It's Been a While

Oops... I guess I took a bit of a hiatus.. for a couple years. My goal is to get back into sharing my ideas and linking up with other teachers to find new ideas. So here it goes. I'll give you a little update about what's going on with my teaching life since there's actually a lot to update.

First, and most importantly, it's September 13th and we haven't started school yet. Our first day with students was supposed to be Sept. 9th, but instead we went on strike. We're working toward a better contract and it has been very slow going with the district. I won't get into the details here. I can't wait to start school. I have a classroom that's all set up ready to go that I'm not even allowed to enter. It's a strange feeling to say the least.

Another important part to the start of this year is that we're departmentalizing the 5th grade. I will be teaching three sections of reading and one section of math- the year ahead math class, along with a homeroom. This has taken a ton of thought and planning to figure out scheduling, logistics, etc. Because we have a class of students who have qualified for advanced math, we have to run a schedule that is more similar to a middle school schedule. Many elementary schools that departmentalize have students rotate through different subjects as whole classes. If we rotated this way, the advanced group would be self-contained all day. Our building worked hard to integrate these advanced classes years ago and we don't want to undo that work.

The basics of how our classes will rotate begins with each of three homeroom classes being split into three cohorts (as we call them) making 9 cohorts. Each cohort will travel together to all of their classes. In each homeroom, one of the cohorts is entirely composed of kids in the advanced math class. These three cohorts come together for math but rotate separately otherwise so that all other classes are integrated.

A rough example of how the cohorts rotate is below. There 9 groups are coded by the first letter of the teacher's last name, so we have K1, K2, K3, S1, S2, S3, W1, W2, and W3.

I'm really looking forward to departmentalizing because it will be less prep and planning each day. I'll teach each reading lesson three times, and therefore only have to prep two lessons, math and reading. This will allow me a lot more time to differentiate and adapt lessons for various needs. I think grading will also be less time consuming. I've always found that grading goes faster when I start to memorize the answer key or rubric. I'll have about 75 reading notebooks or assignments to grade, but all 75 will have the same expectations so they should go more quickly.

I'm hoping to post again soon with the design of my classroom, as I've made some changes to the space to accommodate classes rotating through the room and carrying their resource binders with them from class to class. That post is dependent on the strike ending so I can get back into my classroom. I'll also try to post an update on how departmentalizing is going for us.

Thanks for visiting!

Assessment Poster

Alright, I wrote in a previous post about my Post-It Parking Lot that I would post about this poster. A focus of my year is to help students become more metacognitive and better able to self-assess their work and progress. When I saw this kind poster on various other blogs (I'm not sure where it originated.), I knew I wanted to make one for my classroom. I had something similar that I created on the fly last year, but it was made quickly and was more specific. Once I got my Silhouette Cameo, I tested it out by making this poster.

I can't wait to teach my students to self-assess and be critical of their own work and progress. How do you incorporate self-assessment in your classroom?

Another Summer Project: Teacher Toolbox

A couple weeks in to every school year, my once neat and tidy desk starts to overflow with papers and office supplies. Last year, I saw many other teachers posting on their blogs about making a teacher toolbox and I couldn't wait until I had time to make my own. 

Here it is: 

I definitely took the longest route because I had particular scrapbook paper that I wanted to use and my printer was low on ink. The easy way to do it would be to print the whole label for each drawer with a colorful background so you just have to cut the labels out and stick them on the drawers. Instead, I cut out all the pieces of scrapbook paper for each drawer and then printed and cut out the cutesy framed label for each drawer and glued it to the scrapbook paper. Then, I taped the completed label mounted to scrapbook paper to the inside of each drawer. I would suggest not doing it the way I did.

I also didn't like the color of the original toolbox (dark blue) so I spray painted it white using the spray paint that works for plastic. I had better luck with the Rustoleum 2x Ultra Cover Paint+Primer from Home Depot than I did with the Valspar equivalent from Lowe's.

