New year. New resolutions. "New" classroom.

Half way through a year I always change up my classroom just a bit. The reason behind this is partially to keep my students on their toes, partially to move them to be more independent as they are preparing for the third grade, and mostly because I need to be rejuvenated about this time of the year. 

I love teaching and I love my kiddos but this is the time of year where they come back from winter break not remembering classroom procedures you've been implementing since August. The math facts you stressed daily and sent home as homework on a consistent basis have somehow slipped from their minds. And they really enjoyed the time off where they may have had little to no structure and now they are coming back to school where structure is needed for safety and sanity. 

Well this year when I went into my classroom over break I ended up changing around and rearranging a lot more than my usual here and there adjustments. 

I added a pencil area where one student will be responsible for sharpening pencils ( I know many teachers have this as a classroom job since September but my kiddos this year struggle with grace and and carefulness, we have gone through two electric sharpners thus far.) and this area is also the home of the turn in baskets. I had been collecting the work prior to this. This particular classroom move is going to be building independence with my students... hopefully.  

 Another change I made was to open up my classroom. I previously had 6 tables for 20 students. This allowed me to have only three students at some tables, that sounds great in theory because less kids at a table = less behaviors...again this class is a unique blend of 16 boys and 4 girls so I was not seeing this avoid meant of certain behaviors, rather there seemed to be more behaviors over the spacing of the tables in comparison with the room. Someone was always bumping into someone else or didn't have enough room or whatever else occurred because there was just a lot of furniture in the room. Most of the furniture is necessary and can't be removed so I had to think outside the block... What if I took out a table? Well my principal very kindly told me I couldn't do that because I could be getting transfer students and I need to have the available seating for them, but I still didn't want this extra table. Long story short and many trail and errors I finally rearranged my desk area (a table I more used for individual testing or behavior control) and I placed the extra round table back by my desk. This new "addition" to my area allows me to have three students working on something seperate, provides room for students who may need a break, and gives me a makeup work area. Plus the center part of my classroom has opened up, my classroom library is now larger so that I can do read aloud in there opposed to up front and there is more room for "comfy spots" during Daily 5. 

Now unfortunately I will not be in my classroom the day we return from break because they are sending me to a workshop so it will be interesting to see how the students react to the "new classroom" I will keep you updated on how these changes affect my students and my learning, so stay tuned!

Mrs. Delanty :)