MY BUCKET LIST // Fall'20 - ORGANIZE CLASSROOM
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At the end of August, I talked about THE AUTUMN BUCKET LIST you see above. This past week was the first few days back into the school building, and with hard work, sweat, and elbow grease —- item number one can be checked off the list. My new classroom is officially set up and organized.
WHY THE ITEM WAS ON MY LIST:
Teachers who work in the New York City Department of Education’s public school system don’t know what to expect for the upcoming school year, but if there’s one thing this teacher knows how to do, it’s set up a classroom for optimal efficiency and productivity. Every year, I get better at this, and THIS YEAR, it’s the one aspect of this job I feel like I can still take ownership of.
MY REFLECTION ON IT:
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. I was thinking about how insecure I am when it comes to home design, but how confident and bold I am when it comes to designing a classroom. It was a real pile-party when I walked in, but I’m like a machine. I get it from my mother. If I’m going to spend just as much time in the next 10 months in that space as my home, you best believe I am ATTACKING the clutter and mess and taking NO PRISONERS.
Funny thing is, there’s a good chance students won’t be back. There’s a good chance they’ll start us virtual - even after all this work. At least I know when the day comes that I can teach kids in person again, my co-teacher, myself, and our room will be ready for them. xoxo
OUTSIDE OUR DOOR: I have made this “Welcome” sign and “Where are we?” sign every year. They are the perfect pair to greet any visitors our classroom may have. The “Where are we” also becomes a classroom job and students get to switch out the yellow strip whenever we leave or return to the classroom. (More strips can be seen in the bottom-right of the photo below.)
THE CLASSROOM ‘HUB’: The daily flow and presenting it to the kids (and myself) in a way that’s clear and comprehensive is my #1 TOP PRIORITY. This year I added space for the main E.L.A. and Math Standard we are working on as a 4th grade, and then pockets for each subject’s objective. (That ‘FEEL THE LEARN’ brain is my favorite thing in the room.)
SECRET STUDENT: Secret Student is a simple, easy, socially-distant behavior management tool I’m excited to try this year. (You can read about how it works HERE.) I designed the graphic above, printed it out, laminated it, and adhered it to a trimmed down plastic sleeve.
ALPHABET: Even though I teach 4th grade, I like to hang up the alphabet. I do this so the kids can reference letter forms as they’re writing. You’d be surprised how many kids - still at 10 years old - mix up their lowercase b’s and d’s. It also works as a visual aid when we discuss vowels and consonants (which none of them know) and researching and filing things in alphabetical order.
CLASSROOM PRIZES DISPLAY: THIS. This right here. This might be the best NEW idea I’ve come up with this year. In year’s past, I’ve kept all the classroom prizes in a big prize box and made “A VISIT TO THE PRIZE BOX” an award the kids could earn.
I discovered that there were two major problems with this…
FIRST, the kids didn’t get to see what was inside until they earned the reward to look. This almost always meant I had to describe prizes to them in order to get them to work for it and after a few days, without the ‘carrot dangling directly in front of them’, it lost it’s steam as a motivating tool.
SECOND, once the kids DID earn the reward to “visit the prize box” they wanted to savor it. What was meant to be a quick, two-minute transaction right before dismissal became a long, lingering dig through the prize box, time to weigh their options, and needing to make a final decision.
The display I created this year - in a part of the classroom where they can’t touch the prizes, but can see them - solves the first problem by making what’s currently available consistently visible and thusly solves the second problem because they will be able to look up there throughout their whole school day and think about what prize they would choose if given the chance.
It’s a small and simple tweak, but genius. // Once a couple a prizes from the display are chosen, I’ll replace them with a couple of different ones, and the prize display will always feel fresh, interactive, and interesting.
Okay! Bucket List item 1 down, nine more to go! I kind of wrote my items in the order I think I’ll be doing them, so next up is a DIY Charcuterie Board! Stay tuned!
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You can download a blank BUCKET LIST design for Instagram, Instagram story, or as a printable for FREE by SUBSCRIBING TO MY NEWSLETTER. You can add text using apps like A Design Kit or Phonto... or add text right in your Instagram Story. You could always print it out and write items in 'old school style' with a cute pen and check ‘em off as you go, too.
