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Friday, January 27, 2012

Wanna Peek into My World?

I thought I would give you a peek into my world.,,,,,where I live from roughly 8-3:15, give or take a few minutes.  I don't usually put in a lot of extra time at work.  My husband yells at me for it. It's okay though, I try to be productive at school.  I'd rather grade/plan/work through my lunch and come home at the end of my day.   Here's a little tour of my room (my room was a middle school science room years ago--love the cabinet space.)

This is a view of my room from the back (my kids have left for specials---at least most desks are cleared off and chairs are pushed in---it drives me insane for a chair not to be pushed in lol). You can see the pocket chart, which holds their spelling words and vocabulary words from our series, our classroom behavior chart, reading beanie baby strategies, and my reading table.)

My guided reading table.  Ignore the mess---we are finishing up our AimsWeb testing.  The little basket on the table holds my guided reading books, pencils, post-its, phonics phones, magnifying glass, and index cards.  It is placed in the front of the room, but I'm able to watch my other students that are at centers while my reading group is with me (and not being as distracted).  Notice the lei on the dry erase board?  That's my "don't bother us" sign.  I used it a lot at the beginning of the year, but now my students are much better at not bothering if I'm at the table with someone or a group.



These two pictures are of my wall (yes I said wall) of cabinets. The top shelves hold 2nd grade math and reading materials on the top shelf (apparently I'm to store them because my room is big lol).  On the actual shelves are leveled books for baggy books (discarded Reading Recovery books mainly).  They are all placed inside gallon bags and marked with the level.  There are also 1st grade materials, Wilson's Fundations materials, leveled Scholastic Readers, then leftover Treasures resources (our basal) stuff that I don't use.  The white crate holds our data binders.  (ignore the white roll of paper towels....we were cleaning our desks off after we did shaving cream spelling today).  What's in the cabinets below?

Our inside recess toys.  Shelves are marked so students can match game to shelf.  They did pretty good about putting things back neatly for the most part (we've had inside recess FOREVER).
The other bottom cabinet doors hold tissues, sanitizer, plates, napkins, ziploc bags, and cups.  Also labeled those cubbies (I even have the cabinet doors labeled inside recess, etc.)

At the end of these cabinets, is another BIG cabinet--yes I said another!  Here's what's in it:

Books are in baskets by category.  (The entrance is to the left of this picture).  As we continue around this side of the room, and we pass the entrance, there is ANOTHER big cabinet.  It looks like this:


It holds math manipulatives (shelved by measurement, shapes, place value/counting).  You will also find letters and phonics flash cards here. Shut the cabinet doors, and you see my spelling all-stars board--nothing fancy, but the kids like it.  If they earn 3 + (which is 3 A's) they earn a No homework pass.  I add a star to their name chart and circle it after I get a set of 3.  (Students also receive what our building calls a PAT--positive action ticket--and they see the principal for their GOOD grades, and their ticket goes into a box for a weekly Friday drawing.)
I used to worry about having a board posted like this for students to see everyone's results, but this has actually HELPED my class.  I started it somewhere around Thanksgiving-Christmas.  I'm pleased with the results I'm seeing.  They get so excited to get that little star.  As you move towards the left of the door, there's a bigger cabinet.  It's a MESS---see, I'll show you. (Warning---DUCK!!)


This messy cabinet is my own personal stock of crayons, pencil boxes, pencils, glue sticks, stickers, name tags---you name it it's in there---yep hairspray, shaving cream...even my son's coat!  I'm one of those people who believe if it's out of sight, it's out of mind.  So I tend to "stick" things out of the way to avoid clutter.  The other half of this closet is where my coat and big books go.  There are two little cool pull out drawers in this closet where I have pocket charts and can "file" papers. 

On the front of this door is our school's mission statement, and our classroom mission statement.  It's kept close to our calendar board so we can review them daily. 
Right around the corner is my calendar math board.  I've posted it before, but here's a quick picture.  I keep my month, week, and money posters above it. 

Classroom Bingo hangs by the calendar board too.Here's a quick shot of it:
Notice they are in sheet protectors--I try to save on lamination. Plus I hate cutting things out.  Also I just recently added a new way to get points.  See the blue marker?.  Cleaning up at the end of the day, AND remaining quiet while doing so earns 2 numbers being drawn.  For some reason, picking up pencils from the floor requires their voices to get louder.  Who knew?

