Classroom Tour

Excuse the mess. These are from the last few days of school!

In my last post, I welcomed you to my virtual classroom, today I would like to share with you all my actual classroom to hopefully provide some ideas for how to set up your own room for next year.

Classroom Features

Fortunately, I have a pretty big classroom! It's about twice the size of the first classroom I taught in. Upon inheriting my classroom, I was left with a built in bookshelf, two tall cabinets, two shorter cabinets, a smaller, movable bookshelf,  a white board easel, two tables with 4 (mostly broken) computers, two white boards (one which is mostly covered by a Promethean board), a teacher printer, a rolling cart with power strips built in, a teacher desk, and a long table. Last year my biggest class was 36, so desks alone take up a lot of space. I would love to incorporate a reading nook or some flexible seating options, but things are a little too cramped for that unless my classes shrink. My room also has a really high ceiling. The white wall space above the bulletin boards is difficult to reach, even standing on a desk. The previous owner of my classroom so kindly left rolled up tape all over it, that I haven't been able to reach to pull off yet. I am also lucky enough to have one wall which is mostly taken up by windows! It provides so much natural light to my classroom and makes it feel really homey! 

Entryway

Not Pictured: Door (on the right hand side), Whiteboard Easel (next to the invisible door)

When students walk into my classroom the first thing they see is a whiteboard easel with the materials they need written on it. Last year I had them pick up all their supplies and worksheets for the day on the way in, but next year I plan to make handing out supplies the job of a few students each day. I may change the easel to hold an inspirational quote or a reminder about expectations for coming into my class instead. Any suggestions you all have, would be great!

On the back wall by the door, I post flyers for upcoming school events. I encourage students to bring in flyers or information for any events they have coming up in their personal lives as well (soccer tournaments, dance recitals, etc.). In this same space I also post a calendar with information on what assignments and materials we worked on each day. Students who were absent can use this calendar to figure out what they are missing and grab it from the hanging folders. My goal for next year is to create a student job for managing the materials in the hanging folder for me. 

Next to all of this is my classroom library. I haven't had the time or motivation to arrange my class library in any particular way. I do try my hardest to keep novel sets together. I did SSR twice a week this year, and plan to do it the first 10 minutes of class each day next year, so the library becomes even more chaotic due to that. I do plan to assign one or two students in each class to be the class librarian and make sure the books are put away neatly and to keep track of who is borrowing which books from me. 

Not pictured: Tall, Blue, Cabinet next to the bookshelf (off to the right)

In the corner on the far-end of my back wall, I have this nifty little counter space with cabinets underneath. In this cabinets is any supplies that students will use such as glue sticks, construction paper, and highlighters. On this back counter is where I place my turn in bins for each class period, my stacks of graded work to hand back, and worksheets to be passed out at the beginning of each class. It is basically the trifecta of classwork. These bulletin boards will serve as a space to hang anchor charts for each unit related to the learning targets we are currently focusing on.

Far Wall

The wall opposite the door.

The bulletin boards on this wall will also be used to post relevant anchor charts associated with each unit. Once my classes are finalized, I will tape off the white board to leave a space for the day's objective and agenda for each class. Year long anchor charts will also be posted on the white wall space on this wall (if I can figure out a way to reach it!).

Front of the Room

In the front of the room is where my desk is located. I have tried to move it several times, but the IT guys have shot me down every time because of the way things have to be plugged into my computer. I am hoping at the very least I can wrap the cords so they're not a tangled mess. I set up my long table to create an L shaped addition to my desk. This gives me room for a desk calendar and to have several trays for important paperwork. The black cart next to the desk holds my printer as well as my teacher binders and textbooks. The tall, blue cabinet in the corner contains any other teaching supplies that I may need which I don't allow students to use. On the sliver of white board behind my desk, I keep track of class points. I got the idea from another teacher to start each class period off with the length of time of an entire class period. Each time I have to wait for them to settle down, I subtract minutes from their time; each time they are behaving well, they earn additional time. At the end of each grading period, they earn a class party that last the amount of time they have earned.

