Exhausted = Teacher Week catch up :)

 – side note before we enter . . . I have had a different classroom for 4 years in a row now soooo I’m crossing my fingers that I WON’T have to delete/magic erase/white out “201” on anything next year!

Welcome! I finally got a class list yesterday, soooo 26 stars of mine just got added to my door 🙂 I’m the very 1st door off of the main entrance and my room must be passed for anyone to get pretty much anywhere in our school – so it’s a busy room, but it’s mine…and I heart it.  Like –  a lot.

Lunch count right inside the door – Kiddos will move their numbers to their lunch choice, put their lunch money in the bag in the basket, and lunch count slips are right next to the basket! I’m all about keeping things in one place and easily accessible.  When it’s at your finger tips, you don’t have to stop teaching to go on a search party for the blue Mr. Sketch marker that you “JUST had (it) in your hand!” 😉 #guilty.

Our specials schedule rotates each day from red, to blue to yellow then back to red.  At first, I was like – omiword I don’t know how to keep it straight, and it makes no sense to me – but it works! It also called for cute polka dotted letters to help organize/remember sooo WIN! 🙂 Oh – and there are my classroom jobs that my forever teamie, Yerty, and I COLORED probably 4 years ago.  #coloringistimeconsuming  Those jobs will be retired after this year, so I’ll be creating something new, but I’m going to enjoy their final school year in room 110 201. 🙂

CLIP UP, friends <3 I also have them fly past awesome if they earn it and I wear their clips around on my shirt all day.  They love when I tell them that, when other teachers ask,  “Mrs. Schroeder, what is on your shirt?!”, I get to tell the teachers all about their “off the charts” behavior! They LOVE it.

I like to keep one bulletin board as a seasonal one – and in front of it, I lay out lots of books to match the season/holidays/month/etc.  It’s a great option for early finishers during morning job/routine.

New reading focus board to go with our new reading series {Wonders} that will be covered with anchor charts and kid work soon enough 🙂

Student supplies / in bin and undone trays.  <—- again, something that has worked for YEARS for me and I’ve just never gotten rid of it.  With the nature of our schedule, some times, the kids just don’t finish up what they’re working on.  No problem! Into the undone tray it goes, and they can finish it up during the follow day’s morning work/arrival time!  The in bin is where all of their finished work goes AND notes/paper work that they bring in from home.  Instead of having the kids “put that on my desk”, they know that it all goes in the in bin and I will, for sure, see it!

Here’s my new calendar area behind my reading table with new pennant border! Yay! Oh – and my birthday frames waiting for the kiddos pictures! <3 On that bookshelf is just more of my seasonal binders and books, which I will talk a bit more about in the 2nd half of my post 🙂

So our new reading series has blue/teal covers on everything.  Believe it or not, I didn’t really connect the dots to that fact when I decided to go with a teal/blue theme for all of my reading plans/supplies/bins/labels.  It definitely works, though! Oh and those giant crayons on the windows?! 50 cents for 4 at Pat Catans.  I bought another pack yesterday!  So colorful!

Turning the corner a bit, here’s my nook! I kind of love it, this year. I always have to make my classroom a place that I love to be because a)I want to make sure that the kids love it too and b)I have to have fun things to look at when I’m slaving planning away! I’m definitely happy with my space this year!

Here are where I will post our learning targets for each subject every day.  I need to add a routine ASAP to my morning planning (aka morning run-around-like-a-crazy-person-and-do-as-much-as-possible-before-the-bell) time to be sure to get those posted each morning!

Currently my front board is covered in donation hands for our classroom for open house, but this is the front of the room and the one white board that I will use for teaching (other than my easel . . .).

I won’t lie.  My meeting area needs some work.  I LOVE my carpet and my easel and my leveled book bins.  However, the top of the book shelf is waiting patiently for my mailboxes to be delivered (my year-end supply order wasn’t ordered in May…#officeoops), and I’m just kind of feeling blah about the rest.

   My easel has 4 tubs – 4 huge tubs- for storage under it, which I LOVE for collecting the kids’ back to school supplies when they come in the first day (which is why 3 of the tubs are on the floor).

Other than that, though, all suggestions are welcomed for how to jazz it up!

Computers-labeled with login info:) (I love answering questions before they’re asked by 26 7 year olds)

annnnd word wall, complete with zebras, highlighted vowels and bad glare off of the laminate. 🙂

So there’s my classroom!   Tada!

Why is classroom lighting so fabulous?! 😉

Now – there was no way I was skipping out on “Now Teach” – Organizing for Instruction part of Teacher Week.  When people ask me my hobbies – I very seriously tell them that “organizing” is one of my favorite things to do.  SO here are just a few ways (because my to-do list is screaming at me) that I keep things organized in my classroom!!

One thing I LOVE using for instruction is read alouds.  Now – in 8 years’ time, I have accumulated QUITE the collection, and I, quite proudly, could find any one of the hundreds – probably thousands – of books in seconds!! Here’s how.  . .

This is a very very small section of my teacher books.  The kiddos get their hands on plenty, but there are books that I keep on teacher shelves that are off limits to them unless they’re invited.  To keep them organized, I heart categories and alphabetizing.  Period.  “Mrs. Schroeder, could I borrow Duck for President?” – teacher friend who may or may not have their own copy somewhere in their room but who also knows I can find mine faster than she can find hers. . .

Soooo what do I do? I head to my holiday books shelf – head to my election day books – which are near the beginning of the year and are right before the Thanksgiving books (my categories are shelved chronologically from August to June – and BOOM! – happy reading :). You’ll notice that “Duck for President” is before “My Teacher for President” because, well, that’s how alphabetizing works and why it makes this crazy OCD girl so happy.  Then, to help me to quickly see where I grabbed a book from to use, I just throw a good ol’ post-it in there to save its spot until I finish with it (or until it’s returned . . .I’ll hunt you down 🙂 ).

WHEW! Ok here are just a few, quick pics of other organizing habits of mine that help keep planning and teaching smoooooth sailing in room 108 201.

Files are alphabetized and I also keep one file drawer for a section of “current school year” files…staff meetings/observations//kid files/IEPS/PD/etc.

LABELS! enough said.

Where you need it, put it.  This notes whiteboard is right by my computer so when I get 43289 emails about “Sally goes to girl scouts Thursday, but Uncle John picks her up on Friday…” I can write it down immediately, and then erase it when Thursday and then Friday come and go. 🙂 Let’s face it – if I had to leave my computer to walk across the room to write that note about dismissal somewhere else, I’d forget what I was writing by step 4 when I stopped to pick up Jimmy’s pencil and then stopped to tie Amanda’s shoe.  #teachertruth

Ok – there you have it! My Digs and my Organization to “Now Teach”.

Head to Blog Hoppin’ to join the linky party to see more classrooms! 🙂

Happy Thursday! This sleepy teacher is off to her first official teacher day back!