my classroom!

Since my last post I have finally finished my classroom! I have also completed Project CHILD training for an Intermediate Reading teacher position. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Project CHILD, it is a program for schools where students rotate between 3 core subject teachers; Reading, Writing, and Math. They also stay with the same cluster of teachers for grades 3, 4, and 5. However, things are done a little differently at our school. Our school is only K-4, so I will be teaching 3rd grade Reading this year, and I will keep the same group of students and teach them 4th grade Reading next year. Within the school we have two of these CHILD clusters. The cluster that I will be teaching Reading within is the Jungle Cluster. The other cluster is the Luau. I'm really looking forward to this experience and really getting to know this upcoming group of students! The team work with the other Jungle Cluster teachers as well as the Luau teachers has been amazing! I love having a group teachers to bounce ideas off of and work so closely with. 

Here is the only before picture I have. When I went to my room I was just so ready to get to work on it that I kept forgetting to take pictures. 

Here is the exciting part! My classroom! I decided to go with a Zebra and Teal theme and color scheme for my room, keeping in line with the Jungle theme of our cluster. 

This is the banner that hangs outside my door in the hallway. It is all zebra on the backside. I am at the end of the hallway so I just needed to put my name on one side. The letters also have a zebra print on them.  Cory's wonderful mother (my future mother-in-law) made this for me! I don't sew. I'd love to learn but I have had the time yet! Ha! 

This is the outside of my door. It's kind of hard to read. The letters aren't very bold and I think that may have something to do with it. My door says "Ms. Clarke's Room...Welcome to the Jungle!" Cory was a big help stapling the fabric to the door! 

This is my desk/Teacher Station. Part of Project CHILD is having the students visit different stations teaching a specific concept for two weeks. As they visit the various stations they will fill in a passport to reflect on where they have been. The other stations are Textbook, Challenge, Word Study, Reading and Listening,  and Computer. I have also added a Spelling Station and an Extra Book Station to incorporate CAFE, for a total of 8 stations. Cory's mother, Margee, also made the black curtains covering the bookcases below the counter. I have my teachers manuals stored in them, other teacher resources and then my classroom textbooks of Reading Street. The students in the Jungle are grouped into three color groups, Red, Yellow, and Green. The folders will be used to store the students DRA information. The blue chair I bought at IKEA for $15 dollars! I just had to share my great deal with you all! Below is a picture of my calendar! I love the owl border and how it brings out the colors of the calendar set. I bought all of this stuff before I knew of the Jungle theme, but I still think it looks great! 

Here is my teacher toolbox! Of course I got the idea from Pinterest :) but it was perfect for me since I do not have a desk! 

Panning the room counterclockwise from my desk is the SMARTboard and a filing cabinet. On top of the filiing cabinet I have my document camera. I also have that rainbow drawer cart from a previous post filled with colored cardstock. My reading director's chair, instead of a rocking chair, is also there.

On top of the rainbow cart, you can kind of see the tin where I will have Skittles as a reward for the students. This idea I got from the teacher I student taught under. She has inspired a lot of the things in my classroom! You can see the tin much better in the picture below. 

This bulletin board is to the left of my SMARTboard. It has the CAFE Menu on it. I went a head and added all of the strategies. With my classroom also being a CHILD classroom I felt that this would work best for the students, because they will not all need the same strategies at the same time. Project CHILD promotes independence with the students as well, and that is something I feel is important to foster within them as well, so I have placed supplies in the carts. The cart drawers are labeled "Crayons, Colored, Pencils, and Markers". The next cart of drawers is labeled "Scissors, Glue Sticks, and Glue". The other two drawers will contain the materials for the science stations. I haven't labeled them yet in the picture. You can also see some of the Project CHILD posters. They explain procedures for passports and stations. There is also a board to designate stations to the students in the Red, Yellow, and Green groups. 

I have also decided to incorporate the Beanie Baby reading strategies into my classroom. I feel that this will be very beneficial for my lower level students. I haven't decided whether or not I would like to post the strategies yet, or post them as I introduce them. We'll just have to wait and see. 

This is my Word Wall. I used the Dolch Sight Word list in order to determine which words I added to the wall. Cory was a huge help with this! It was definitely the most time consuming bulletin board. :)

Here is my clock and sink! I love the colors of the minutes around the clock, but my favorite part has to be the sign to remind students to wash their hands! 

Here is my birthday chart and the pencils on top of the filing cabinet are Happy Birthday pencils for my homeroom students on their birthdays. Below is a picture of the inside of my door. 

All three of the Jungle cluster teachers have this "In the Jungle we do..." poster. One of my co-teachers made them all for us to display! 

