Classroom 2016-2017

I've finally gotten some time to dedicate to blogging today. The Chiefs are killing me, so I thought I would focus my energy elsewhere. I bring you my classroom this year! Over the summer, our building went through some major upgrades - we got air conditioning!!!! I can't believe it. You never realize how much you take it for granted until you don't have it. Because of the amount of work that had to be done, we pretty much had to pack up our classrooms and say adios until around the week before school started. I got the itch to paint my classroom to give it a fresh new look. This is one of my favorite classrooms I've had so far. It's so colorful and fun. I can't wait to hear what you guys think!

Here is what you see from the hallway. I love this little bulletin board idea. I saw a variety of these bulletin boards on Pinterest and created my own to fit my theme.

  

Here's the inside of the door. Again, another Pinterest idea.

This is what you see when you come in to my room. Someone said it looks like a party in here. It is a party -- a math party! Ok, that's probably lame. But, I don't like boring classrooms. I like my room to welcoming and inviting.

I love the fact that I have tables this year. They work so much better for my style of teaching. I also love the little trash cans on each table. I picked these up at the Dollar Tree, 2 for $1. In each supply caddy, there are scissors, markers, colored pencils, calculators, and glue. We use these for interactive notebooking.

Here are a few more views from the door.

Here is my Request to Retest, Yellow Slip, and Absent bulletin board. There is a blogpost about those here.

Here is my supplied cabinet. Nothing fancy.

Here is where my students keep their binders and some extra supplies for them. My Exit Slip folders are also located here. There is a blogpost here about those.

Then we move to the front of the room where my Smart Board is located. I moved it here this year to reduce the amount of glare from the windows. I am super happy with this decision.

Off to the side of my Smart Board is my little document camera area. With interactive notebooking, I use my document camera every single day. I keep my class notebooks here and my supplies that I need for my notebook.This year I snagged an AV cart and I love this! It is just big enough to hold everything AND it's on wheels so I can move it if I need to. Great decision! Back here is also my Data Wall. You can find more information about that here.

Then there is my whiteboard. I use this to write the lesson for the day (top box), the "I Can" statement (middle box), and Assignment (bottom box). Students come in and see this and know what to expect for the day. To create this, I used Washi Tape. I also made the class banners in PowerPoint using the font KG A Little Swag (download at dafont.com).

Last is my little desk area. Behind my desk is two bookshelves that have my curriculum binders for each class and extra little binders I have for odds and ends (PBS, CTA, Sub Folder, etc.). I also have my calendar bulletin board with all of my team pictures on it, and my PBS information bulletin board. The little table is kind of my catch all table. 

I gave my desk a makeover while I painted my room. I painted the top in white chalk paint and the used chevron contact paper I got from Wal-Mart to cover the metal. I LOVE how this turned out. My desk was old and ugly and gross. Now, it's the thing that dreams are made of. Ok, that was probably extreme. But I love it. Those little bulletin boards above my computer are adorable. I got the cork boards in a 4-pack from and four different colors of fat quarters from Wal-Mart and stapled the fabric onto the cork boards. These added a little something to that area that would otherwise be blank.

I made this little tissue paper garland using some instructions I found on Pinterest. On my desk is my Fold N File I got from Thirty-One over the summer. I'll blog about this soon.

Whew! I'm tired just from blogging about this room. I really do love how it turned out, though. My kids love it, my coworkers love it, I love it...

We're already about 4 weeks into the school year and so many great things have happened in this room thus far. I can't wait to share more with you! Happy teaching!

Syllabus 2016-2017

I've been working this past week on school stuff trying to get ready for the next school year to start. I'm excited, but I don't want summer to end! I think every teacher has that feeling once they see school supplies out in the aisles at Wal-Mart. I haven't been able to get into my room since our building is being destroyed improved with air conditioning (FINALLY!!), so I've been doing as much as I can at home. My laptop has definitely felt the love. One thing I always try to get done first is my syllabus. It always sets the tone for the school year and lets me hone in on my theme that I will decorate my room with. This year I've chosen chalk board and brights, which isn't too far off of what I've used for the past couple of years. Here is my syllabus! I created this in PowerPoint using a template for a brochure and then tailoring it to fit my needs. I pick a foldable style since my students put this in their notebooks. Let me know what you all think!

If you would like to download a copy to edit for yourself, you can find one here. The fonts I used will not appear, but you can download a lot of super cute ones for free from dafont.com.

Notebook Set-Ups 2015-2016

This year I set up my notebooks pretty similar to last year's with some minor changes. For the covers, students used cardstock and a pre-made class label. They had to put 5 numbers that represented them. After they were finished, I covered them with some clear plastic covers I found at Five Below. It was kind of like laminating/contact paper in one, but much easier to work with and thicker. I had bought it hoping to make a cabinet dry erase when I discovered they were actually clear. That was a happy mistake because they made excellent notebook covers. Here are what mine look like. I used all of the same numbers about me for each. I wasn't feeling too inspired that day I guess.

