Do not!!

As usual, I've discovered from a narrative writing sample that my kiddos picked up a few bad writing habits somewhere along the way. They are typical and boring beginnings for narratives. I will begin formal Writers' Workshop sessions pretty soon, but for now I couldn't resist making and hanging these posters as guidelines for what I consider ILLEGAL in my room. These beginnings and endings are boring, after all, and we aren't interested in being boring writers!

First week...phew!

It's Saturday, and I'm taking it easy! This past week marked the first full week of the 2012-2013 school year. It was a great week, but it was exhausting! I always feel overwhelmed by the enormous task of collecting and sorting through stacks of signed paperwork in addition to teaching procedures, rules, and of course learning the names, interests, and personalities of 40ish little darlings. . My kiddos have learned how to crack the combination to their lockers and the basics about middle school, but we're still working on transitioning quickly. It is truly tough for ten year olds to not only get their locker open with time constraints, but also to put in what they don't need and take out only what they do need. Patience is certainly necessary! I am happy to say that my new owl themed classroom library has been a hit! They seem to appreciate that the books are organized by genre and the new seating in that area. I've also gotten lovely comments from the kiddos about my hanging flowery thingies above their desk! I am very excited to shift away from teambuilding and introductory activities to actual teaching of new content. This is my favorite thing about teaching kiddos! Being busy with teaching and facilitating new lessons, assignments, and projects gets me excited and gives the kids a chance to show what they're capable of and helps me get to know their personalities even more! My brain is still a bit too fried to go any specifics about the weeks, the kids, and ideas that I have, but I'll previous some of these ideas with brief tidbits below...

• Students photos on day 1 holding a sign specially made for them....adorable!
• Equipment to assist two hearing impaired students has been installed in my room....surround sound!
• Last period planning. I used to loathe teachers who could walk out of school 10 minutes after the bell sounded....I'm loving it now.
• Interactive notebooks....I'm nervous!!
• My classroom blog...to maintain or not to maintain??

I'll be back soon!

Completed Classroom Library!

The following pics are of my new classroom library. As mentioned in previous posts, I'm going with an Owl theme in my classroom. This is clear in my library! The library features a tree which will "grow" as we add many prefix/suffix leaves to it throughout the year. This area features owls in the tree and hanging from the ceiling. My books are organized into baskets by genre. Anchor posters for each genre are posted on the other wall in this area. The gray shelf picture actually has two sides of shelves. The side not pictured holds all of our reference materials- dictionaries, thesauri, and more!

I picked up the green chair and ottomans at a thrift store a few weeks ago for a grand total of $14! I've had the leopard chair for a while. I love them!

In my class, students are allowed to visit the library during any free time to select a book to borrow during class. I also use this area as a launching point for discussions about genres, author's purpose, and more.
Check it out!

Organization: Teacher Binder

I'm back after a couple of busy weeks! I am only three days away from meeting my new kiddos, so I'm preparing my teacher binder to keep track of all their personal info and data. As mentioned in a previous post, I generally keep several small binders with info such as parent contact info, assessment data, lesson plans, and more. This year I've decided to consolidate and use one sturdy binder to hold all of this info.

Here's what it includes:

I decorated the outside and included dividers inside with various sections (lesson plans, student data, PTA, student info/parent contact info, and more to come!) My new planner is tucked in the front pocket while an EZGrader is tucked in the back pocket. I used a neat idea that I saw on Pinterest for collecting small items that might easily slip out of pockets. I wrapped masking tape around the side of a Baggie, punched holes in it, and inserted it in the front of my binder. The bag is currently holding receipts that I need for reimbursement and a jump drive. I'm excited about this new tool!!

Sneak peak...

Here's a sneak peak of how the owls are going up in my classroom. This is the class library/reading area. I still need to add genre labels to the baskets of books, genre posters to the wall on the left, and a few other touches. The tree isn't just for looks; I plan to add a few green leaves each week. The new leaves will feature the prefixes/suffixes/meanings that we study each week. I do need a clever name for this tree somehow related to prefixes/suffixes... More pics to come soon!

* The tree was purchased at The Parent Teacher Store (Mailbox, $15). It came with lots more leaves! It also came with a booklet of ideas for using the tree in the classroom and a black ine of leaf patterns to enlarge/copy as needed. I plan to enlarge the black line for my prefix/suffix leaves!

* The owl cutouts were added to the tree with sticky tack. I found a pack of 36 for $6 at the store mentioned above. I'll be using them all around the room :)

* The hanging birdies are the the ones I made yesterday! They've been spinning all day and (annoyingly) face the wall sometimes. ;)

* My books are organized by genre in baskets. The baskets will get labels later this week!

Can you spy???
... An owl border on the bulletin board??
... One of the tissue paper Pom Poms that I made to hang above each group of desks??

An Unexpected Theme...

Owls have been "in" for a while now. I like owls, but I haven't gotten in on the trend other than a necklace that I bought a while back. The Parent Teacher store had some super cute owl cutouts and bulletin board border that I bough on a whim because they were bright and adorable- especially since I'd seen a super cute pic of paper lanterns turned owls on Pinterest. This combined with the fact that I've been dedicated to having a wall "tree" of either weekly prefixes and suffixes or reading genres (since it is located in my "library") confirmed that I'd be going with a subtle owl theme for my room this year. It's pretty cute! I hung my tissue paper Pom Poms over my desk groups today. The Pom poms are replacing some OLD paper lanterns that I bought at Hobby Lobby when I started teaching five years ago. They're a bit faded and dusty, but they cleaned up well and were transformed into birdies/owls today. (I say birdies because I didn't add the little triangle ears that the owl lanterns have- I may add them later). So, here is a peek at the finished product. I'll post pics soon of the classroom display!

Here is the inspiration picture from Pinterest, the lanterns before, and the finished products.

Getting organized...

I have to say that I'm pretty organized when it comes to gathering resources or paperwork and then storing my materials in easy-to find ways. I get a secret thrill when I use my Sharpie to write on the tab of a brand new manilla file folder. This has been effective so far, but rather than storing many binders and folders on a shelf this year, I'd like to create one binder for all of my must-have information. I have seen many great binders on Pinterest and TpT, but the binder featured on this blog stuck out to me. I love the idea of having a small organizer/calendar tucked in a front pocket with labeled tabs for very important sections throughout the binder.


There are a few things that I'd change for my own binder though. I think that my binder will have the following tabs:

• Lesson Plans
• Student Information/Parent Contact Info
• Student Data (ThinkLink reports, cumulative record info)
• Meeting Notes/blank pages for notes & ideas
• Maybe... printout of curriculum standards
• EZ Grader in back pocket :)

 
I have all that I need to assemble this notebook, so this should be an easy project that's useful and simple to maintain! I'll post pics once my binder has been created!