Here is my Star Chart and Brownie Points. This cart is also the one the upcycled in my previous blog post. This is where the students will turn in their work. 

Here is my computer station! And my closet! I was so thankful to have a closet in my classroom. This circle table is also where my Challenge Station will be located. Below is a before picture of my classroom library area. 

Here is my library now! I love it. It has definitely been a lot of work but it will be worth it to help instill a love of reading in my students! :)

The "Recent Reads" board will be a place for students to post book reviews of books that they have read. I'm really excited for them to share books that they have enjoyed with their peers. Also I have an "I Pick" poster for the Daily 5 and Cafe. 

It's hard to tell from this picture, but here are my new curtains! They go with my theme a lot better than the green lady bug ones, left by the previous teacher. I found teal flat sheets at Wal-Mart for $5.00 and Margee turned them into curtains for me! It's hard to see their true color from this picture because the sun is coming through, but they are more of a teal than a blue.  This station is my Reading and Listening station. 

I'm really excited for school to begin! I still have some things to accomplish before the year begins on August 8! Tomorrow is our registration day and I can't wait to meet some of my students and their parents. I'm so blessed to have been given this opportunity and am so thankful for all the help I've had from my family and friends in order to get my classroom ready. 

update

I have been so busy finishing up my job with the Parks Department and working on my classroom that I haven't had a second to update this blog. My goal is to be completely finished and ready for the first day come Wednesday. Expect pictures then, of my completely finished and ready to go room.

Getting crafty!

I know it has been a while since my last post, but I've had so much going on getting ready for summer job! During the summer, I work for a program partnered with the school system and the city parks department. We provide a recreational summer program for low-income students. My job duties are basically the same as a principal during this program. I complete all the administrative duties, as well as planning field trips, managing a staff of leaders, and my least favorite part, disciplining the kiddos who don't make the best choices, behavior wise.

When I'm not running this program at Evans School, I've been trying to get things ready for classroom at home or working on my room during the weekend. Unfortunately, I have not taken any pictures of classroom! I don't know why but I guess when I get in there I just get busy cleaning and organizing that I don't think about it. I did put a reminder on my iPhone, so hopefully I'll get some the next time I'm there :)

This has been my latest project. They were cleaning out an office as I was getting some things ready for the parks department. Anything left in the conference room was up for grabs! When I saw this cart I thought it would be perfect for turning in papers, or maybe a tool for me when determining students Readwell levels, during RTIs, or even DRAing students. I'm not sure what I'll use it for yet but I know it will come in handy!

It was pretty boring and plain looking so I decided I would spruce it up a little bit!

Here is what I used:

• Scrapbook paper
• Spray glue
• Cardboard
• Scissors

 First I measured each section and created a pattern for each section, so that I could trace it onto the scrapbook paper. Once I had traced all 14 rectangular pieces and all 14 square pieces. I realized that the paper would not lay flat on the square sections because it was not level. That's where the cardboard comes into play. I laid the cart on its side and placed strips of cardboard to help level it out.

I attached those pieces of cardboard using the spray glue and let it dry. Then I arranged the pieces of scrapbook paper. I tried to get different colors in each section. 

Then I sprayed each piece of paper down into its section. The paper seems like it has a ton of glue on it as its sprayed but it dries just fine. Here's how it looks just after I glued the pieces down. 

And here is a finished side. I finished the other side after letting the first side dry. The key to this is to spray the pieces of scrapbook away from the cart so that the over spray doesn't make the rest of the cart sticky. I'm going to use some Goo Gone to clean up any sticky areas but I haven't had a chance yet! 

I also purchased this cart at Wal-Mart for $30 dollars. I love it and it was really simple to put together according to Cory :) He had it together in about 10 minutes while I was making dinner. The best part about both of these carts is that they both have wheels so they are easily moved. 

I promise my next update will have pictures of my classroom! I'm hoping to get over there a few days this week and get some more of the resources that were left for me put away. It's such a long process to go through everything and figure out the best way to organize it. But it's getting there! 

Professional Development

My career has officially begun! This past week I participated in two district-wide professional developments. I know this is just the excitement and the newness of it all, but I throughly enjoyed both PDs (nerdy of me, I know).

On Wednesday, our district had a PD on DRA (Direct Reading Assessment). We were trained on how to properly assess our students reading levels. As a reading teacher I was absolutely thrilled to receive this training.

This program that we will be using, DRA2, not only helps determine what grade level the student is reading at but it also helps to narrow down which component of literacy the student is struggling with most. This really helps with planning instruction and making lessons more individualized. This will be great for me and helping with the implementation of CAFE which you can read more about here.