I'm posting a link to the Word document (here) that I created in case you also have specific scrapbook paper you'd like to use. You may also edit it to add backgrounds, change fonts, etc. Because the frame I used is actually a font, I'm not sure if there is a way to keep the fill of it white while changing the background of the other text box. If you find a way, please let me know! There are two layered text boxes, one with the frame which is a font called KG Flavor and Frames Four by Kimberly Geswein Fonts. The text is the font VanessaLovesYou by http://bythebutterfly.com. Both of these fonts are available on dafont.com.

Post-it Parking Lot

I love the idea of having a place for students to turn in a sticky note. It keeps each kid accountable and the sticky notes organized. Last year, I whipped up a parking lot using a sharpie and piece of chart paper. I wanted something more durable, permanent, and attractive for this year. So, here's one of my many summer projects almost complete, just needs to be trimmed and laminated. 

A post-it parking lot can be used in so many ways. Here are some of the ways that I plan to use my new post-it parking lot:

-do quick assessments where students either write an answer or their level of mastery (using the Assess Yourself poster that will come in a later post). This is a quick way to find out which students get it and who needs more help. A post it is also less intimidating to many kids which may improve performance for students who are more anxious about tests.

- have students brainstorm on a sticky note and post it on the parking lot so students can build on each other's ideas 

- post their writing topic or project idea when it's decision time and students need to commit to an idea and stick with it

- give each student the opportunity to ask a question, give a compliment, or make a suggestion

- use it for a place for students to post their ticket out the door

Do you have any other ideas about how to use a post-it parking lot in the classroom? (Post in the comments.) 

Anchor Charts Galore

This year, I posted my anchor charts in a way that allowed students to access the most recent charts along with others from the same unit. I tacked them up and used post-its at the bottom to label them like tabs. Then students could come up and flip to the anchor chart they wanted to reference. I was amazed at how much students used them.

The only problem was that eventually the thumb tacks just couldn't hold up any more charts. I switched to giant push pins that I got a Target which held up better, but still had their limits. With the giant push pins, I could usually keep a unit's worth of charts up. I'm looking for a way to archive digital anchor charts for students next year because often charts from past units are still useful. Do you have any ideas about a permanent digital archive that I could use that would be student accessible?

I took pictures of my anchor charts before recycling them at the end of the year. They aren't in any particular order, sorry! Obviously some charts are better than others. Keep in mind that they were made in response to where my students were at the time.

How do you archive your anchor charts? Do your students have access to them?

Root/Affix Word Wall

I've always wondered whether students' spelling actually improved from having a word wall in the classroom. I'm always short on wall space and after my students and I did not get very much use from the word wall last year, I decided not to make one this year.

I started thinking that if a word wall was going to be useful to students and actually improve their spelling, it needed to be grouped by spelling patterns, rather than alphabetically. That or it could be used as a "no excuse words" wall to hold students accountable to spelling some words correctly. I wasn't consistent enough with posting words regularly for it to be effective at holding students accountable. I also found that I wanted it to help students with vocabulary, though it provided no supports to help students remember the meaning of words.

Then, I saw (somewhere on Pinterest) that someone had made a Greek/Latin root wall. This idea has been floating in the back of my mind for months. We just started studying roots and affixes in class and the students are really into it! They are finding these roots and affixes all around them, in their books, in our science readings, in our read-aloud book, in their math texts, etc. Whenever they can define a word based on its roots they get excited and have to announce it. :)

I decided that the best way to keep roots fresh in their mind as we continue to add new roots to our repertoire, is to continue looking for the older roots in the world around us. On a whim, I made this root/affix wall after school today. The white cards have the root and the meaning. The colored cards are blank for students to add examples of words that use each root. My intention is for this to be an interactive bulletin board where students can add words they find to the cards under the root that the word uses. (Of course, students will probably have to stand on a chair to reach most of the cards because this is my only available, but least accessible, bulletin board) The example cards are thumbtacked so students can take them down to write on them.

Celebrating Birthdays

When it's a student's birthday, I put a Star Student chair cover on their chair and they may bring in treats to share with the class at the end of the day.

I can't figure out how to rotate it (sorry!)

I want to make sure all students get their own special time to celebrate their birthday with the class. For students whose birthdays are in the summer, we celebrate their half birthday during the school year. The kids really enjoy this! Some parents even get on board and celebrate half birthdays with their kids at home too. Today, it was one of my student's half birthday and his dad surprised him with this half birthday present at the end of the day.

