Friday, August 22, 2014

My Classroom Decor & Organization

I feel like a first year teacher all over again, setting up my new classroom, changing my theme, and actually being able to buy cute things for organization and what-not! I love it, but I'm also really tired of cutting lamination, and straight lines. It's paying off though, and I'm almost done! I worked all week in my classroom and we did some professional development and planning on the side. It's so exciting to be getting this all up, so I figured I better share my excitement with you! 

This is the bulletin behind my desk, it's got my birthday calendar and my class jobs. You can buy my classroom job posters HERE. I also will display those wonderful little drawings and letters that students give to me on this board. 

I'm not Mrs. Perry yet, but I will be in just a little over a week! (so crazy!)
Here are the boards in the back of my room. I've got my word wall, my Wonders focus wall, my AVID weekly planner, and my computer that's supposed to be mine but will be used for students to write and do Wonders online on. Up top you can also see my classroom rules and expectations which you can buy on teacherspayteachers.com HERE. 




This is the front of my room with my brand new SMART board, my class schedule, and my CHAMPS posters which you can buy on teacherspayteachers.com HERE. 



Here's a view of my book nook, and the back of my book shelf will serve as a bulletin board for my Daily 5 posters once they're made! 



Here's my super cute calendar wall behind my desk. 


And the crates I bought to hold students books and binders so that they have a place to store them since I won't be using desks. They've got their pencil bucket, and all of their new Wonders curriculum laid out already :)


Here's a picture of my book nook and the part of my classroom library that is already leveled. The magazine files on top of the book shelf will be student's book boxes, where they can keep 3-4 books or magazines that they are currently reading.


Here is what it looks like behind my desk. I've got my own cubbies for curriculum, more magazine files to hold student work that I will hold on to until conferences, and my handy to-do list that you can download on teachers pay teacher for FREE here!


Here's all my fancy new curriculum, and the dollar tree bins that I finally found a use for! They hold my leveled readers perfectly, which was a huge source of excitement in my life this week. Ya feel me? Probably not... I get it, I'm weird.


Here's my daily schedule, you'll notice I only have science and no social studies... and that is because the lovely Mrs. Decker and I will be teaming up, and I will teach both of our classes science, and she will teach them both social studies! It's going to work so great, and we're both thrilled about it which is awesome.


And yes, there's a week until the wedding and I'm still only talking about my classroom. That's just the way it's going to be. The wedding is going to happen, and it won't be as pretty as my classroom is, but it's going to be pretty awesome anyway.

By the way, teacher friends: Don't get married in August.



Saturday, August 2, 2014

Summer?

This is literally the longest summer of our lives. It started May 15th, which is the earliest i've ever finished school for the year, and technically (in my mind) doesn't end until September 2nd when school starts! However, there has been plenty happening in the mean time that sometimes feels like work, and sometimes is actually work, but it's been great. Let me catch ya up on my teaching endeavors:

I have always had a passion for creating cute things for my classroom, as well as sharing those things with others, so I figured that even though I'm not super talented at it yet, I might as well start a Teachers Pay Teachers store! You're in luck though... since I'm not too fancy, everything I've put on there so far is FREE! You can find a widget leading you to my store here on my blog now on the left hand side bar. But, you can also visit is by clicking on THIS. It may not sound like me when you get to the store because I figured I might as well jump the gun, and with less than a month until the wedding I just made it with my NEW last name since that's who I'll be this school year!

Another endeavor I've been working on is an attempt to get some technology into my classroom before the school year even starts! I have big plans for this school year; to use The Daily 5, to use the online portion of our new language arts curriculum, Wonders, that I actually already used last school year in Alaska, and to have students guide their own learning through research in Science and Social Studies. I am also excited to supplement our math curriculum with some online games and apps this year, to help students work their way into the common core to prepare them for a new curriculum in the school year following this one. In order to do all of this I need some technology! My classroom doesn't have any computers, and our access to the computer lab is very limited, so I've gone out on my own and started a Donors Choose project to provide my classroom with 3 iPad minis for this school year. 3 isn't many, when students will be very ambitious and excited to be using them, but with only 12 students this year I think it will work out well. If it looks like it's going to be a stretch in the future (when I inevitably have more students) I may do another project to beef up the tech. However, right this moment I just found out we're SO close to being fully funded!!! (THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS DONATED, ESPECIALLY THE LADIES OF DELTA GAMMA ESA OF FLORENCE, YOU'RE INCREDIBLE!) If you're interested in donating, you can find my donors choose page HERE as well as by clicking my photo at the top of my blog.

And lastly, tomorrow I will be flying to San Diego for the AVID summer institute! I'm so excited to learn about a program our school started using last year, which works to bridge the achievement gap and prepare ALL students for a future including college or job training. I can't wait to use it in my classroom!

I'm so excited for this school year and to get back to work. I'm feeling revived, and motivated!

For those of you that would rather hear about the wedding... sorry for my lack of enthusiasm! It's going great, crafts are happening, things are rolling, I'm not too worried and it'll all turn out fine!

That is all, for now!