 

We all set up our notebooks just like mine. I do this for a couple of reasons:

1. If they miss a day, they can get caught up pretty easily from anyone that was there.

2. It makes it a lot easier to grade since there's is supposed to look like mine.

3. It teaches them organization.

4. They actually use them to help on their homework/open note tests since they're more organized.

On the inside front cover we put our notebook rules. We go over them and discuss how their notebook will work. Since this was their first year with me, it took them a little while to get used to how we take notes. I don't think the teacher before me required it. After a while, they quit asking "what page does this go on" and "do we have to write this down" because they knew the answers to those questions.

 

On the first page is our Table of Contents. We do this together every day so all of them look the same. We do this so they can reference to something quickly instead of flipping through all of their pages to find something.

On the next few pages is the vocabulary section, which I call "Words Worth Knowing" or WWK. I kind of got a little lazy with this part, unfortunately, and we didn't have nearly as many words as we probably should have. There's always next year...

After that is the syllabus.

Then we start our notes for that class.

On the last page we have the iPocket. This is where we put papers/foldables that we didn't get a chance to glue into our notebook yet or we're still working on.

And on the back cover is the common types of math mistakes. I go over this with them at the beginning of the year, hoping they would be more proactive and fix their own mistakes instead of hearing "I don't know what I did wrong" or simply "I don't get it." Alas, that was not the case.

So here is our math notebooks this year. I'll be posting foldables and activities soon from each class. If you would like any types of resources, use the contact me button on the right hand side and I'll be happy to send you what I have! Happy teaching!

2015-2016 Classroom Set Up

I've been patiently waiting to post these pics because I've been waiting on a shelf to get hung in my classroom. I've come to the conclusion that it never will so I'm going to go ahead and post what my room looks like. Eventually it will be hung (right?) but it won't make a huge difference anyways.

This is what my room looks like from the outside. It's almost too cute for high school but I don't care. Since we're a K-12 building I know at least the elementary kids appreciate seeing it when they walk by to go to art or music.

Here is what you see when you walk in. I kept the general color scheme from my class last year because 1) it was cute and 2)I had no more money to spend on my new classroom. Between getting married, moving across the state, and my husband's new classroom I was broke.

I love my desk arrangement. I think it works well in my small space and the kids are all well-behaved enough that it works. I bought tv trays to hold their supplies caddies for our interactive notebooks because I was really tired of them falling in the floor and not getting picked up when they were just sitting on students' desks. I think I've only had 2 fall since the beginning of the year, whereas I would have about 5 fall per day in my old classroom.

Here's the front board. Each class has a spot that lets them know what they're doing for the day and what information they should write in their planner. We give planner points at the end of each quarter to use towards any class a student chooses, so this encourages them to write in their planners daily.

Right in front of the front board is my podium with my document camera and all the goodies I need. I also keep my interactive notebooks underneath so it's easy access.

On the right side of the front wall is another small dry erase board and a bulletin board. I write my "I Can" statements and assignment on the small dry erase board and keep data information on the bulletin board. I also have some posters on that wall, including my rules posters. I made those in Microsoft Publisher.

 

 Here's a close-up of the data so far this year. I have a blog post about data that you can view here.

Here's the back table. It is a hot mess. Once my shelf gets hung above it, all of those storage containers are going on the shelf. I keep two crates on the back table - one for extra papers per week for the quarter and the other for station work. I'll create a blog post about station work soon. Underneath the table are two more crates that students can use to put their notebooks in so they do not lose them. Very few actually leave them in here, which is pretty awesome.

 

Next to the back table I have my storage cabinet and Exit Slips. This storage cabinet was full of stuff from all the past math teachers so I didn't really mess with it. Next summer I plan to paint it and will hopefully go through it and get rid of some junk.

Underneath the Exit Slips is a little desk with a bunch of file folders on it. This is where I keep the stuff I plan to pass out for that class period, whether it be notebook papers of worksheets.

 

Above all of that is my lovely place value poster set that I just love. It adds color and takes up a lot of wall space, which would drive most people crazy. But I love it.

 

 

On the left of the storage cabinet is one more bulletin board that I keep my Absent Work Filetastic, Request to Retest slips, and Yellow Slips. Underneath that is a bookshelf where students keep their binders.

 

 

 

The last area in my room is my desk area. Behind my desk are two big radiators. I use these to put my stuff on since they only produce heat during the winter months (that's right, we have NO AIR CONDITIONING IN MISSOURI...crazy!). I have all kinds of crap on them. My goal is to get that area organized one day. I also have my calendar on my bulletin board behind my desk and some more posters.

 

 

 

Here's my (somewhat) organized desk. This is the biggest desk I've ever had and I love it. It also had a bunch of crap left in it from the old math teachers, so I hope to get that cleaned out this summer sometime also.

 

 

Next to my desk is another book shelf where I keep my curriculum binders. Since my curriculum has changed from my last school to this one, I have a lot of reorganizing to do with these things.

 

 

 

On top of my bookshelf is where I keep collected papers to grade. Each class has a folder and I just stick their papers in them and grab one when I'm ready to grade them.

 

 

Last is my little computer desk. It's pretty basic.

 

 

 

For the most part this arrangement works and is functional. I wish my room was a little bit bigger but it's alright. The most kids I ever have at one time is nine so it never feels too crowded in here.

 

The calendar and letters I got from Mardel's Chalk It Up collection. The posters I found on Amazon a long time ago.