 A half wrapped box with half of a bow and half of a card, 

containing half of a: Coke, hat, $10 bill, and Reese's. It also had a half dollar coin and a roll of pennies (1/2 of a dollar). The student opened it at the end of class. All the students loved it! Dismissal was a mess, but it was completely worth it for all those memories. 

Alternative Seating

After rearranging my bedroom over the long weekend, I had an extra set of tall bed risers. I have been thinking that one of my students could benefit from an alternative seating method since he's very active tends to lose focus while sitting. I decided to try putting his desk on the bed risers to give him the opportunity to have a standing desk.

In the past, I have considered getting exercise balls for students to use as chairs. However, moving out to the portables ended this dream of mine. There's nowhere to store a bunch of exercise balls or excess chairs.

I found these risers a while back at Target. They were on clearance from the dorm furnishings in August/September. These ones are the extra tall risers, I think they're eight inches tall. In all, I think they cost me $1.50. I will definitely buy more if I see them on sale again because more of my students would like to try a standing desk.

This kiddo didn't last very long while standing. I watched him as he slowly transitioned to kneeling on his chair, which is when I gave him my stool. (If I have end up giving more kids standing desks, I'll have to find more stools!) He asked at the end of the day if he could keep his desk that way though, so he must like it. He was also more aware and engaged in the classroom.

Long Term Planning

Coming out of college, I thought that I would have a year-long plan for my curriculum for all subjects in my first year. I knew it would take a lot of work, but I didn't realize how hard this really is. When you're not familiar with the curriculum or the district/school pacing guides, it's really hard to make a long-term plan. Even if you manage to make a plan, it is likely to change drastically when you find out new information. In my first year teaching last year, I never ended up with a long term plan for any subject other than science which is district directed. I had drafted some plans for other subjects, but ended up ditching them a month or two into the school year because they didn't match pacing guides or I didn't fully understand the curriculum. Because I never made a long-term plan for each subject and didn't write much down other than my short notes in my plan book, I didn't have much of an advantage going into my second year.

I am currently working on taking notes from each unit that I teach and trying to recognize and note what to add or change next year to fill any gaps. It just doesn't make sense to reinvent the wheel every year instead of having a foundation of a plan to build off of for each unit. Right now, those notes are jotted on random sheets of paper and I'm trying to find a good format to long-term plan for next year as I teach this year and to take those notes of things to change next year. I'm not sure what this will look like yet, but I would like to have one standard form for each subject or each month of the school year that I can have with me at all times. Then, I can jot notes whenever and wherever I think of them.

My biggest piece of advice for a beginning teacher would be to do exactly what I have begun to do, but start it earlier, on day one of school. Get in the habit of taking notes on everything you do and noting what you think you could change. Often we realize that we should have taught a lesson a little different, in a different order, or before/after another concept. Make a note of those things so you can change it next year instead of trying to remember what you did.

Quick Note

I found another benefit of teaching in a portable today; we still have heat when the boiler in the building breaks. Tell me, how are kids supposed to learn when there's no heat in the building and they're still cold, even while wearing their coats all day? Some things in education just need to be fixed and someone needs to find the funds to do so.

Still a negative of teaching in a portable, walking in the rain and jumping over puddles to anywhere we have to go. I'm figuring out the path between the puddles from my door to the building.

Update

Ok... it has been FOREVER since I have posted. I'm sorry for any of you who follow my blog. As most of you know, the start of school is crazy!! I have been trying to take pictures of things that I knew I would eventually blog about, but I'm sure I've missed a bunch of stuff.

Just before the start of school, my wonderful dad finished building my mailboxes. Aren't they beautiful?!? They look even better up close! Each slot has a number to the left and they have been amazing! They save so much time! They are near my desk so as I grade papers in the evening or when I'm given handouts from the office, I can throw them right into the student's box. 

