Classroom Set-up 2012-2013

I finally finished setting up my classroom for the 2012-2013 school year.  I spent at least four full days working on it and I must admit, I'm very happy with the final product.  Let me take you on a photo tour of my room.

This is part of my desk.  This year I split it into two parts.  All my technology is on these two desks.  The computer hooks up to the LCD projector.  I have my IPEVO camera which I use like it's an ELMO document camera.  It's perfect!  And best of all, it was only $70 with free shipping.  It works so well and it can come off its stand so I can show students things close up in things such as science class.  I will also be able to put my iPad on the desk as well and hook it up to the LCD projector (which isn't shown). 

Also shown is our calendar, our class rules and the arrow pointing to the piece of paper is our School-wide Student Learning Expectations which changes daily.  I have a large file cabinet to the left and a closet that holds all of my resource books among other things.  

 Here is the other half of my desk.  In front of it, is my Puffball Machine which is part of my classroom management program.  You can read about it here.  In the green crate I collect samples of student writing and the folders peeking out are "Absent Work" folders for those students who miss class.

 Here are the students' morning work folders, Early Finishers notebooks and reading workbooks.  On the shelves are the games for the classroom.  Those are typically used during rainy days.  To the right which is cut off, are all my math manipulatives......I have a TON!

Here are the community supplies.  I got the baskets at the Dollar Tree about six years ago.  I LOVE the bright bold colors they came in.  I also repurposed an old Enfamil container to hold our colored pencils and an old Lysol container to hold eraser caps.  There is another one that holds my clothespins but you can't see it.  And of course, my favorite carry all caddy.  I love those things.  They hold crayons and markers if the students need them.

This is my prayer table - since we are a Catholic School, all classrooms are required to have one.  I have rosaries, prayer cards, Saint books and more here available for the students.  And above are our Beatitudes and The Ten Commandments posters. 

On the shelves are just more supplies for the students, Glade plug-ins and math sheets.

Here is our classroom library.  I have over 1,800 books available for the students to check out.  My librarians use the computer in the back corner to manage and check-out books.  I use a program I got called Book Collector.  It was relatively cheap and has served me well for 6 years.  In the library, I have my genre posters on the back wall and to the far right by the windows I have my Reading Strategy posters.  You can download both for free in my TpT store.

This is the back side of my library.  I moved the couch out so we had some extra room in the library.  This will also provide students a space to read without being crowded by those looking for books.  The paper tray holds all our special paper and construction paper.

The flipchart has a whiteboard in the back where I list the homework for the day.  Also, the hooks are where the students will put their backpacks and other belongings.  You can't really see it but behind my flipchart is our supply closet which holds all our art supplies.  I also have a large table where I meet with students.  The white container holds student prizes and my favorite art drying rack is the red thing on the floor.  I love that rack!  The green bulletin board is where I plan on putting up the Early Finishers set I got from Shelley Grey's TpT store.

 This is our side whiteboard.  Surrounding it are a bunch of resources that we refer to throughout the year in Language Arts.

Here is our classroom culture poster that I created and had printed through Vista Print.  You can read about that here.

Here is my Mountain Language bulletin board.  This is a great way to reinforce and practice DOL.

Here are the carts that hold more math manipulatives and our paper supplies.  I got these at Staples a few years ago.  I love them.

Here are my Kleenslate whiteboards which I won and our Logic Links puzzle pieces.  The students and I love our Logic Link puzzles.  They are tons of fun!

This is where students turn in their homework.  I have a system for collecting homework which makes it far easier for me come grading time.  Read about it here.

This is the front of my room.  I project up on that board.  On the far right is where I list our daily schedule.  I made a large magnet that says "Mrs. Lyon's Class Schedule" on Vista Print.

This is the laptop cart and above it is our TV which I'm hoping to replace with a flat screen (wishful thinking).  Also is the poster on the wall shows students how to properly label their paper headings.

