will be effective! Other teachers in my building have used it with a lot of success so I'm really excited about it! It also sends emails to parents once a week letting them know why points were awarded or taken away from their child, pretty cool!!
Well, that's it for now! I'll try to post tomorrow about our first day in second grade tomorrow!! Thanks for checkin' in!
