The amount of time teachers spend figuring out how to effectively arrange, prepare, and set up their classroom is unreal. For me it's one of the most exciting, stressful, and rewarding parts of teaching.
As summer comes to a close, and the students are about to arrive, we spend a lot of time thinking about the specific students that will be in our classroom. We think about how we can effectively teach those students in an inviting, comfortable, and effective environment.
I have changed the layout and setup of my classroom each year and this year I am excited about some of the new arrangements and systems I have in place.
One of my favorite areas of the room is my "teacher area". This area is where my desk and my "U-Table" meet. I decided to arrange the tables this way because when working with guided reading groups, I need a lot of different materials. It is great to have all of those materials on and in my teacher desk. It is neat and easily accessible with this type of arrangement.
On my desk I have drawers for each of my guided reading groups. In these drawers I keep leveled readers, sight word cards, comprehension notebooks, and any other materials specific to each group.
The number grid is attached to this shelving unit with velcro. This way, I can detach it easily and use it for instruction at any time.
This year I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make my classroom library more "cozy." Sectioning it off with my big portable whiteboard made it darker and enabled me to add lamps and other small lights to make it feel cozier.
Rather than having an area in my room for the writing center, I set up writing bins for each table. (Credit is owed to my wonderful team member for coming up with this!) At the start of guided reading time, my table helpers will put this bin on their tables. When students get to the "writing" rotation, they simply work at their table spot and all materials will be there. Inside these bins are their writing notebooks, regular copy paper cut into fourths, a special writing pencil and eraser, and a box of markers. Students glue their white copy paper into their page, write the date, draw a picture, and use their special pencils to free-write or respond to a particular writing prompt for the day.
I have already discovered how wonderful it is to have one designated space for most instruction. Last year I used the whiteboard on the opposite side of the room for calendar time and other instruction. Students then had to switch to the "Smartboard carpet" for any instruction done on the smartboard. Having all of this in one area saved me a lot of room up by the other board. I now no longer need space in front of the other board for a carpet. I simply use the other whiteboard as our word wall.
You might notice that there are no sight words on the word wall. Much like many other teachers, we start the year with student names on the word wall. As the year progresses, we add sight words to the wall as they are taught to the students.
I hope you enjoyed the classroom tour! Stay tuned for more details on certain areas throughout the room and different systems we have in place!
To those of you just starting out the school year, good luck!!! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment