My Plan for Building Comminuty at the Beginning

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 4^th 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 5^th 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.

My Reading Workshop

Starting up a classroom of my own is far more intense than I ever thought.  As I have planned for the placement of my guided reading table, whole group meeting area, computers, my desk, and many other spaces, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what the room will be like in November/December when my room is in full swing with students working independently and me with a small group.  Having had the opportunity to "test" out my teaching style and a classroom layout or two as a long term substitute has been wonderful.  It has also left me with more ideas than I can use in one room (having worked in a hundred or more classrooms in three years, my idea book is full). 

My favorite part of the school day is my reading block.  I love to read and love to watch my students enthusiasm for reading grow during the year.  I have spent a lot of time studying, taking classes, and observing other teachers during this time and have developed a structure that works for my students.and myself  I usually start this time with a mini lesson.  I am a big fan of anchor charts and use them often during the school year.  My mini lessons typically consist of a read aloud that connects to a concept (i.e. cause/effect, prediction).  Check out this area below.

After the mini lesson, my students get to work on their independent work.  I have read and love the books titled Daily 5 and The Cafe Book by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser.  I have found a way to incorporate their ideas into my reading block.  While I work with a small group of students on reading (more to come about my guided reading lessons later), the rest of my class knows that they are expected to be working on their "Daily 5 Choices."  Daily 5 is more geared towards early elementary and my Master's degree and early teaching experience is all K-3, but I have tweaked it a bit to make it just as successful for my 5th graders (used with my 4th grade long term classes last school year).  My kids have 5 "Main Idea" choices - Independent Read, Buddy Read, Word Study, Writing, and Content Area (more on these area's in a later post).

My Buddy Reading station is on the bottom of the left end of the bookshelves and the Independent Reading station is on the bottom of the right end of the bookshelves (in the blue bin).

The entire black bookshelf is my Word Study station.

This is my Writing station.

This is my Content Area station.

When setting up my classroom, I had to take into account these "Daily 5 Choices."  I took a class this summer on Literacy Work Stations that focused around two books (one for primary grades and one for intermediate grades), Literacy Work Stations and Practice with Purpose.  Both books are by Debbie Diller (an author I read a lot of in grad school - where my love for teaching reading really blossomed).  This class talked a lot about providing students with choices during the reading time that are not busy work, rather provide valuable practice to enhance learning.  My five choices this year will be viewed more as "Main Ideas" with choices or "Details" inside of them.  I stationed these five spaces around the classroom.  Each station is housed inside of a portable file bin.  The students choices at these stations will be placed inside of these bins.

Planning for a classroom that will be mine all year long is a lot of work, but I am certain rewarding once the students arrive at the end of August.  I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse of my reading block plans.  I hope to share so much more about it.  After all, learning is reading in many ways!

At the Beginning

I have been a teacher for 3 years, but now have the privilege of starting my "first" year teaching my own class of 5th graders.  I have been a long term substitute in four different classrooms during this time and have even set up one of those classrooms.  Take a look at a picture from that room below.

For the last several weeks, I have been busy moving into and setting up my own classroom.  It has been a lot of work.  After three weeks of moving in and unpacking, my stuff is almost all put away and organized.  Take a look at my library area before below (with the books that came with my classroom - back wall in the picture).

I had to merge my books with all of the books that came with the classroom.  The previous teacher had put the books on the shelves like they are in the picture above.  I love having my books in bins and organized by genres.  So, I spent several days working on the books.  I decided to start there because it seems like it is the biggest job of setting up a classroom (and really took the most time).  I bought these great black bins at Target for all of my books.  I will soon have labels on the bins for the genre's.  Take a look at my organized classroom library below.

My non-fiction books are on a separate shelf off to the side (not in bins - too many!).  They didn't all fit on my built in shelves.

I organize my books by genre instead of reading levels because I want my students to be able to identify what books are a good fit for them anywhere they go.  I am planning on starting the school year with lessons on how to pick a just right book.  We will also be setting reading goals for the year during the first few weeks to go along with book selection.  In the picture above, my top two shelves are too high up for my students to reach, so I put books on display there with storage behind them.

Setting up a classroom has so many different aspects to focus on.  My classroom library was where I started and the room immediately felt more put together.  More to come soon about other parts of my classroom.