On parent night, I did a few things that I had seen on other teachers' sites and it made the night run very smoothly. First, I had students fill out this Parent Night Kid Quiz which I found for free on Teachers Pay Teachers. The kids filled out the left side and folded the paper in half so their parents had to fill out the other side and couldn't see the answers. Then they could check their answers and write a note. The kids LOVED reading their parents' notes in the morning! 

As parents walked in the door, I had this desk set up. Parents could pick up a star if they could help to provide some of the extra supplies that we'll need this year. I forgot to take a picture before Curriculum Night so these are the stars that were left over. 

I like to offer parents handouts at curriculum night, but don't want to make a bunch of copies if parents don't end up taking them. Instead of making copies, I just provided one or a few copies. When there is only one copy, parents can sign up on the post-it and I'll send a copy home with the child the next day. Then, I only need to make copies for the parents who are truly interested. 

I've received a lot of compliments on my chart organization. I can't remember whether I saw this idea on another blog or adapted what one of my coworkers did last year (sorry!). This year, I am labeling my charts so students can go back to review them without them taking a ton of wall space. I have two spots for reading charts and two spots for writing charts. As I make new charts, I put them up right on top of the old ones and add a post-it with the topic of the chart. It makes it easy for students to flip back to the chart they're looking for and looks organized, avoiding that visual clutter that seems to take over in some classrooms. 

Since taking this picture, I have changed the post-its to start on the left side. I'm not sure why I started them in the middle at first. 

Tonight, I saw this idea on Krazy About Kiddos. Lately, my students have been urgent to talk to me while I am conferring with other students. I am going to revisit our conference norms mini-lesson soon, but I am also going to add this light to my conference table. When I reteach the mini lesson (about how to get help when I'm conferring) I will also make an anchor chart (and reprint it on smaller paper) to put right next to my conference table so I can just point to it if students try to interrupt me. 

For any new teachers or future teachers reading this, I wanted to share this graph with you. There is also an accompanying article here. I found it very accurate last year and think that it still is this year. Last year, I don't think I ever reached the rejuvenation stage and feel that even my reflection phase was shortened and replaced by a longer disillusionment phase. I'm hoping for better this year and so far I feel better than I did last year at this point in the year. 

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! 

Good finds at Target

I went to Target tonight to find that all their school supplies and teacher stuff was on the end caps on clearance.
I found a whole bunch of space themed die cuts, window clings, and a solar system poster for half price! They were each $1.25. There was a bunch of stuff for other themes too including safari, ocean, sky/planes, baking/cookies, bugs/garden, etc.
The end caps of aisles are where it's at during this time of year! Their leftover school supplies were also reduced by at least 50%.

Since my job chart is still not done and I haven't made any more progress on it since before school started, I'm abandoning the idea to make the space shuttle with kids' pictures in the windows. Instead I'm going to use some of my new rocket die cuts for the job labels and laminate them so I can use Vis-a-Vis pens to write students' names on them. The board will still be space themed, but will be much easier to put together.

5th Day of School

The kids and I are finally getting settled into the classroom. Workers are still coming in and out periodically to redo wiring and connect the other portables, so it certainly isn't done yet. I started working on my classroom library yesterday, since my book bins were finally delivered from The Container Store. I bought 3 cases. I was anxiously waiting for them to arrive and was at school until 7:30 last night trying to finish it (which I didn't). I have way more books than I realized!

Portable Life

The portable has been working out nicely. It is a little tight on space, but I changed the seating arrangement today which freed up a lot more space. I'll try to remember to take a picture soon. I'm hoping to do a lot of lessons and practice on working in groups so students learn to work effectively in the new arrangement. 

Bathrooms and water have been my biggest pet peeve so far this year. Students often do not want to use their recess time to do these things (I don't really blame them since the bathroom and water fountain are so far away and take a lot of time to get to). However, I'm not willing to compromise learning time for students to go all the way into the building. 

For water, I have encouraged students every day so far to bring water bottles. Those students who have still not brought one have very little sympathy in my book. 

My solution was to let each student go to the restroom or get a drink in the building once a week during class time. It's Tuesday and 4 students have used their weekly pass, not too shabby. Teachers, have you ever noticed the phenomenon where if one student asks to go to the bathroom/get a drink, five other kids shout out that they have to go too? Maybe this just happens in my class, but as soon as I remind them that it would be their only pass for the week, most kids say "never-mind." 

