from the classroom

My classroom has been a work in progress since the day I was hired (the day before teachers started back). It still is a work in progress so I'm not going to show you everything. I'm pretty happy with the furniture arrangement and it seems to be working well for different groupings. What I'm still working on is the best system for organizing materials (students and mine) and filling the walls. I don't want it to be too busy, but I still have too much blank space.This hangs above the desk where my laptop sits. There is a window to the left. I made the little poster.These friendly faces are to the right of the desk that I reserve to spread papers out all over during the day. (So far I've been successful in cleaning it off before I go home every day.)A closer look at the poster. My mom is always telling me to look for miracles. I thought it would be encouraging to read at the desk where I will soon face many stressful deadlines and meeting preparations.Student supply area. A closer look.Some things to notice: 1) I made the quote banners. 2) The 2 easel paper posters of the first picture in this series (on the left side) are "directions" for how to do 2 of the "Daily Five" that we are using in my room. 3) On the white stars on the respect board, the kids have written ways to be respectful like cleaning up materials, helping others, etc. Most of the kids also wrote and decorated their names.

One area for small group instruction. That is a Promethean Board on the right side. I'm excited to use it...once I figure out how.I don't have enough desks in my room for all my kids so if I ever want to do any whole group instruction, I have to do it here. (Yes, the 3 beanbags are a huge source of conflict for my 15 students.)

What we've been learning about as a whole group these past couple weeks is how to do the "Daily Five." There are 5 things you should do everyday to improve literacy. 1) Read to Self 2) Read to Someone 3) Listen to Reading 4) Work on Writing 5) Word Work. The excellent book, The Daily Five, outlines exactly how to introduce each of these activities and explicitly teach the kids what they should be doing. It's so great because you don't just tell kids, "Ok, now you're going to read silently for 20 minutes." In regular classrooms, if you say that, you might have 4 or 5 kids who actually do read for 20 minutes, but most of the kids (and every kid in the learning support room) will take a long time to get started, move around, fiddle around with other things, whisper to other kids and, essentially, waste 20 minutes of their school day. The authors of this book explain how to instill a "sense of urgency" in the kids about why it is important to do "Read to Self," and explain how to help kids build stamina for reading independently (by starting out with just 3 minutes). My kids can now recite exactly what their job is during "Read to Self." 1) Get started right away. 2) Stay in one place. 3) Stay quiet. 4) Read the whole time. 5) Build stamina. I've had kids model the incorrect way to act during Read to Self and then the correct way. They LOVED this.
So, we go through this sort of direct instruction for each of the "Daily Five." We've completed, Read to Self, Read to Someone and Work on Writing. We've still got a lot of work to do, but I'm proud of what they've accomplished so far.

A little Friday shopping? I believe in instilling intrinsic motivation in kids, but a little dose of extrinsic motivation never hurt anyone and it certainly makes my life a lot easier. My kids can earn real money to save up for a "Store" that is only open on Fridays. The above is a photo of my newly stocked Store. It needs a name... Suggestions? Kids will do anything for money. One of my ADHD kids (totally non-PC way to say that) immediately scrambles to get back on task as soon as he hears the jingle of my coin cup. It's amazing to watch.