On the other end of my Promethean board I have another sliver of whiteboard where I post the schedule for the school day and my e-mail. The schedule is great to have up front for when we have assemblies of early-release days, so that students don't ask me when class ends a million times. It is also easy for me to see so that I can keep track of time on those days as well. Next to this, I have my classroom values posted. I began my teaching career in a PBIS school, so having positive expectations for my students is something I feel comfortable with. At my current school, they are struggling to get PBIS up and running. Until that happens, I have created my own set of PBIS expectations with a classroom reward system to hold kids accountable. These serve as my class rules. I go over them with students nearly every day at the beginning of class after reading the daily objective.

The Fourth Wall

In the front corner of the room next to my expectations I have my filing cabinet to hold my student's writing portfolios, IEP meeting notes, office referrals, etc. This cabinet locks so students can't rummage through it. This is also where I have my computer station. I really wanted to set it up with the two tables grouped so that the computers were back-to-back, but the IT guy told me this wouldn't work. Womp. Womp. So instead, the two tables are lined up against the wall side-by-side. 

My favorite part of this wall are the enormous windows! I plan to post student work in my windows so that the whole school can see what amazing things are happening in my classroom. I started doing this at the end of last school year and got a lot of positive feedback from staff and students. My kids really come up with some creative stuff and I want to show them off as much as possible.

The End!

Thanks for reading everybody! I love hearing ideas from other so please share your classroom set-up ideas below! How would you utilize this space differently?

Welcome to my Class!

Hello all and welcome! I figured I'd start off by introducing myself. I started my teaching experience at 16 in my mom's dance studio teaching tap dancing lessons. From there, I went to Arizona State University straight out of high school for my degree in education and moved into the classroom three years ago.

I spent my first two years teaching Freshmen and Sophomore English at a Title I high school outside of Phoenix, and LOVED it! My students were my babies and it was my dream to loop with my first group of freshmen all four years of high school. I was exceptionally lucky to work with an admin team who really invested in me and allowed me opportunities not usually given to second-year teachers. My second year I joined the school's PBIS committee, became a PLC lead, and even spearheaded a tutoring intervention program for the freshmen at our school. I was on a teaching high. Unfortunately, during my second year, I also married the love of my life who dragged me with him to California.

Teaching in California is a lot more competitive. Initially, I was thrilled to work in a state with a better budget and far more support for public schools. My colleagues in Arizona envied me for moving somewhere with more progressive educational policies. After finishing year two, I was ravenous to continue my teaching career. I was desperate to continue working with students and improving my craft. After months of rejection letters from school after school, I was finally offered a position teaching ELA at a Title I middle school a month before the beginning of the school year.

I remember literally jumping up and down after accepting the position because I was SO excited to get back in the classroom and was high on the idea of working for a state which supports their teachers and pays a decent salary. I'm sorry to say that reality at my new school was far from what I expected.

After an especially hard school year, I have been finding myself researching how to improve my classroom management and my instruction. I have begun following teacher accounts on Instagram, pinning every creative idea I can find on Pinterest, and throwing my energy into entirely revamping my curriculum and procedures for next year. I also took the leap and signed up to go back to school for my Masters in Curriculum Instruction and Design.

Even after an exceptionally hard year in the classroom, I still love my job. Stumbling so many times this year has only made me more driven to do better next time. It has also inspired me to work towards helping other teachers by providing my own experiences and ideas. It is easy to feel inferior when looking at perfectly decorated classrooms on Pinterest, and so I wanted to create a space that shares the good, the bad, and the ugly of education. I want to share my successes and failures so that I can look back and reflect on my own experiences and hopefully help some others in the process.

So that's a little about me! Can't wait to continue sharing with you all!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Frappaccino