Since we're away from the building, I make students go to the building with partner for safety. The phenomenon mentioned previously helps me to find a partner because often there is someone else willing to use their weekly pass. I try not to send friends and always gender match the partners. If there isn't someone else who wants to use their pass, I just assign someone to go with the other person and don't count it against them. 

9/11

It was kind of strange to teach students who were just days old or not born yet about what happened 11 years ago. To most of them, it seemed like history. Some students had stories about what their siblings or parents were doing on that day. One of my student's parents had to postpone their wedding because of all of the airport closures. Other students asked what 9/11 was and acted as though they had never heard of it. 

Last year, I saved the September 2010 issue of Scholastic News and used the cover story "I was 11 on September 11th, 2001." Then, I found a video on BrainPop and invited the two other 5th grade classes to join us in watching it (since they don't have computers for their presentation stations yet). It was a tight squeeze for about 80 5th graders in one portable, but we made it work with standing room only and the new desk arrangement. 

After the other classes left, I read September 12th: We Knew Everything Would Be All Right to wrap up. 

Last Day of Prep and First Day of School!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday! I was at school until 8:00 last night getting ready! That's right a full 12 hour day! I didn't even come out of my portable for the Back to School BBQ! I felt so antisocial!

Anyway, I started my day with what else other than more furniture deliveries! That was quite the trend leading up to school. I think I ended up with new furniture every time I went to my room! I thought I had my classroom all set up (as far as furniture goes) and then they brought me new bookshelves and a whole set of cubbies. The carpenters delivered them and found space for a few of them which made my whole perimeter full of furniture and plopped the others in the middle of the floor (since there wasn't room for them) and then bolted all my other furniture to the walls.

This one is right in the middle of the front of my room and is where my Smartboard is supposed to go, so I moved it to the library area along with two others and got rid of the splintery bookshelves that were there. 

This one I left in the same place since it was kind of dead space anyway with the closet next to it. It is still empty though! 

The ones there wasn't room for left in the middle of the floor (and the mess). 

Student cubbies. 

I wish they would have stopped to think before bolting it all down. So.. in order to replace my bookshelves with the new ones, I had to track down a drill. I learned we don't have one at the school so the principal asked a PTA member to bring one from home. As soon as I had all the bookshelves unbolted, the carpenters were back and wanted to bolt more stuff down. They also said they could've unbolted it all for me.. if only I knew they were coming!! I sent them away to another room while I figured out how to rearrange furniture, which bookshelves to get rid of, and transferred all my books from the old bookshelves to the new ones. This was NOT what I was planning on doing yesterday!

New bookshelves in use (obviously not done)! I'm waiting for plastic shoe boxes to be delivered from The Container Store to use as book bins to organize my classroom library by level and genre.

I got the rest of my room cleaned up (for the most part). However, the closets and my desk still aren't as organized as I would like them to be. I sat down to plan the first day with my partner teacher and made copies of everything we'll need. Right now, we're taking it a day at a time. Once we get through the craziness of the first days, we'll probably sit down again to plan more long term (probably this weekend).

This is what my room looked like from the door shortly before I left last night. Before I left, I cleared the top of the bookshelves off by the green bulletin board, erased the whiteboard, put the box on the floor away, and some other tidying.

First Day!

Today was the first day with kids! I have to say that it went really well! Of course, everything I had planned took much longer than anticipated and we have a bunch of leftover stuff to finish tomorrow. The kids were chatty and excited to see each other. I can already tell that I'll have to stay on this class about talking at appropriate times and raising their hand to ask and answer questions. One of my students withdrew sometime between yesterday and today, so I am down to 24 students! That's a 20% reduction from last year! I have lots of boy energy in the room though, I think I have 15 boys and 9 girls. 

Here was our schedule for the first day. We will be finishing a lot of this tomorrow. 

