2014-2015 Classroom Tour

Happy Sunday ya'll!

So I'm a tad bit late, but I figured I'd go ahead and give you all a tour of my classroom. A little bit of background: This is my 2nd year of teaching in this classroom. It is about 1/3 the size of a normal classroom at my school. I'm on the "connections" hallway (where students go for their electives classes). I teach math resource, ELA resource, and reading resource in my room. Then I go to the 7th grade hallway for math and ELA inclusion for 5th and 6th periods.

I actually love my tiny classroom. The only problem is that I don't have much wall space or space for activities. But it works for us (me and my kids).

Be prepared for lots of pictures :)

My filing cabinet message board.

My pretty painted bookshelves, courtesy of my fiancé, Chad. He spent two days during preplanning painting this beast.

I like for things to be orderly and matching. These data/info/lesson binders are the first step in my quest for organization.

A little piece of me on the bookshelves. I love the ocean and the Georgia Bulldogs. And then there is a picture of me and Chad at Disney World.

This is my calendar/Meet Ms. Haler board. Pretty much, whatever I need to see daily (schedules, memos) plus some things that make me happy (UGA stuff, cards from friends, a picture of my dad [who passed away in 2006] and my autographed Jason Aldean picture--LOVE HIM!!)

Materials storage. I actually like having class materials out on the bookshelves so this is the easiest way to display them without the kids being able to have too much access to them.

This spot is still a work in progress. I keep bottled water and paper towels in the milk crate. The egg cartons in the WalMart bag are for a math game I have yet to make. And the posters on top of the microwave will eventually get up on the wall.

My desk. It's a little beat up, but I love it. I'm thinking about painting it next summer.

Ticket Out the Door spot. 

A huge standard in 7th grade ELA is learning and using Latin and Greek affixes. So my resource students have five vocabulary words per week.

This is also a work in progress. I'm not happy with the current agenda/daily standards set up I have. But this is where students can always look for info.

This is a new addition to the classroom this year. I always had these books but they were in washtubs and milk crates and totally annoying. So I brought stole an old bookshelf from home (Chad wanted to use it for DVDs...although all of our DVDs wouldn't even fit on it). I'm also storing markers, tissues, cap erasers, pencils, the pencil sharpener, digital clock, and the "I'm Not Finished" box.

This pocket chart is where I let my reading resource kids know what they need from the materials shelf each day.

This is the materials shelf. Last year it was an entire table but this little bookshelf is much more space-efficient. The tubs on the middle shelf are for the reading resource class. Then the tubs on the bottom are for each class period's materials.

I had a HUGE problem last year with students not writing their names on papers. So this is a Pinterest idea I'm trying out this year.

Class Rules.

My unfinished bulletin board. I've still gotta get some standards and student work up. Remind me to do that!!!

This is my Math standards wall for the first chapter. 

The entryway to my classroom. It's a little dark because I took these pictures at like 5 PM when there wasn't much natural light coming into the hallway.

My Wayne County Yellow Jackets-inspired wreath :)

A reminder for all students....plus my Uga head. :)

Welcome sign and room number. This year, our school theme centers around what's next for students. We want them to make good decisions now so that they will get to college once they graduate from high school. So the administration decided to post pictures of where all the teachers went to college. Since they didn't want all four of my colleges posted up, I settled for UGA, since that's where I had my "college experience" at.

August Currently

It's that time again to link up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for this month's Currently. I'm not feeling too well today, so I'll make this short and sweet.

1.) Listening...You know I love me some Jason Aldean! I have the Music Choice channel on and my favorite country artist just happens to be on!

2.) Loving...Chad, my fiancé, painted my built-in bookcases at school Thursday and Friday. I happen to think they look AMAZING. Look for a post about them soon!

3.) Thinking....I have so much left to do at school. My room is a complete disaster. I also need another beach day before the school year officially starts. An old friend from Memphis happens to be at Jekyll Island this weekend so I might see if I can meet up with her tomorrow!

4.) Wanting...Seriously, what has happened to my amazing tan I had this summer? This is another reason I need another beach day.

5.) Needing...Obviously, I need to get my room finished. But more importantly, I need to meet my coteachers. I'm pretty blessed this year to have two amazing math coteachers, one of whom was my SPED mentor teacher last year. He switched over to regular ed, but I think we are going to be a great team. I don't know either of the language arts teachers I'll be working with, though. They're both new so I really have to get down to their classrooms to meet with them and come up with a plan for the year.

6.) 1st day...My first day of preplanning was yesterday, but luckily we have three more days before the kids come back on Thursday. School seems to start earlier and earlier every year!!!