Tuesday, September 15, 2009

A tour of my "office"

Thanks to Twitter & "meeting" all types of educators on the web, I've seen ideas and classrooms all over the country. Many of these teachers shared pictures of their rooms as they were decorating and preparing the last few weeks of summer. I enjoyed seeing all the different classrooms and even got some new, great ideas for this school year! {Thanks, Kelly for the RR pass idea ... it's working well!}

Sooooo ... I thought I'd take some pictures of my home away from home & share them with all of you, people in my Twitter PLN or the rest of my readers. I spend about 50+ hours a week in this room, so I do the best to make it an enjoyable place to be. It's exactly as I like it to be, minus the VERY messy "teacher corner" and some of the other messes around the room that are unavoidable! I hope you like seeing how things turned out this year!

This is the front of my room. Fancy new SMARTboard that I got last year and what little space we have on the floor for class meetings and story time.

My corner that is ridiculously messy! I just can't manage to keep it clean. Even if I start the day with a tidy desktop, it is buried by noon. How does this happen?

Counter with turn-in folders. Month-long calendar and birthday cupcakes. I bought these bulletin board sets my first year of teaching (when I got hired 3 days before school started) and I still love them. This cabinet is full of supplies so the kids don't have to come ask me for them. In the drawers: notebook & scratch paper, highlighters, grading pens. In the cabinets: rulers, crayons, markers, scissors, pencils, etc.

Here's my helper chart. I have 15 jobs and rotate the kids (cars) under the jobs along the road each week. They'll have 15 weeks of jobs & then have 11 weeks off. It works well for me. Love this chart because I have a VW Bug. :) Cutting board in front is from my class my 1st year. They all signed their names on it. They are 7th graders now.

Our built-in cabinets & counters. The paper dividers on the bottom left are their mailboxes.

Bulletin boards above my Reading Groups table. The one of the left has "Summer Headlines" on it now, but it changes for the holidays & seasons. I have the kids make themed art to decorate the board. The one on the right with the 6-Traits of Writing stays up all year.

My classroom library. I have so many books, the rest of them fill another cabinet and an entire file cabinet. I pull out themed books throughout the year to put around the room.

These are our new cubbies that we got last year. They are INSIDE our classrooms, which I was very leery of at first. The cubbies used to be in the hall, so I was worried about the mess. I'm now more of a stickler about leaving a mess AND I'm loving the extra storage & display room they provide.

Overall view of my classroom. The decorations from the ceiling also change with seasons and holidays. Laterns --> GIANT spider web & spiders --> snowflakes --> conversation hearts --> shamrocks --> wind chimes --> flowers. I love to change my decorations!

The view outside my classroom. This wall used to be on the outside of the building. After our building remodel and addition, it now is a hallway for 3rd & 4th grade classrooms. To the right of that bulletin board is a door that goes to the playground. We love the easy door for recess.

More of my messy corner & my computer desk. See my cute curtains? They are new this year & a FABULOUS colleague surprised me with them the week before school started. They are so girly & fun and SO me :) I got lucky with 2 corner windows that look out onto the playground.

Another close-up view of the disaster area. See that Diet Coke on the floor? One of my lovely parents brought it up to surprise me as a Happy Monday present. I was so excited, I hugged her in the middle of my lesson! You can also see the rolling cabinet I saved from the condo dumpster & recovered this summer.

Classroom door, ABC spelling cards, and an area to show my Jayhawk pride. Rock Chalk!

A new initiative this year: Word of the Week. So far it's going really well. They announce the word on the video broadcast every morning, the Spanish teacher teaches them how to use it in a sentence, there is a quiz over the definition. I think it's a great idea!

Board at the front of the room with all sorts of important information. Daily Schedule, Classroom Norms, Specials' Schedule, NO HOMEWORK incentive poster, etc. My Elmo is also on this front table. I don't love it here since when I'm writing, my back is to my class, but I can't find a better spot for it.

Okay ... are you bored yet? That's all I have. I hope all my teacher friends are off to a great start. We have progress reports due this Friday. How in the world are we already half-way through the first quarter? I feel like I just met my class! :)

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9 comments:

The Lunds said...

who made the curtains? They are really cute.

Bets said...

Mary Kay did. She was our computer teacher & she's super crafty!
When are you & Ellen coming up to visit during a lunch break? ;)

34th Stater said...

Your post is exceptional!

Anonymous said...

I feel like these pictures are Where's Waldo only instead it is Where is the Pink in the photo!
-Megan

Laura said...

I love it Betsy!! Makes me miss teaching so much!! My mom made me a set of holiday curtains for each holiday/season!! I loved them, and so did all the kids!!!

Carrie said...

I think that might be the fanciest classroom I have ever seen-such a nice school!

Marie Hooker said...

You have a VERY nice classroom! I'm jealous of your windows and doors. (My school is an OPEN CLASSROOM school, so we have no doors.) And I have no windows.

Whitney said...

I'm a kindergarten teacher and I love looking at other classrooms and getting inspired. My school recently put Smartboards in all of the classrooms too and I love it! The curtains are super cute.

Blake Mitchell said...

Nice and organized! You have a lot of stuff there, but one can tell that everything is in order. That's very good! In an office or classroom, it always pays to have little clutter so that no one would be distracted.