Thursday's PD was held at out district's high school. Other area districts were also invited to attend. 900 teachers, K-12 were in attendance! We were able to choose 4 sessions, put on by various educators in the area. I chose a session on Marie Carbo, one titled "My student has the ability but not the desire. Why?", and two on RTI.

They all were excellent and I am thrilled to be a part of such a growing school district. In other exciting news this week, I got my school keys! The teacher whose room I will be taking over, said she should be moved out soon and that I can go ahead and start putting things in the room! :) I can't wait to get in there!

I also started selling some of the things I have created for my room on Teachers Pay Teachers. A link to my store is on the left hand side of this page. Please check it out and leave feedback! There will be more to come :)

Book Leveling and Organization!

Phew! Life has been busy lately. I just recently finished up student teaching and graduated from Western Kentucky University! (WOOOHOOO!!!!)

Okay, so here's what I've been working on lately. I have been on the hunt for books for my classroom library. I had a small collection of chapter books that I purchased when the local Borders went out of business. Each book was only a dollar! I also bought some picture books. I've been shopping for lot sales of books on Ebay as well. Today I went Goodwill and purchased 22 books for 10 dollars! So far I'd say I've been pretty successful but I'm done book shopping for a while, it's starting to add up! If anyone has any suggestions on places to purchase cheap books, please let me know. :) I spent the afternoon using Book Wizard to determine the Lexile Level and DRA level for the books.  I used address labels to mark all the books as "Property of Ms. Clarke" and placed that label in the front inside cover.

[James and the Giant Peach]

Next I made a label for each book marking the Lexile Level and the DRA level. I placed this label in the back of the book, because it's more for my reference than the students but eventually I would like them to be aware of their DRA or Lexile level and use that to double check themselves after using the I PICK strategy from The Daily 5.

[James and the Giant Peach]

My next project was from Pinterest! I decided to make some pencil pails because I can't stand the sound of pencils being sharpened and disrupting hard working students. So I've decided that pencils will be sharpened at the end of the day and that can be one of the classroom jobs. I found this adorable label on Pinterest courtesy of Donna and her blog. You can find the labels on her blog. She has adorable pails with pencils on them, but I had no such luck finding any. So I went with yellow. 

I thought they turned out pretty cute! I also used my labels to create labels for my binder clips. Another idea I got off of Pinterest! :) I labeled mine for the days of the week and also Copy, File, Grade, Pass Out, To Do, Graded.

This week I'm meeting with the rest of my team for next year and I get to see my classroom! I'm thrilled to finally get in the building and get busy. I'm hoping to accomplish a lot this summer on organization for my room but it's slow moving. Until next time! :)

My first blog post!

After discovering that I would have a teaching position for the 2012-2013 school year, I knew I wanted to create this blog to share my experiences and to learn from others during my first year teaching. I'm currently finishing up my student teaching in a third grade reading classroom. This has been an excellent experience for me and has really prepared for the upcoming school year, where I'll be teaching third grade reading at another school in Owensboro. 

I've been addicted to TpT and Pinterest lately (which I know most of us are)! I've found so many interesting and great ideas for my future classroom and I can't wait to get in there and start setting it up. I know I'll be implementing CAFE and the Daily 5. If you haven't had a chance to get familiar with these than I highly recommend you do :)

I'm still not 100% sure on all of the things that I may implement classroom management wise, but I do know that I will be using the Brownie Points rewards. The amazing teacher I taught under for student teaching, has given me so many great ideas to use in my own classroom. Here are some of the things I know I'll be using: 

The Brownie Points are awarded each time the whole class is given a compliment for their behavior in the hallway, special classes, the cafeteria, field trips, etc. Also, our district uses a Star Chart Behavior System where the students begin the day on white. They have an opportunity to move their stars up for good behavior or good work through out the day to green, blue, and purple. They even have the opportunity to be above purple. For bad behavior or poor work, stars can be moved down to yellow, orange, or red.  Students have an opportunity to move up and down the star chart through out the day and each day the students begin on the neutral color, white. At the end of the day, depending on where the students are, different rewards are given. 

ABOVE PURPLE = Sticker, Candy, Note Home

PURPLE= Sticker, Note Home

BLUE=Sticker

GREEN=Verbal Praise

WHITE= Neutral

YELLOW= Walk two laps at Recess

ORANGE= Walk four laps at Recess

RED= Note Home, Principal Visit, No Recess

Brownie Points can also be given if the whole class ends the day on green or above. This helps the students encourage each other to get their stars up. Once the students fill up the tray with brownies, then they'll get some sort of treat! I love this system and can't wait to see how it works in my classroom! 

I'm hoping to check out my classroom sometime next week to see how much room I'll have. I'm so anxious to get in there and get going. :)