My Classroom

  This was my classroom back in February when I first started in 2nd. Not much going on, but let me tell you...it was as grey and dull before I put a few touches on the walls. I wanted to use the accordian door for something, so I decided on my word wall. It is great space and at this time the other 2nd grade teacher couldn't open the door because of her bookshelves. The word wall lasted a couple of weeks and then I decided to move it to the huge bulletin board at the back of the classroom (blue and yellow). I moved the guided reading table to the front of the room (table with the tablecloth) because it was right in the away of everything. My first two projects when I came in February were my daily 5 chart and the what to do chart. Needless to say, I didn't wind up using either of them. Although, I do plan on actually using the what to do chart next year. I wound up doing daily 5 on a checklist on a clipboard, which was much easier and let me track what the students did all week.

It was extremely hard coming into a classroom in February and not having any time to decorate my room with a lot of thought. That is why I am looking forward to next year so much. I have all summer to work on my projects, thanks to many bloggers and Pinterest.

What I love about my classroom:

• the accordian door! Towards the end of the year the other second grade teacher and I made room to open this door and it was so helpful. It's nice to have when you have to run out to the bathroom or have to make a last minute copy. With no TA's/aids in my room, it was difficult to function everyday.
• my Promethan board! It is such an awesome teaching tool. Don't know how I ever taught without one!
• lots of cabinets and a pretty decent sized closet! Helps me to organize and keep things out of the way of the students.

What I need to learn to live with in my classroom:

• bathroom! Although, I used to think this was a good thing, I now wish it was not in my room. Needless to say, there is a student in there every minute of the day.
• How do I plan to live with it? I bought an open/closed sign from Lowes. Students are only going to be able to use it at certain times of the day.
• no wall space! The wall space I actually have is located in the most useless spots. The walls are painted brick, which also makes it hard to hang things. The teacher in the room before me used hot glue, so I guess I will try that next year. My huge bulletin board is located at the back of the classroom, behind the computer counters and my desk. Problem is, I cannot move either one. My computer has to be plugged in in the back, so moving my desk isn't an option. And I thought about doing away with my desk, but I just don't think I can.
• How do I plan to live with it? Cry and complain until someone builds me a new classroom...just kidding! I will just have to continue to find amazing ideas on other blogs, especially clutterfreeclassroom.blogspot.com!
• it's just too small! I had 22 students this year and the space in my room for desks is soo limited. It is hard to come up with different desk arrangements and I cannot isolate a student when they need to have their own space.
• How do I plan to live with it? Again...Cry and complain until someone builds me a new classroom...just kidding! I will just have to continue to find amazing ideas on other blogs, especially clutterfreeclassroom.blogspot.com!

Polka Dots!!

The summer has begun! The end of the year went fairly smooth. I am back in NY for a few weeks. While I was substitute teaching in NY for four years, I took on a hobby job of wedding planning, so we are here for my big summer wedding on July 7th.

As I will mentioned at least a million times, I am IN LOVE with Pinterest! It is an amazing site and I am addicted. I have a board dedicated to my summer projects, all of which have to do with my classroom for next year. So take a look at my new small group crate seats! My theme for next year is going to be polka dots...and I am creating tons of stuff to match my seats and my blog. Last step will be to add a ribbon along the top of the seat so that I can easily lift the seat up for storage underneath.

To go along with my polka dot theme, I took a picture of the fabric, which I bought at Walmart, and used it as a background for some of my classroom items...

Like my class jobs, which I created 24 of them, so that every student has a job.

And I found an idea on Pinterest, thanks to clutterfreeclassroom.blogspot.com, a behavior management idea that I think will go along perfect with Power Teaching.

Hello Blogging World!

Hello blogging world! I have been wanting to start my own teaching blog for quite some time now. Trying to decide whether or not to buy a template or create my own. Well here I am! I create my own template and I am ready to start blogging about my teaching adventures. As you can see in my ABOUT ME section, I have recently moved to VA from NY. I started teaching 2nd grade back in February and here were are at the end of the school year already. I have another 9.5 days left with the kids and then I will be packing up my 2nd grade room and turning it into my 3rd grade room. The school where I work is a looping school, K with 1st, 2nd with 3rd, and 4th with 5th. I am very interested, excited and a little nervous to be teaching two separate curriculums. Especially where 3rd grade has the SOL testing and 2nd grade does not. My class list is created for next year, having tried to stick to the integrity of the loop. Although, I will be the second SPED classroom in my team next year, so the kiddos have been moved around a little bit. I will be keeping about 1/2 of my class. Unfortunately, I am not getting certified to teach gifted students, so the those students that I put up and have been accepted into the gifted program this year will not be able to stay with me for 3rd grade.

As my first official blog, I want to say that I have been following some others out there and I am so grateful for the ideas and the inspiration! I hope that there are some teachers, moms, or anyone, for that fact, out there that will benefit from my blogs and posts. Here's to the end of the year for some and a great summer for all!