Thinking about Next Year

Today was the last official day of post-planning, and for the first time in the history of my teaching career, I finished cleaning out my classroom and wrapping up my paperwork on time -- no extra days required this year! Granted, there was some definite "Oh, I'll just shove this in this cupboard and deal with it in July" happening around 5pm today, but nevertheless - I'm done!

The cleaning process was prime opportunity for me to think about what I want to do differently next year, and I'm excited to be linking up with Finding JOY in 6th Grade for her "What Will You Do Differently?" Linky. Here's what I came up with:

As you may have read in my Go Paperless Challenge series, I'm very committed to going paperless in my classroom. I had a great test-run during the last 6 weeks of school where I got to experiment and figure out what works and what doesn't. I'll be sharing many of those lessons here over the summer, but I'm DEFINITELY planning to go paperless. It made such a difference in my organization, efficiency, and productivity, and I MUST keep it going next year!

As we were cleaning out the classroom during the last week of school, I realized how much storage space was being occupied by notebooks, folders, and papers that my students won't need next year in a world where we're paperless. I'll be giving lots of thought to how I can better use the newly-available spaces next year. My initial thought is to put out more math materials for students to access routinely.

I did the book study for Guided Math last summer, and I worked on my math endorsement this year. I feel like I've been working very hard on math, but I'm still not quite getting the results that I want. I want to revamp my math instruction again next year to do more of a workshop approach with guided math groups and more individualized tasks and problem solving. Now that I have a better understanding of the Common Core State Standards for math with a year of teaching them under my belt, I feel ready to take the next step.

What are you going to change for next year? Feel free to leave me a comment, and definitely link up with Finding JOY in 6th!

Friday Freebie: Self-Assessment Posters

A while back I shared this poster from my classroom:

Tonight, it reappeared on someone else's Pinterest board as I was browsing  diligently planning for the new school year, and it reminded me how much I hate the faded marker. So I made some new ones which are now available for free at my TpT store. (You can also click on the image below to get there.)

In the meantime, my classroom is really coming along! I'm so happy to have time to get organized this year. Settling in last year was such a mess...We were moving into a new school and only had 4 days to unpack and set up before the kids arrived. I was also 9 months pregnant and working in 90+ degree heat with unreliable air conditioning and elevator access for my 3rd floor classroom. It was insane! Then I was only there for 3 weeks before going on maternity leave, and by the time I got back, it was hard to make changes.

This year will be SO MUCH BETTER in that regard. I can already feel it, and I'm super excited about it.

I'll share more classroom pics next week. Have a great weekend!

So it starts...

All of the teachers in my district report back to school next Wednesday. Yes, you read that correctly. NEXT WEDNESDAY! While I'm unquestionably excited about meeting a new bunch of 4th graders (27 of them, in fact, if my current roster holds...), there's a certain element of panic that comes with my final week of vacation. A panic that sounds like "What have I done with my summer?" or "Where did all the time go?" or "How in the world am I going to get my monstrous to do list done in time?!?!?!"

Along with that panic came my first visit back to my classroom this week. Here's how it looked when I arrived:

View from door

View from back corner

 It wasn't so bad. The floors are so happy and shiny, and most of the furniture was reasonably close to its original location. There were a couple of casualties, however. A bookshelf broke, and a large section of my classroom library was dumped into the blue recycling bin.

With a couple of hours of work and brainstorming and a little assistance from my friend down the hall, I was able to get it closer to the arrangement I'm planning to try this year.

View from door

The way that it's currently set up, I have 5 tables arranged for students to sit at and the sixth table is at the back corner to be used for small group work. With 27 students, however, that would mean having 5-6 kids assigned to each table, and I'm not sure how well that will work. I'm lobbying to get an additional table (where I'd put it is an entirely separate question...), but I'm not sure my lobbying efforts will be successful. I'll have to think more about this.

View from back corner

From this angle, you can see our class carpet/meeting space and my desk/work area. Since everything is still packed up, it looks so delightfully clutter-free. You can be certain that won't last...

Also from back corner

I'm trying something new this year in that I'm having a book case come out from the wall to make my classroom library more of a U-shape. I'm planning to cover the back of that bookcase with something, although I haven't entirely decided what yet. Probably something related to my class library book checkout or some other chart.

View from inside the classroom library space

My classroom looks a lot bigger than it feels from this angle...

View from my desk

I really love having those windows in my classroom, although our view won't be so great this year. They're going to be building a new wing onto our school, so my classroom will overlook a construction site. I'm sure that will be lovely and not at all distracting. Sigh...

So that's the bare-bones tour of my classroom space. My next back to school project will be to unpack and organize my classroom library. If you have any great suggestions or tips related to that, I'd love to hear them in the comment section!

The Blank Slate of a New Classroom

Somehow I managed to land my dream job in a school district and economic climate where jobs are hard to come by. I'll be teaching 4th grade this fall, and I'm very excited to be joining a new team of educators who seem as committed and enthusiastic about teaching as I am. The minute I set foot in my new school for the interview, I felt right at home, and I can't wait to start this next chapter in my career.

Last week, after all the dust from the 2009-2010 school year had settled and the building had been fully cleaned out by the custodial staff, I got the OK from my new principal to come in and visit my new classroom. I'm currently living about 2.5 hours away, so my trips have to be planned in advance to manage things on the home front. (I'll save the drama about the current living arrangements for another day...) I packed up my car with as many of my personal teaching materials as would fit and ventured off to see my new classroom.

The trip was not without hiccups. The temperature was well into the 90s, and the elevator in the school had broken that morning. As luck would have it, my classroom is on the top floor, so hauling all of my stuff upstairs was fairly grueling. That being said, imagine my delight when I saw my new workspace.

Forgive all the stuff on the tables. That was stuff I unloaded from my car, and I hadn't decided on new homes for it all yet. But check out the windows... and I have a couch!

I'm also excited about the prospect of having tables instead of student desks. I used to cluster desks together into tables anyway, but it seemed to create lots of unnecessary problems when the desks weren't all the same height or size, and some students would argue about which desk had group materials on the top. This seems to resolve all of that, and I'm thrilled. Also, have I mentioned the windows?

There's a lot of great storage in the back of the room, too. You can see cabinets and sink, and to the right of that is my very own walk in closet with two big bookshelves and a file cabinet. And since this is a corner room, there's another amazing window there on the left. Am I lucky, or what?

There are some fantastic storage cubbies right as you walk in the classroom door. The students have lockers in the hall, so I'll have a lot of flexibility in how I decide to use those. There are 18 slots, and I suspect I'll have around 25 students, so it's not enough for each child to have one, but maybe I can assign them to tables to hold different learning materials. I'll have to think about that.

I was also happy to see a giant blue rug rolled up there and an ActivBoard in the front of the room. There's really not much more I could ask for! (Well, except for more bookcases at a good height for my students for my classroom library. There was only one bookcase in there when I arrived, and my classroom library is large and constantly growing. But I think even that will be taken care of before the school year starts!)

I spent the rest of my afternoon mapping, measuring and photographing everything so I can get it set up on my next trip in July. I'm recruiting my husband to help on that trip since he's very patient with my room arranging idiosyncrasies, and he'll be helpful with moving furniture. I'm deciding on classroom layout issues now.

What thoughts do you have about classroom design and layout? How would you use this space for a fourth grade room? Any arrangement do's and don'ts that you can share?