On this same black board are where center numbers are posted, and where I have our homework/lunch choice set up.  When students walk in the door, they turn in their folder in the black crate, push the Easy button if they choose, mark their lunch choice (we use craft sticks with their names and they put it in their choice of the day.) They have 5 choices: yogurt, peanut butter, salad, regular, or pack.  They sometimes check to see their center number.  You can find out more information about that here.




The red shelf (needs a new paint job) used to be mailboxes for kids.  I've taken it over as I like it to store other things (make up work, After school tutoring pages, Scoot boards, task cards, etc).  To the end of this wall is my teacher computer.  Our attendance is taken online.  I fill out our lunch choice paper and send it with my cafeteria/office helper.
The zebra tote holds AimsWeb data and passwords---yes I know not a great place for them, but I know where to find them! :)  The blue tower was a discarded book box.  I put our lakeshore interactive games and other CD roms in them.  Works wonders.  That's my filing cabinet on the other side--it holds reading, phonics, holiday/seasonal ideas.  Here's how I have my files labeled in this one:
I don't really have a "teacher" desk---mind you this was a science room, but I do have an area where I keep the basals I'm using and my plans/copies for the day/week.


The crate (above picture) holds the basals (Reading/science/Wilson's) as well as a few other things inside.  The basket in the middle holds grader, pencils, pens, stickers, etc (as I have no drawers to hide such things).  You can see from the picture below the black organizer.  There is a shelf for every day of the week.  Mon-Fri.  The bottom bin is for emergency sub plans.  Ohh yeah, what's that brown thing hanging in front of my desk in the picture below?????

My reading hut----I LOVE this.  Hubby made it for me this summer. 
You can see my book shelves on both sides. Below is the corner reading nook.
Ohh, and there's another filing cabinet around the corner (next to my "teacher desk".  It holds basal stuff, math materials, science and social studies stuff.  Here's how I labeled my Treasures stories.  They are color coded and a folder for each one.  Inside the folder are spelling words, word work, vocab, practice sheets, etc. 

On the other half of my room are more cabinets.  They hold science materials, craft materials, centers, etc. Here's a few shots.
 Centers and Extra School Supplies the students have brought in.  The school supplies are in baggies with their names.  I think we were to do "community supplies," but I have the room so I stored them away for later use.
 Science Materials (there's some above the cabinets as well---looks CLUTTERED) and below these cabinets are other centers/workstations
Do you remember the pic of the box by my computer desk?  Well, I happened to have two.  We would find pencils, crayons, etc, on the floor and no one claimed them....so now we have a class set.  (The crayon boxes were left overs from students who moved out and never returned---this happens a lot in our building---move ins, move outs---it's really sad.)  Here's what we use now when we need supplies and find supplies:

A box for scissors, crayons, markers and pencils----all right here on the counter.

Two more pictures and I will quit boring you----the centers/workstations I create--I store them in my cabinets, but---I put the sorting cards (that are already laminated) in a quart size bag.  I store the direction sheets, recording sheets, game boards etc, in a sleeve protector.  I then put them all in a gallon baggie together. 

It all slides nicely together and it's easier to pull when I'm ready for it.  Then next year, I already have everything together when I work on this skill again. 

Finally, I have a place I do like to grade papers, or organize my day (though when kids are gone if I'm in my "corner" no one can see me and it's REALLY nice lol). but here's my "other desk"

My kids have been trained well.  They put their papers (sorted) in piles :)  You can also see my basket of stuff that holds projector remote, index cards, pens, pencils---all the needed supplies so they are right there.

As far as student work, I have a great big place outside the room to display their wonderful creations. 

I hope you've enjoyed a peek into my world.  I know I also like looking at other teacher's rooms! Thanks for listening to the ramble

8 comments:

  1. Wow! You are so organized! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Oh my goodness! I can't get over the amount of storage you have! I am having some serious cabinet envy!!

    I am your newest follower!
    -Megan

    First Grade Magic

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  3. You have been tagged! Come on over and check it out!
    -Megan

    First Grade Magic

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  4. DeAnne, you are SO organized!! Your room looks so lovely! I am off to admire it again!
    Kristen

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  5. So much space and so organized. This is fantastic!

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  6. Thanks for sharing, I love peeking into classrooms :)
    ☼Libby
    Dual Kinder Teacher

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First Grade and Fabulous

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