New Ideas... Maybe

As I've walked around my classroom as I have been making decisions about how it would be most functional for me this year, I realized that some of the things that do not seem very creative to me might be more exciting to someone else.

This year, I waited until the first full week of school (the second week) to lead a discussion about classroom expectations. I wanted the kids to have experienced the routines and schedule so they could make their expectations more specific to what will actually happen in our room. I started the discussion by having students come up with rules they think we should have in the classroom. Once they got started this list became really long really quickly. The rules were all listed individually and were very specific.
Then, I had students work in groups to try to put the rules in categories. (I had categories in mind, but wanted to see what they would come up with.) With prompting, discussion, reflection from past years and some guidance, students came up with the categories Safety, Respect, and Responsibility. Then, I had each group use the original list along with new ideas to write about what each of those things looks like, sounds like, and feels like in the classroom. We reconvened as a class and made a giant list in three categories (looks/sounds/feels) for each expectation. After charting them together, I made them into smaller posters to display in the classroom all year. Here are the pictures.

I hung these on our heater since wall space is becoming limited and they are not something that students need to be able to see at all times. They just need to know where they are for a reminder now and then. Just a note, our heater (as far as I know) does not seem to get hot, so it shouldn't be a safety concern. 

I know the idea of generating examples about what rules/expectations look, sound, and feel like came from my amazing mentor teacher in college! I don't remember whether she did it for class norms though ( I think she did). 

This is my daily attendance/lunch count system. Students come in the door (just to the left of this picture) pick up their card, check the lunch menu, and put their card in their lunch choice (cold, hot lunch 1, or hot lunch 2). Any name left in a pocket is a student who is absent and the lunch count is done for me. I usually have a student count how many students selected each lunch and report to me while I'm recording the attendance on the computer. (This idea is also one I've been using since learning it from my college mentor teacher.)

I bought a large, shallow Rubbermaid container for each student's desk. This is where they keep all their loose supplies. Most supplies in our classroom are community supplies, but this works for the daily stuff and the supplies that it doesn't make as much sense to share. It acts as a drawer in their desk and doesn't take up much space. Also, it limits the amount of junk they can collect. I plan on checking these every once in a while to make sure that students are only keeping the essential supplies in them. I stole this idea from my partner teacher this year although my containers are smaller than the ones she uses. I couldn't find hers but this size works fine!