Start of Curriculum Planning

As I mentioned before, I went to two weeks of professional development this summer. A week for readers' workshop and a week for writers' workshop. My team teacher was there too, so we had the opportunity to talk and figure out how we were going to implement our new learning in our classes. My district has signed on to using Lucy Calkins' readers' and writers' workshop curricular calendars. This means that we have a series of units we can follow throughout the year. The units help guide our instruction. Although the lessons we teach and the specifics that we decide to focus on within each unit are up to us based on what our students need, the framework is created for us. I'm feeling good and ready for literacy instruction this year.

The district science department sends us three science kits throughout the year with their adapted instructional guides to follow. I try to add in some extra readings, videos, and assessment tasks to help students with background knowledge, make it more entertaining, and/or holding students accountable for their learning. I taught two of the units last year and just have one new unit to learn this year.

Today, I started trying to plan math for the year. I think this will be my toughest subject to plan this year.
My school is getting ready for common core standards and we are encouraged to start using them to guide our instruction. However, our math curriculum does not align to common core standards. There are also major differences between the current math standards and common core standards (CCS). Since we're still being tested on the old standards, and the students are coming with knowledge from the old standards, and the math curriculum doesn't follow either set of standards, it is a challenge to start incorporating common core standards.

I spent a couple hours today looking at the common core standards, our math curriculum and pacing/instructional guide (provided by the district), and the old standards to try to find some alignment and way to plan units for the year. Our math curriculum is a spiral curriculum, but the CCS focus on teaching to mastery. Trying to align three different things that are all very different was frustrating and hard to keep track of. I was able to break the CCS into a few units and compare that to our curriculum to figure out what parts of the curriculum would be "extra" in terms of the CCS. I still need to compare all of that to the current math Performance Expectations to make sure my students will still be prepared for the MSP and to pick up where they left off in 4th grade. Then, I'll either cut out some of the extra stuff in the curriculum that's not in either set of standards to save some time or have students' do an assessment task to figure out what I need to review and what I can skip.

At this point, I think I'll dive deeper into the units that overlap since the CCS places importance on deeper understanding and reasoning. Once I figure out how many more units I will have to add in, I can  start figuring out how long each unit can/should be and compare that to our academic calendar to get a general outline for the year.

I have a lot to do tomorrow (including finishing my classroom) before the kids show up on Wednesday.

The highlight of my weekend was getting my new mailboxes! I'm so lucky to have a dad who's willing and able to build them for me. They are gorgeous!

Day 6- Only one more in-building work day!

I went in to school today for about 5 hours. I didn't feel like I got much done in that time, but looking back, I did accomplish a few things. My room is more of a disaster than it was when I started today, but that can be cleaned rather quickly on Tuesday.

The first thing I did today was put organization options in my huge closet. Now it is a more functional space.

Then, I finished the bulletin board that I ran out of paper on the other day. I couldn't find more paper, so I had to get creative. The perfectionist side of me is not very happy with it, but I can deal with it, at least for now. (The blurt chart and extra copies folders are very strategically placed.)

 

My biggest accomplishment of the day was finishing my filing cabinet, which means that my desktop file is empty and ready to start the school year. I use this desktop file to hold all my copies for the week, divided by subject, and any master copies that I use frequently. 

My filing cabinet is also not the prettiest thing, but it needed to get done.

I committed to using this funky shelf for student supplies, so I switched all of the supplies that I want students to have easy access to from my black Ikea shelf to this one. Taking out some of the compartment dividers helped to customize it for my stuff. 

 The most exciting part of my work today was hanging my space pictures around the room. I laminated them last year and today I backed them with black construction paper, then stapled them up. Using black construction paper gave me something to staple through without harming the pictures and makes them "pop" on that white wall. I still have a few more to add, but I'm not sure where I want to put them yet. (Thanks Greg for donating these to my classroom!)

 This is all of them in the corner. There's one more on the left side that I couldn't fit into the picture. As you can see in this picture, I still have one bulletin board to cover (around the fire extinguisher). I just can't stand the look of those carpeted walls, so I'm turning all of them into bulletin boards.

