My Classroom! Before and After

It's finally done!

About three weeks ago, I walked into my classroom for the first time. I found this.

As said, the room was huge! It was also covered in dust and was completely undecorated. Last week, we were given four full days to come in and set up our rooms. These days were optional and I am so glad that I went. It gave me a chance to really get to know my amazing team lead, talk to some of my new colleagues, and get my room to about 80% ready before all of the serious meetings got started. Today, I put the final touches on the place and I now feel ready to receive the kids!

The Tables are ready for open house! I use table supplies as opposed to individual supplies. My school receives Title I funding so I never want a student to be unable to participate because they can't afford supplies. 

It's hard to see in the picture, but these plates are the behavior system we use at school. This is probably the craftiest thing I've ever done. The students start on "great" and move up and down throughout the day. The order goes "phenomenal," "super," "great," "warning 1," "warning 2," etc. At first, I thought it was nuts that there were so many steps. However, I realized that the levels below "great" give the students time to really stop and think about what they're doing and how to change their behavior. Best yet, the students have the chance to move up even at their worst point and everyone gets a clean slate each day.

Class jobs and anchor charts for math and reading. My class jobs are all mildly inspired by my time at Camp Nock-A-Mixon... That's right, we have a grounds person!

Building a classroom library is incredibly difficult. My awesome teacher friend, Alicia, started building her classroom library sometime around her freshmen year of college. I thought she was nuts. In retrospect, she was brilliant. Thankfully, most of those books were in the room when I got there. Otherwise I would have nothing!! Those inflatable ice cream cones are in lieu of pillows. Much easier to clean and most importantly, LICE PROOF! I should probably toss the deflated one though... I've inflated it three times since last week.

My desk and table for small group instruction

My school is not a Responsive Classroom school, however, Hopes and Dreams are goals the students come up with that guide their entire year. After the first week of school, there will be a whole post dedicated to Hopes and Dreams. The books on the table are some of my favorites.

My word wall for vocabulary. Those cupcakes have clothespins behind them to display student work without having to tear things down and re-construct every time!

Enjoy!

Becky