This rolling cart with I got at Big Lots hold a variety of things.  Regular pencils, fun pencils, fun erasers, my whiteboard markers among many other items.  On top sits my LCD projector which is connected to my computer.  Not a super expensive LCD projector and it works for what I need.

Here is my Monday thru Friday cart where I store any handouts or copies for the week.  On the floor next to that are my iPad chargers.  No iPads in them yet.  They are coming soon.  However, students will be able to take them home so this is just in case we need them and also to be able to easily sync them.  And of course, sitting on top is my mailbox.  I got the mailbox at Home Depot for about $6.  Great deal.  Students can leave me notes inside.




Here are a few shots of my room from different angels. 

In addition to finishing my classroom, I also created my student binders for the year.  The past couple of years, we have had iPod binders which stood for "I'm prepared and organized daily".  I also create the students nameplates on different colored iPods too.  Since my class is going to have a class set of iPads, I decided to drop the iPod binder and incorporate a new product - the iPhone.  So my binder this year is called the iPhone binder which stands for "I'm Prepared, Highly Organized and Neat Everyday".  (I really don't work for Apple....I swear!) Since I'm known as one of the "techie" teachers I figured this theme fits.  Plus the younger kids always love to see their name on their very own iPod nameplate for some reason. haha

Binder Cover Sheet

Examples of Student Nameplates for desks

This year, my binder consists of a 2" blue binder, a pencil zip case, a ruler/3 hole puncher, 8 tabs with labels for the different subjects and of course the students' agenda.  I typically collect $15 per student so I can purchase all the supplies needed for the binder, some folders and notebooks and have them all matching and ready to go the first day.  This way, the students DO NOT purchase any folders, notebooks, binders, etc - just general supplies like pencils, markers, etc.  

I also came across these great stamps which I think will tie in nicely to my technology theme.  I can use them when stamping the students' agendas or homework.  They will definitely get a kick out of them!

Website Wednesday: Schoolgirl Style

Okay, so typically my featured website on Wednesday aren't blogs or stores but when I stumbled across this teacher's blog I was floored!  My addiction to all things that are visually stimulating was in high gear when cruising Melanie Rulbusky's site.  Talk about a majorly talented designer (and by the looks of it, teacher too) - Melanie masters the art of making her classroom a welcoming place for her students.

I have always prided myself on my own room. It is 99% of the time extremely neat and organized and while I've always dreamed of making it more themed, I've always been typically happy with what I have managed to do.  But after seeing her site and ideas, I am now charged up to make some bright colorful and creative changes to my own classroom!  I can't wait to start my design board. :-)

Not only does Melanie create welcoming environments for her own students, she also shares her work with others for a nominal fee. And since time IS money for many of us, I think it's a fabulous and wonderful thing that she does sell them for other teachers to use.  Be sure to check out her latest creation - an Owl themed classroom.  She also has a Pinterest (of course) with more fabulous ideas.

Have you come across a classroom or design website that you just absolutely love? Share it below. 

smART Recycle

Yesterday, my 5th grade students were fully engaged in a fabulous art project - which was all about using recycled materials.  While I typically teach art once a week to them, we were lucky to have a parent volunteer come in and do a project with Kindergarten through 8th grade.  For the past couple of weeks, the school has been collecting recyclable materials to be used for this project which will be featured in our end of the year Art Expo.

Each class is pretending they have discovered a new species of tropical birds. From there they use the materials provided to create their bird.  Some classes used water bottles, others paper plates, etc. My class used a box as the body and went from there.  Before the boxes were first handed out, they were first spray painted in bright colors.  After that, students used toilet paper rolls cut in quarters for eyes and Q-tips for feet along with a bunch of other scrap and recycled material.  They used sticky tabs and tape to put their bird together and when finished, we reinforced it all with a hot glue gun.

Now, comes the next fun part! Creating a story about their bird - the students will create stories about how they found their bird, create a description and even name their bird.  They are still working on the actual design part, so we haven't moved on to the creative writing just yet.  However, I wanted to share their fabulous designs!

Have you ever used recyclable materials for an art project? What did you do??