Tomorrow and Monday, the building is closed. I could go work in my portable, but I don't really like the idea of being out there alone. Instead, I'm hoping to start curriculum planning for the year (or at least the first week). It is hard for me to start planning curriculum without having my physical space set up. The late start on setting up my classroom is making it harder to plan for the year, but I have to start at some point. While I was going through files today, I was reminded of how last year, I thought about rearranging some math units instead of following the pacing guide exactly. I brought my math curriculum home and am planning to map it out this weekend. 

I went to a week each of readers' workshop training and writers' workshop training over the summer. It was facilitated by Columbia Teachers' College coaches and was extremely valuable. My team teacher was also there, so we got to think through how we were going to implement each workshop in our classrooms and how we can align our instruction. 

I'll add more about my plan for the start of the year at the end of the weekend. 

Day 5

Ooops! I forgot to take pictures today. However, the changes I made today were not really visible. I started setting up my filing cabinet, laminated my name tags, and die cut a whole bunch of stuff to add to bulletin boards. I also started covering another bulletin board and ran out of paper six inches from the edge of the bottom half. I can't find any more paper in that color in the building either. Not sure how I'm going to fix that one.

I also had to redo some stuff that was already done such as hanging my rocket on the ceiling. More district people were working on wiring in the ceiling, which slowed my progress since I was working around them, and I had to rehang my rocket.

I'm going in tomorrow for 5 or so hours. I'm hoping to finish that bulletin board, work on (and hopefully finish) my jobs board, find a way to hang my calendar on a wood cabinet, and finish setting up my files.

Great News!

I forgot to say yesterday that we got really exciting news in our staff meeting. The preliminary MSP scores have been released and.... (drum roll) 100% of fifth graders passed the science section!! I get emotional even when talking about it. If you knew how chaotic my year felt last year, you would completely understand why this makes me emotional. I'm so proud of my kiddos for putting all their effort into that test, using all they knew, and achieving those results!

You can check out our school report card on OSPI's website here.

First Official Day- Day Four

Yesterday was a furlough day, so no new post for that. I spent my day baking freezable breakfasts, doing laundry, and relaxing a little during the calm before the storm.

Today was our first official in-service day. We had meetings in the morning and were free to work in our classrooms in the afternoon. I walked into my classroom to find 1) the floor beautifully waxed by our amazing custodian, 2) all my furniture piled in the corner (I expected this), 3) ceiling tiles removed (again!), and 4) district electricians pulling wires out of the ceiling. I could deal with the first 3, but the electricians were in the way. I'm ready to have my room to myself for a whole day! Hopefully that day will come soon!
Despite getting a later than expected start, I got a lot done today and I'm feeling much more optimistic about being ready for the first day of school (or at least close to ready).

The custodian helped me move all my furniture back, once the electricians left. That was a quick and painless process. While moving desks, I was reminded of one of the gifts I gave parent volunteers at the end of last year. This fell out of a student desk! I can't believe I didn't find it sooner, and it's been in there since June! Gross!




Then, I set up my classroom meeting/carpet area. Hopefully it won't get totally dirty again or won't have to be moved again. (One of the very large jobs on my to-do list is setting up my class library.)



My desks are back to where they belong. I'm going to have my kids in partners for the first week, all facing forward. I decided this year that I didn't want to start with them in groups because I don't want their first impression to be "We get to talk to each other in this class!" Instead, I want to pre-teach how academic discussions sound and work and build the expectation before putting them in groups.

I don't know if I've taken a picture of my textbook storage. I have table leaders get textbooks for their whole table (meaning only 5 or 6 kids are up and about). It keeps their desks tidier, the textbooks in better condition, and gives responsibility to the group and table leader. 

I made this last year to keep extra copies in. I think I saw the idea somewhere on pinterest (sorry, not sure where). It really helps to decrease clutter on my desk. It also helps kids take more responsibility for when they were absent. 

This was my project table today. I'll have to finish these projects tomorrow. I found myself with so much to do today, that I couldn't stay focused on one thing. Instead, I skipped around from one thing to another to another. On this table, you can see that I made name tags, but still have to laminate them, got the supplies to organize my filing cabinet, started working on my teacher binder, and started making new student packets. 

