My classroom is almost put together with the exception of a
few things like name tags, my language of math board (more to come on this),
and organizing collected papers and items from subbing days. It is comforting to know that my room is
coming together and will be inviting for my students when they come for their
student walk through in a few short weeks.
It is exciting for me to know that it is my classroom, done just the way
I want it. I didn’t have to confer with
anyone on what they wanted done in the room, rather I got to do it 100% my way
this time. Now that the “set up” is
nearly complete, I am left with plenty of time to really contemplate the start
of the school year (something I did not have the luxury of last year in my long
term).
When I student taught, I had an amazing mentor teacher that
I learned so much from like how to really get to know your students and their
families from the start, how to be explicit in my teaching, how to be
consistent in my discipline and behavior management in the classroom, and so
much more. One thing that she does every
year in her classroom is read a wonderful picture book to her class at the
start of the school year: Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden by Edith Pattou. After reading the book, she talks to her
class about how each of them is like a flower in her classroom garden and they
all have different needs. I did this on
the first day of school last year with my 4th grade long term class
and plan to start this school year off just the same.
I want to do a short getting to know you project with the
book this year and am excited to have the results showcased all year long. For my hallway bulletin board, I plan to have
the students take different cut outs and colors of plants and flowers. On the cut outs, they will draw pictures of
things that represent them (their favorites, family, what they want to be when
they grow up, favorite subject, etc.).
After everyone is finished, I want to take some time for the kids to
share what they created and why. Once we
have all shared, I will laminate their “flowers,” glue them onto clothes pins,
put them up on a boarder out in the hallway for us to hang their work on to
display all year long (I’ll show pictures after the start of the school year).
I want to spend the first few days of the school year really
getting to know each of my students well as kids and learners. I want to define what our classroom will look
like together as a community of learners and discuss what we want to get out of
our 5th grade year together.
I want the classroom to instantly go from being my classroom to our
classroom where we all feel a part of the community and belong. I want my students to feel at home to a point
where they want to be there daily and know what is always expected of
them. I am excited to share with all of
you how this goes once the year begins because I strongly believe that the way
we start the year, determines the success we see as teachers at the end of the
year.
Happy early planning for your classroom! I know that it is a lot of work and requires
so much thought and intention behind the decisions we make in the first few
weeks, but I have seen from my subbing experience that that intention behind
decisions is so crucial to the sanity and success we feel as teachers at the
end of a long school day in February, March, April, May, and June.
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