My First Classroom Part I

Michaele over at Kindergarten's 3 R's posted about her very 1st classroom, so I thought I'd share mine! Now, you have to remember, my first classroom wasn't all that long ago- 2007-2008, although it does feel like a great deal of time has passed.
My first teaching job was in a charter school and my first year of teaching was the first year it was opened. The building we were in was one of 6 buildings on a 20+ acre campus for K-6 (at the time; now K-8). The buildings were previously a YWCA and (a long time) before that the buildings were part of a Catholic orphanage.

Here is from when I first was able to see my classroom, pre-doing anything!




Ok this was the only picture I could find before I had done anything, even though I KNOW I had a few other pics! My classroom had NO windows! (Actually both of my classrooms didn't have windows, but that's a whole other story.)



Both of the above pics show all of my teaching stuff I moved into my classroom. Let the record show that the hallways and other classrooms were still being worked on and many of us did not have doors and no one had air conditioning, which is a pain without a window! You all know how it is! The right picture, including the yellow bin, are ALL of my children's library books at the time. I have MORE now. Yes, I have an addiction to children's books. I readily admit it!

So I then attempted to find the best set up for my classroom:



The left picture is a merging program I used (can't remember the name of it; it's been too many years!) to show a panoramic view of my classroom. I'm standing facing the class from that one and the one on the right I am standing in the back facing the front of the classroom.

I don't have a ton of pictures from this year for some reason. (I'm going to have to search! I know I have them somewhere!) In the right picture, where the easel is, is where I placed my teacher desk. Up from on the left where the kidney table is alternated 2x during the year. When I started the year, I left the table there so I could work with small groups.

In the picture with the yellow bin way above, I pushed the long table against the wall and made that a Writing Station and called it "Fishing for Writers" or something along those lines.



Looking at the two above pictures, I'm trying to remember the placement because these don't make sense to me. I must have switched sides of the room for my library after I first started setting up the room, I just don't remember doing that. This is not good to be forgetting so much at only 27!! **Update! I figured out WHY these don't make any sense- these are from classroom #2! So I'm not losing my mind! WHEW! :) **

Facing the kiddos, in the back left corner is where I placed my library. I know part way through the year I received a roll-y storage thing (storage on both sides) which I loved because I was able to store our Saxon math manipulatives on it.

Part way through the year I ended up moving the kidney table to the back and the long table to the front. I placed mailboxes on that and used my kidney table for small group lessons (as I could teach them). I also brought those wire storage cubes from college and put them behind the kidney table to store my reading program materials (SRA's Reading Mastery).

I'll keep my eyes peeled/search out my other pictures from my first year. I know I took LOTS of pictures that year because it was my first year and I wanted to remember everything!

So stay tuned for MFC Part II!

Summer Sick

Don't you hate it when you get everything done and the first week of freedom you have, you get sick? Yep, that's me this week. Nasty summer headcold :(

Am working on getting some pictures, etc, uploaded in the next week.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Smart Cookies

Mrs. Bainbridge's Class is hosting her first linky part on the unique sayings we use in the classroom, so I thought I'd join in!

1. Smart Cookie
I call my students smart cookies when they get an answer right, and I usually get a startled look or a "I'm not a cookie!" Then I eventually get smiles after I say it a few times. :)

2. Put it in your binder, take it home and.... "Show your parents how smart you are!"
After reviewing our morning work, I would have my 2nd grade kiddos put there morning work in their TEAM binders and would say this phrase- apparently repeatedly enough that they would start saying it for me or say it if I forgot, or to remind a neighbor! :)

3. How old are you? or What grade are you in?
Typically used when in line with my class, or when I've been subbing and a class is a bit unruly- most of the the time it works to get the line in better order.

4. Who's going to win... the boys... or the girls?
Straightens a line right up, especially as a sub!

5. You are so beating my 2nd grade class from last year (or the reverse, Hmm... I think my 2nd grade class did a much better job than you)

6. Hold your horses!

7. I'm going to change my name and not tell you what it is!

8. I am not Mrs. Smiling, that is my mom! And I am not my mom!

9. Unless you are bleeding, dying, puking, have a broken bone, or about to puke, you're fine!

10. A student comes up in tears or fake-tears, and I can tell they just need attention, they say, I hurt my *arm* holding it limply up to me. I have them shake it, and more or less do the chicken dance, saying, Oh no, we better call the hospital! And when they are giggling, I say guess no hospital!

There are so many more, but I've been out of my own classroom for so long that I've started to forget them! Since subbing, I've also used different ones than I did with my own kiddos. You know you use some of these a lot when kiddos start to repeat them or use them on each other!!

Smiling Teacher

***UPDATE: Just thought of #11:
We all know how little ones like to sit on their knees in the chairs, and a phrase I often use:

"Butt in the chair, not in the air!" :)

Another one!
#12: I have a rule about me "comfy" teacher chair in the group area (formerly a rocking chair). Students are not allowed to sit in it unless they have gone to college. :) They try to sneak in the chair and I often ask them, Have you gone to college yet? :)

Followers, Library, Book, & Tutoring

Wow! Three followers! I've very happy to have 3 followers and have so many ideas and things I would like to share with everyone out there in the blogosphere!

However, I just finished a four class tonight on Emotional and Behavior Disorders, so my brain is a bit loopy at the moment. :) So, I'm planning on posting pics of my classroom library to go with the linky party at one of the blogs I follow- can't think of which one right off hand, but I will definitely link up when I can.

I also have a whole bunch of ideas to share from both my grad classes and what I'm using with the two students I am tutoring this summer. By the way, I am having a BLAST working with these two. One is an identified special education student who was in my 2nd grade class 2 years ago. She is spunky, and sassy, and a whole lot of fun, but definitely full of personality and keeps me thinking of ways to motivate her. The other kiddo is a general education student who I had just for math class 2 years ago, but had his twin sister in my homeroom. I just started working with him this week- he loves math, but struggles with reading and being motivated by it. So we are working to improve both areas, but especially reading.

Which brings me to... The Book Whisperer. I keep seeing all the TBA [Teaching Blog Addict] peeps post about this, so naturally I was curious and just picked it up from the library today. I am excited about it and can't wait to start it next week after my last summer class is kaput for the summer! [Only 1 group paper, a few discussion board posts, a self-eval, 1 class, and 1 final and I am done for the summer!] Then I get 4 weeks of no grad school classes! Excited! Also looking forward to hearing about my practicum placement.

So there is hopefully enough to keep my lovely readers captivated!! :) Hope you are having a wonderful, sunny summer so far!

Smiling Teacher

Calendar Planner

Is it possible to be in love with your calendar planner?? Ok, maybe not "in" love, but.... :) I just got a new calendar planner for my classes and appointments and such, and it's just so cute!! :) It probably wouldn't work especially well for classroom planning and such, but I do believe there was a larger version at WalMart. Bonus: it was only about $4!!

I love that it has a larger calendar and then week-by-week! I LOVE the tabs- makes it so much easier to find the months.

How do you keep track of everything you have to get done?