It's funny when you know you have a really bad day, and you're students are really giving you a struggle, yet you give them a few minutes of fun anyway simply because it amuses you. It's bad, but it was a Friday. There was a ton of tapping going on on the desks, I couldn't take it any more. They were trying to make beats in class. I gave them a minute to perform for the class. I think they enjoyed it, then we moved on.

I think that yesterday, they felt bad for me because I'm sick with laryngitis. Today they just took advantage of it.

I need to find a way to motivate my students to get down to business. It takes forever to get everyone to follow one direction. Table points motivate some students, maybe 70%, but not all. Then I have to redirect the others, and while waiting for them the other students fall off task and start conversations. I need to cultivate a sense of urgency in them.

Creating...

Last night I was in the mood for some simple, meditative painting. I decided to merge work and personal interests and create some backdrops for posters in my classroom. These will be our goal and vision posters for the year. I will be printing out our goals and vision and placing them in the center of the backdrop. I used simple tempera paint and poster board. And yes, there is a cat toy in the picture - it's like an I-Spy!

Today I worked on getting some other things set up in the room with my signage. Soon I'll have more information about the reading program and can move forward with curriculum (which is really starting to scare me a little bit, truth be told).

Here's a School Mission/Vision Poster (not my classroom vision but the whole school) - I created this backdrop with paint markers (they're glittery and scented too!).

Classroom Rules:

Bulletin Boards: The student work board is a requirement throughout the school and needs to be formatted as seen here. Can't wait to have something to put up on it!

Class Tracking: Last night I came up with this idea of having a "rock" theme for the two front bulletin boards. I'm sure I was jamming to some 90's dance tunes while painting away like a mad woman, when I head the phrase, "Pump up the volume!" I knew then and there that it had to be my tracker! This is nowhere near finished yet, but it's a start.

Here are some other random things I tackled today:

(For missed work when a student is late/absent.)

(Set-up for a classroom leadership role program. These are essentially like classroom jobs and they rotate each week. I've heard a lot of people say it's impossible to set up for 6 classes - IT'S NOT IMPOSSIBLE and you can do it small-scale.)

Day 2 of clasroom building

Today we attended new teacher training day with my school leaders in the morning. Then we were given time to set up our classroom.

I'm blessed to have another reading teacher next door to me, literally a door away (our rooms are linked by a door between them). We've been struggling to set up our rooms because there are lots of different materials around that need to be removed, but we're not sure when or how. We're also not sure what furniture will stay or be placed in our room. However, we're forging onward anyways!

I decided to change the layout of my room. I originally couldn't pair up desks because they are the attached-chair-with-armrest type of desk. My neighbor had some other desks in her room and we swapped, so even though some still have arms I was able to put them on the inside to still pair up the desks. I also received a half-circle table for group practice. Because this takes up a large space in my room, I needed to rearrange.

I also put up the base for my bulletin boards today. Rainbow swirls on a sky blue color. At the right of the room, I have dark blue background with rainbow owls as a border. These aren't the most important things, however they are time consuming tasks that I can get out of the way before I learn more about my curriculum next week. I also unloaded a whole boat of supplies I had and organizational items - homework boxes and supply bins.

All this during crazy torrential downpours flooding the courtyard. Let the summer rains fall! I'm ready!

Set up!

Yesterday I received the keys to my classroom. I will be teaching reading in grades 6-8. My class is designed as an intensive reading course to deliver instruction to students who need reading support. We're switching to a new program this year from last year, so I haven't been able to begin much curriculum planning yet. However, I can at least set up my classroom and get that up and running in the meantime. I'll have to be ready to jump right in as soon as we get our curriculum, and it'll be a huge relief to have the classroom ready before then.

Here's the current layout of the room:

Ideally, the seats would be paired into subgroups of 2 or 3 in a row. However we have the attached-chair desks, so they really can't be put next to each other very well.

My huge task today was to organize and clean up the storage shelves and clean out any other storage areas in the room. There are two entire floor to ceiling storage units full of textbooks from past reading programs, manuals, and other resources for an older curriculum set. I made the shelves a little cleaner and organized, I also increased the safety of the room by removing loose wood and nails, etc.

I reserved the entire middle section for a class library. I am blessed to have a good selection of books in my room from previous teachers. I'd like to supplement this with some higher-level books as students advance through the class. Also, I'd like to find some more current realistic fiction to hook students into reading.

A brand new classroom photo:

Things are getting exciting in here!