This is the beginning of a new student packet. I'm trying to put everything a new student would need (no matter when they come in the year) in a ziplock bag. Then, even if given little notice, I can be ready for new students by just pulling out the bag. The beginning of the year is the best time to make these because there's so much that gets passed out to kids and I find that I am more aware of what each student needs. 

I made a desktop file for my desk. So simple, but something I didn't have last year. I think it will make a huge difference on the condition of my desk. To copy, To file, To read later. 

This is my almost clean desk! I know it still looks messy, but you should've seen it before... well, actually I was too embarrassed to take a picture. My desk was the only piece of furniture that didn't move, so everything that I wanted out of the way got piled onto it. Also notice in this picture that I got a new network cable that is long enough! Yay! Now I have a working teacher computer and can keep up with email, start planning and making electronic files, etc- all the important things!

Tomorrow is an optional day but I will be there all day trying to get my classroom finished (wishful thinking). I will hopefully make more progress tomorrow than I did today and maybe even start thinking about lesson plans for the first few days of school. 

Day Three

Today was a busy day. I had a lot to get done since I left the room a disaster yesterday and it has to be clean for tomorrow. One of our amazing janitors is going to wax my floor. He didn't get a chance when he did all the other rooms because of the moving schedule. Now it is causing us both much more work, since we have to clear the floor after all the furniture has been set up and I have unpacked. Anyway, he's willing to do it and he's doing it on my schedule! And he said he wouldn't be able to move the furniture back before I come in on Thursday since the wax will be drying overnight, but he'll help me to move furniture to wherever I want it to go. He is a very kind man! Wax will make a big difference on this floor, I think!

I had an awesome helper for most of the day today which also really helped. She finished leveling ALL of my books! Incredible! I've never had all my books leveled, even when I had fewer books.
She also helped me with a few two person jobs.

Overall, the room looks a lot better! I created more work for myself at the end of the day when I needed to put more stuff away but didn't know where to put it yet. I started shoving things in shelves, closets, and boxes, just to get it out of the way. When I go back on Thursday, I'll have to take everything back out and actually organize it.


One of the two person jobs was hanging my rocket on the ceiling above the carpet area. It used to be high up on the wall in my classroom that had super tall ceilings. I don't have the wall space for it in this room, but I like it better on the ceiling anyway!

I put some math manipulatives and supplies away in this shelf. I thought this would be my math shelf for kids to access, but I'm rethinking that. I think the one I posted about yesterday that's kind of odd might be better for math stuff. 

I found another box of teacher resource books, which sparked a reorganization of my bookshelf. Probably doesn't look much different to you, but took my a chunk of time and is now more usable to me. (Sorry for the blurry picture.)

This is by the door and will be the way the kids leave the room to go to the bathroom, the office, etc. I made these sheets a few days ago. I think they'll be much better than using notebook paper like I did last year. 

This is what my classroom looked like when I left today. Notice the mostly clear desktops and floor! 

My helper also helped me put up the paper for this bulletin board. I learned that everyone else I've had make bulletin boards for me are much better at it than I am. Those ripples will drive me nuts all year! I think I will try to recruit helpers every year! (Ahem... Mom & Dad, you were great at it!)

Also, the cabinet that I was not very happy to receive yesterday (partially pictured on left, below) was renamed "The Chokey" today. Calling it that made my day! (I obviously won't call it that around parents or students.)

My huge learning of the day today was that I should've bought a staple gun sooner! If you are a teacher and you don't have one, get one! They make putting up bulletin boards, posters, rockets on the ceiling, etc. so much easier! They are especially helpful if you have carpeted (or soft) walls, like I do, since using a regular stapler wrinkles and tears the paper when you put pressure on it. The staples also seem to grab much better (even the small size).

I forgot to mention my good news from yesterday. My coworker and I wanted to paint our "new" bookshelves since they have seen much better days. We thought about having a parent painting party. When we approached our principal about painting, he also came up with the idea of a painting party and is going to get our PTA going on it! I'm going to add The Chokey to the list to be painted. I can't handle the mauve and mint paint job that is currently on it. 

Tomorrow is a furlough day, so I won't be working. Instead, I will be cooking and baking freezable to-go breakfasts for school days.