Skip to main content

change is good

MY CLASSROOM TRANSITION 
(it felt like an episode of hoarders/extreme home makeover)
this is the classroom i walked into three and a half weeks ago. four days before my students started.


yeah. (the vision in pink is my guardian angel, mrs. jones, who literally helps me to survive every single day. her first act of grace was helping me with this room. bless her heart.)



chaos.


cleaning. i honestly think "hoarders" could hire me to help after this ordeal.


just keep enjoying.


AND then, after four days of hard work, including help from the amazing and selfless muresuk mena, my room was ready for the students to arrive.

it wasn't perfect, but it looked like a classroom.

check out that beautiful, brand new SMART board
 

clean, organized (ish), right?


beautiful clean whiteboards!

My desk has never looked and will never look this clean ever again. 


READY FOR KIDDOS!



:)

....................................................................................................

And then after day one I realized that having our desks in pods was just NOT going to work for us quite yet. So we tried rows. I hate it, but we tried it.


...........................................................................................................

but by the end of the first week i knew rows were going to KILL me. so we tried the "U" formation.


I LOVE IT. It means that every single student is within my reach at all times, rather than me playing that game of zig-zagging between their rows of desks whenever someone raises their hand. I LOVE IT.

.................................................................................................................

end week 3: we've now covered all shelves with colorful table cloths because we struggle with knowing which things we are allowed to touch (especially things like ms forster's scissors), take or use as weapons. we're working on it.


end week 3: we've got an accountability system (students get stickers next to their name for completing assignments to the best of their ability), a bathroom check-in/check-out chart to help those of us that think we  need to use the bathroom 3 times in a 90 minute period, a time-out teddy station, and color-coded groups for writing centers.

the SMART board is getting it's butt kicked by ms. forster, who uses it like a champ. thank you gustavus (kids go to other classrooms and tell their other teachers the cool things ms. forster can do on the SMART board...THAT'S WHAT'S UP)


and we are proudly displaying our writing on the wall outside of the classroom.


If I've learned one thing in the past three weeks, it's that NOTHING is ever permanent in a classroom. You have to change, try new things, adjust, try again, change, adjust and try again CONSTANTLY. I guess that's what makes this job so special. It's definitely NEVER boring. Literally. NEVER. Seriously. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mental Health Awareness Month Resources and Reflections

General Mental Health Awareness Resources (linked below): National Institute of Mental Health Mental Health America Brain and Behavior Research Foundation National Alliance on Mental Illness National Eating Disorders Association Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Donor Drive (in honor of Ryan P. Johnson) Myths v. Facts of OCD: International OCD Foundation

Guest Post: Ms. Nelson

A note my dear teacher friend in Minnesota sent me that I think everyone (ESPECIALLY first year teachers, TFA and non-TFA) should read. Hannah, If we’re being honest here, this is the first time I’ve read your blog post, BUT, I’m very glad I did. And here’s why… I feel the same way. You are bored living in the Delta. I am bored living in St. Cloud. I feel there is no one here who is under the age of 30 and not married. My college roommate lives nearby, but she doesn’t like driving into town on the weekends. I drove out to see her a few times. Then I stopped. Since then, she’s seen me once, after work. She has yet to drive into town just to see me. I feel like I should make friends, but I spend 12 hours at school and I live alone. I tend to leave on the weekends so I can see people I know. So, I tell myself I don’t have time to make friends. I convince myself next semester will be easier. Maybe I’ll make friends then. As far as teaching goes, I’ve been barely keeping my head above w...

werk ur body

My beautiful and wonderful friend Anna Ayers Looby sent me a link today that really got me thinking. Here's the link: http://sspw.dpi.wi.gov/sspw_physicaled Basically it gave me the flashing reminder that my students NEED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY in their daily lives. Everyone should have a total of 60 minutes of some sort of physical activity every single day. Since my students only get P.E. twice a week, most of them just want to eat their snack instead of run around at recess, and the rest of their 8 hour day is spent sitting....majority of those minutes depend on me. Now, when your school and state have a deathly fear of failing and standards, objectives, mastery, and test scores are at the core of everything you do, it's easy to forget about the importance of educating well-rounded children. If you'd asked me to add physical activity to my classroom during my first year of teaching, I probably would have started crying (ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME I CAN HARDLY GET ALL THE...