* Classroom Reveal*

As mentioned in my previous post, I have spent the past week working in my classroom getting it ready before we are actually required to come back to work. Wednesday is approaching mighty quickly!

Anyways, I have finally finished 95% of my classroom and I absolutely love it. My classroom is my place of solace and peace and I decorate it knowing that I will be in there 8-10 hours of the day. So prepare for a long post as you take a glimpse into my classroom....

 Here is a picture of the front of the room. (Well, it is kind of the side since my room is a hexagon, but oh well.) Here you will find the Promethean board, computer table/desk, student white boards, dry erase markers and erasers, as well as their fuzzy boxes, which will be in their desk on the first day of school. 

 

 

Here is the other side of the front of the room (behind my computer table/desk). My whiteboard has a pocket chart to host our IB unit information. There are also shaggy rugs and a pillow that I got from Big Lots for the kiddos to use. On the left of the pocket chart is my Compliment Party Bingo Board. A close up is below. How it works: when my students receive a legitimate compliment from another teacher or adult (legitimate meaning more than "they did good today"), the student of the week gets to pull a number card at random from a bag. They then get to cover that number on the board with a star. Once the class gets a diagonal, horizontal, or vertical row, they get to have a compliment party on the following Friday. My kids LOVE this board.

 

 

 In the corner next to the IB pocket chart is more IB information that must be posted in our classroom for us to refer to.

 

I finally made labels for my "Bathroom Buddies". I absolutely cannot stand when students ask me to go to the bathroom so I use Bathroom Buddies to solve this. All they do is take the hand sanitizer for their gender and place it on their desk. They go to the restroom, wash their hands there, then come back and sanitize their hands with the bathroom buddy for extra cleanliness. They then put it back next to the sink. This has helped in so many ways!! First, they don't ask me to go. Second, only one can go at a time. Third, I know where they are because I can scan the room and see if they are in the bathroom by looking to see if the buddy is on their desk. I beg encourage them not to use the bathroom buddies while I am giving instruction but if they must go, I always tell them that they are responsible for asking a peer what was missed.

 

 

Here is my math and science cabinet. Inside is chaos that I am too embarrassed to show. On the outside, however, are two spaces for behavior management. The left section is where our Essential Agreements (IB term for "rules") will be posted once we make them on the first day of school. On the right is where I will post the WBT callbacks that I frequently use in my classroom.  

 

Moving along..... This really is a long post.... Shout out to those who are still reading! This is my reading stations area. In the pocket chart, the students will find their task assignment in each station and in the right file folder hanger will be the materials they need for each task.

 

Also, I love love love love art! For the school wide art exhibition, each child had a piece of art that was displayed somewhere in the school for about a month. At the end of the year, several of my kiddos gave their art pieces to me and I put them above the reading stations area. I love them and think they added a lot of flair to my room.

 

Neatly labeled classroom supplies for the kiddos to use.
 

 

This bookshelf will hold my students Reading and ELA binders (hence the two empty shelves). On the top of the shelves is where they turn in their work and on the bottom is the resource shelf that holds thesauruses, dictionaries, atlases, and maps.

This shelf is in our library area and it holds our book bins (ice trays from Wal-mart)
 

 

My lovely little library. On the left are picture books and chapter books organized by series and author. On the right are books organized by genre.

 

 

This is my love wall. Seriously, every teacher should have one. It is behind my kidney table and is where I post all of my favorite pictures, notes, and cards from students, parents, and coworkers. I come here when its just one of those days and I need inspiration again. (FYI the stars are covering up cards that show my kiddos faces)

 

 

These are two more shelves, also behind my kidney table, that hold all of my resources, paperwork, small group materials, and junk. :) I am fortunate to have so many bookshelves in my classroom.

View from my kidney table. Yes, the student desks are uneven. Yes, this drives me crazy. Yes, this will be fixed before school.

 

Classroom Job Area next to the front door.

View from front door. I LOVE THE DECOR behind my classroom library shelves. It is the first thing people notice when they come in my room. I just have to put a quote on the green paper... when the die-cut machine is working.

 

Full view of the back of the room. All that I need to do is add birds to the tree but I can't do that until the student names are on them, which I cant do until I get my classroom list.
 