Website Wednesday: Even MORE Apps

I have continued my hunt for fabulous apps to use in the classroom and came across another goldmine - the TCEA Recommended iPad Apps!  I may be late to this one.....as I was viewing this spreadsheet there was 35 other people on it at the same time.  Apparently, this one is a bit more well known.

After visiting the Twitter Account that this particular app spreadsheet had listed, I found out that this HUGE collection of apps (which is being constantly updated) was put together by Texas Computer Education Association aka TCEA.  And while I thought I had spent a lot of time on the other App resource I posted last week, it dulls in comparison to how much time I'm spending on this one.

They have neatly organized by subject - you think of it, they have it listed.  Handwriting, Literature, Creating, Counting, Dividing, Earth Science, Weather, Health & Fitness, Technology.....the list goes on and on and ON.  Seriously - check this one out.  Also, at the bottom of the spreadsheet they have a tab for Personal Use list of apps which was pretty cool too!

Are there anymore app lists that you have found that would be great for me to check out?  Post them below!

"App"mazing Resource

For the past couple of weeks, my principal and I have been discussing the possibility of implementing a 1:1 iPad program at our school next year.  We were able to visit another school within our deanery that started this program in grades K-8.  While there, we were able to walk around and see how they were using these devices within the classroom and speak with the Apple representative to ask any questions we might have.  Prior to this, I visited another school the year before that had implemented 1:1 Macbooks at their school.  After being able to see both of these machines in action in the classroom, I must say that I am sold on the iPad!

At first, I must admit I thought laptops were the way to go, however, now that you can downloads apps such as Pages and Keynote to the iPad, as well as access Google Docs you no longer need the bulky laptop.  And the thought of having a device that eventually all the students textbooks are available on, that would eliminate the need for the ridiculous over sized suitcases backpacks the kids have.  Of course there are somethings that the iPad can't do right now that I will need to still use our laptops for in the classroom (such as the video creation unit my class does), I know that for the day to day stuff the iPad will work.

So, after visiting this school and finding out about some of the apps they were using, I was excited to start researching for other apps (paid or free) that could be used within the classroom setting.  I started with my own class and set-up a document that they could submit apps they were using.  They had to give me some brief info on the app and explain why I should check it out.  (You can see the form here) It was interesting to see how many of my students were using apps they helped them with their studying such as Flashcard+ or calendar apps to keep them organized.  And of course, there is a plethora of games that they told be about too! But even after checking out some of the games, I see the educational value in them as well.  To check out the apps my students have submitted to me so far - click here.

As my students were busy trying to find and submit new and interesting apps to me, I continue my research as well.  Which is when I hit the mother load!!  I had heard about a school district that was heavily into using mobile learning devices and started to snoop around their district page when I came across THIS!

 

The Escondido School District has compiled a list of 198 apps (and it continues to grow) and organized them by grades level, price, subject, type, etc.  You can even choose certain parameters and it will show you only the apps that fit within whatever components you picked.   This was a APPmazing resource I found!  Not only is it updated but it also provided me with a list of apps that I could share with some of the younger grade teachers who struggle with ways to implement the one iPad we have in our classrooms already.  

Hopefully, you'll find this resource useful too!  Have you come across any apps that you love?  Share them below.

Who Wants to Be a Mathonaire??

I was super excited the other day when I received my weekly email from Edmodo with resources that have been shared on their site.  They had this awesome Math game listed and after I checked it out, I knew other teachers would love it too.  It's a take on Who Wants to be a Millionaire but is called Who Wants to Be a Mathonaire.

They have five levels of difficulty - however, I think this would be best for grades 2-6.  Just like in the original gameshow, you answer questions to earn points all the way up to 1,000,000,000.  And you even get the three lifelines in case you get stuck.

I suggest you check it out - I had a lot of fun playing around on it.  The only wish downside in my opinion is that there was no sound.  But I think my students would be hooting and hollering so much when we played that it wouldn't matter in the long run.

How would you use this game in your classroom?  Have you come across any great games? Share them below.



