Schedule

I have been blessed to be hired at a school that uses an innovative scheduling idea that they created! Our "wave" schedule gives us the majority of our "specials" on one day out of every six days. Each day gets labeled with a letter and each grade level gets assigned a letter day.  So for almost an entire day, our PLC has the opportunity to meet, plan, discuss students, etc...

I have heard that it takes a little bit of getting used to, but I am excited to try it and think that the uninterrupted instruction that the students will receive on most other days of the week will be highly beneficial for student growth and learning and the large chunk of planning time utilized by my team will allow us to actually PLAN rather than spend 30 minutes PREPPING!

My schedule, stated in simpler terms is the cute one below. And the schedule that breaks down each day a little more in depth has also been included.

*Note: 10x10x10 is our way of providing instruction and structure during physical activity time formerly known as recess. This includes 10 minutes of warm ups, 10 minutes of structured activity (kickball, relay races, etc..), 10 minutes free play.

Wave Schedule

Common Core Graphic Organizer (Sneak Peek)

Now that my classroom is neat and organized, it's time to start thinking more extensively about curriculum, instruction, and assessment and of course COMMON CORE. I feel at a slight disadvantage because while teachers were "unpacking" the standards last year, I was running the professional development and didn't take as in depth of a look at it as they did.

Anyway, homework was on my mind today and I thought about the Thinking Maps I used as homework before. Basically, students would receive one page with Thinking Maps on each side, totaling 4 for the week. Each night, students would read 20 minutes, then "respond" to their reading by completing a map.

I wanted to match this activity to Common Core standards and be very intentional with my practice activities so I decided to start to create my own graphic organizers to match the standards.

What I love about these: 

1. I don't work in a county where all graphic organizers are mandated to be Thinking Maps

2. Common Core standard reference on every organizer

3. I CAN statement on every organizer-this allows students (and parents) to see WHY they are doing what they are doing.

So here are the first few, of course it is a work in progress, but I am too excited to wait until they are all finished! I am still working on converting to PDF also, but I promise I will share when I do! 

Classroom Pictures!

I am very excited to share my classroom pictures and show off the many DIY projects and pinterest inspired ideas that helped me reach a clean, organized, and fun classroom for the 2012-2013 school year!

View of library and CAFE/FACE area

Library-book bins for students and genre baskets for books

 Genre Posters

Another view of library!

Writing Materials

Writing Materials and Vocabulary Word area

Love these Fun Printables!

Teacher area

Pinterest inspired  Objective frames project

Close up!

Forgive me- I can't remember where I found this cute FREE "In our Classroom" poster that I had printed at Walgreens!

Lots of cute owl stuff on Mardel's website for reasonable prices!

A little bit of ME! 

So I need to do something on the front of my desk, I see!

Math Word Wall!

Twitter board- will mainly be used for "Exit Slips" Inspiration Here and Here

I am in love with this very useful and interactive Facebook board! Inspiration Here

See the little profile pictures? Student pictures will be on the back, name labels stuck to the pocket, and students will flip their picture around from profile pic to real photo each day to show they are here. Students will also move their (magnetic) pocket to their mode of transportation as needed.

My understanding is that students get three lunch choices- students will move their "like" magnet to the appropriate area each morning for a quick visual lunch count! 

Important reminders, student summary of our status for the day/week, new pictures, etc... will go here! 

Homework area on the far right, where student homework assignments will be posted.

 Birthday board Inspiration

Behavior clip chart- please excuse the desks, have a few too many! 

From the back looking front- Mountain math (school program) on left bulletin board.

This will soon look like This

Hall passes on clothes pins for students to clip to themselves- bye bye germs in the bathroom!  Inspiration

Welcome to my room!

From door looking in!

Crate seats that I didn't exactly create the "right" way but still cute!  Inspiration

Turning in work! Inspiration

And my cute owl theme pack was purchased here- Owl Theme Pack

Thanks for looking!!

Everybody is Doing It!

When I learned about a month and a half ago that I would be returning to the classroom, I was amazed at all of the cute teacher blogs, pinterest ideas, and cute teacher resources available and decided that well, since everyone else is doing it, I might as well join in on the fun!

I am hoping to soon have fun ideas to contribute to make up for all of the ideas that I have "borrowed!" So bear with me as I learn about blogging as a teacher and be sure to come back to visit often!