 

This is where my students go to get their "No Homework Form"(Post about this HERE) and their "Student Reflection Forms" for when a note must go home to tell their parents about their horrible, no good, very bad choices. These forms aren't in the folder yet. Still trying to tweak it from last year.

Well I hope you enjoyed this very long post and the glimpse into my room. Leave a comment telling me what you think. Talk to you soon.

Take A Peek Into My Classroom

During the summer, I am obsessed with looking into other people's classrooms through blogs, Pinterest, or visits to learn about new methods of organizing, decorating, and surviving. I am in my classroom more than I am at my house, so I always want to make sure that it is cozy, exciting, and conducive ($4 teacher word) to my student's learning and my teaching.

At the beginning of each year, I cut a poster board into several odd shaped puzzle pieces (after I write "Our Amazing Class")and give them to the students. I have them decorate the piece however they like, but I ask that it is colorful and their name is clearly written on it. This is their first piece of homework. The next day, they work together to try to put the pieces together and figure out the message. They always have fun with this and I display it on my "Love Wall" throughout the year. Around the poster are some of my favorite drawings, cards, and notes that I have received from my student's from previous years.

 My school is an IB (International Baccalaureate) school and these are the IB Learner Profiles and Attitudes that each teacher must display in their classrooms.

Above is a picture of my teacher areas in my classroom. One specific area is in the back and it is around my small group table (desk). Behind the table holds my teacher consumable books, leveled readers, file cabinet, refrigerator, genres from Beth Newingham, and other small supplies. In the front of the room is one more area that I call "home" because I spend most of my day "playing" on the computer, Promethean Board, or the Ladibug projector. Here is also where my printer and teacher textbooks hide out of sight :)

This is a hodgepodge of items around my classroom:

1. Upper right- This is a blackboard that I use to post classroom news such as birthdays, AR achievements, and our weekly class newsletter. (Heart is covering my students names)

2. Upper left- This is the students' materials station. They frequently visit this station to stock up, replace, or grab extra materials such as colored pencils, paper, post-its, erasers etc. The pencil sharper also finds its home on top of the shelf.

3. Lower left- I post our weekly classroom jobs on the wall next to our front door (My class has a front and back door). I have learned throughout the years that it is easier to have a job for every child that way you don't have to remember or keep up with who had a job and who didn't.

4. Lower right- This is a sign that I found on littlemindsatwork.blogspot.com that is displayed on our window entering our front door. I have extensively implemented Chris Biffle's Whole Brain Teaching techniques this year and I can honestly say that every teacher should at least research more about them, but that's a whole other post for another day. Anyways, I am one of the very few teachers at my school that use these techniques to fidelity and my principal did not seem very familiar with the strategies also. Therefore, I thought it would be important to have a sign displayed as a kind of "warning" so that people understood that my classroom is not an ordinary classroom.

Here are our seven computers that are used every day checking out student library books from the classroom library and taking AR quizzes.

 Here is our Behavior Closet. In my classroom, behavior is monitored through a "card" system. Students flip their cards to the next color to signify that they are not following directions. If they end the day on green or yellow, they receive a sticker on their behavior chart (bottom right). If they end the day on orange or blue, they receive an X. Four or more X's in a month results in NO FUN FRIDAY! Just imagine the crying fest that occurs when students realize they have 4 X's. Now multiply by three.  

The last picture is my beloved library. I have been buying, trading, collecting, and hoarding books since I was a sophomore in college. I desperately need to buy new bins, but I also need to find another bookshelf to fit the new bins (hence, the problem). Anyways, my books are separated on the shelve. One shelf is for genres, picture books, and leveled readers. The other shelf is for series, favorite authors, and reference materials. My class parents have been working hard on helping me place labels on the back of my books with AR information so some book bins look empty, but that is because a kind parent was labeling books when I took this photo.

Due to my slight obsession over my books  OCD, my students are not allowed to keep their "reading for pleasure" books inside their desks that come from the school or classroom library. Instead they keep them in their assigned book bins on our book bin bookshelf. This has saved me much heartache and the books are not being torn apart. P.S. A student has a job of making sure the book bins are faced the same way, in order, and books are neatly organized in the bins.... obviously the child was slacking on the job this day hehe!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and explanations of my classroom. More information to come about my classroom management systems and my Whole Brain Teaching journey!