P.S. If you don't know about Edmodo, read my post about it here.

St. Patrick's Day Blog Hunt

Top of the morning to all my Irish (everybody's Irish this time of the year....right?) blog friends.  I hope you have been enjoying the hunt so far.  If you are just joining us today, be sure to check out the following blogs who have had goodies for you the past nine days.

So far we've been to the following:

Day #1: Mrs. Jump's class

Day #2: A Modern Teacher

Day #3: Sharing Kindergarten and Kindergarten Smiles

Day #4: Mrs. Lirette's Detectives

Day #5: Raki's Rad Resources

Day #6: A Special Kind of Class

Day #7: Reading and Thinking Outloud and Dilly Dabbles

Day #8: Kid's Reading Activities

Day #9:  Fabulous Fourth Grade Froggies and Globicate!

I have a couple of freebies for everyone today!  One is a math activity where students are multiplying decimal numbers for your students to do.  The other one, takes me back to fourth grade when I was a child.  On St. Patrick's Day, my teacher had 17 shamrocks hidden around the classroom.  One was in the box of tissues, another in the pencil bin and so on.  All were out of sight but placed somewhere that a student would stumble across it during the course of the day.  If a student found this shamrock, they received a special treat from the teacher.  I remember it was so exciting to see who would find the next one.  So in hopes to bring that same excitement to your class, I have created lucky shamrocks for you to hide around your own classroom.  Simply click on the snapshots below to download these great freebies!

Here's hoping the Luck of the Irish is with your kiddos!  And I have even more good news for you - head on over to JD's Rockin' Readers who also has some goodies for you today!  

Hope you enjoy today's freebies and be sure to head on over to the next blog on day 11 of the hunt tomorrow. Just click on the #11 shamrock and it will take you away. 

And if you haven't already be sure to follow me here.  You can also check me out on TpT, Pinterest and Twitter.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Website Wednesday: RubiStar

Search ability in RubiStar

Hello everyone - it's another WEBSITE WEDNESDAY!!!  Today, I want to talk about my favorite place to get rubrics for almost every assignment you can think of.  Personally, as a teacher, I am a big fan of rubrics.  They really assist me when it comes to grading student projects and writing.  Unlike tests and regular worksheets, I find that grading projects and writing is very difficult and hard to remain consistent from one student to the next.

RubiStar is a website in which you can create your own rubrics for assignments or you can search their database of other teacher created rubrics.  You have the ability to create an account and save any rubric you create and also add it to the database they have for others to search.  Often, when I'm not quite sure what project I want to do, I go to RubiStar and do a generic search of keywords.  For example, if I want a math project idea, I go and search the words "math project" and I quickly scan the results. If I find a rubric that sounds like something I'm looking for, I grab it.  Then I work backwards with the rubric in hand and create the project for my students.  Some of my best ideas have developed this way.

Customizable rubric screen

However, sometimes you don't always find a great premade rubrics for what you need.  When this happens, you can create a rubric.  RubiStar makes this extremely easy!  You choose from a list of customizable rubrics for whatever assignment you are creating one for.  From there, they provide you a blank rubric that allows you to go in and create categories and number values.  BUT the best part is, they also provide a drop down box with premade categories for you to choose from.  And these are also editable.  Once you have your perfect rubric created, you can print it or export it into Excel.

Here are my top two reasons why I think every teacher should use rubrics:
1.  Guidelines - rubrics provide not only the teacher guidelines as to how and what they will be grading on but they also provide those guidelines to their students and parents.  That way it is no secret as to what the teacher is looking for in the assignment.
2.  Self-assessment - I personally love to print out the rubrics and give them to my students when I give the assignment.  When students turn in their final assignment, they also turn the rubric back into me which they self-assessed themselves on.  This has been a huge step in getting students to actually look back over their work.

Now trust me, I know there are MANY websites that you can get rubrics from but in my opinion none are quite as fabulous as RubiStar!  And if you are completely clueless as to what to do, they even provide a tutorial for you.  Check it out and tell me what you think.