Completing the Classroom

Wow! What a week! We really should have had more than 3 days to "officially" prepare our classrooms. I wish I had finished the library summer program a week earlier, but for the most part it's done. Or at least it looks done. I still have a lot of office type work and lesson planning to do this weekend. For now, I'm exhausted. I sure hope once things get settled in, it won't be so bad.

We didn't have our orientation meeting until late this morning, so I had a hard time with preparations. I must say the more I learn about the A Beka curriculum; the more I like it. (curriculum wise...) However, it is /very/ traditional in school format. For instance, supposedly when a student is called on, they are supposed to stand up to speak. Wow. I just can't do that. I will have to train them to do this for chapel however. Also, supposedly the kids must stay in their seats at all times, and they have different hand signals for not just help or using the bathroom, but also to throw something away or get a kleenex. Um....

We had open house this evening, which really consisted of basic introductions and seeing the classrooms. This meant that the room had to be better than just basic for the parents to see. I still think that it's somewhat basic, but I'm pretty happy overall.

So here's the tour...

A hip door for a preteen entrance.

This is the view when you first walk in the door. The one desk is empty because we weren't totally sure about our 6th student, but I'm thinking we will have her. *crosses fingers* At the top is my outside reading incentive. Each kid's name is on a frog and each lily pad is a number of pages. So, when a kid joins the 200 page club their frog moves to the first lily pad, etc. The bulletin board with the calendar has classroom rules/consequenses/rewards on the right. On the left will be the class schedule and eventually great student work. The bulletin board on the right will be added to by the kids on Monday morning.

This is the students' office area where they turn in papers, turn in lunch money, fill out my discipline book, get a pencil or sharpen it, etc. Also my CD player and a beta fish. (And I did not sponge paint that desk either.)

The front of the room. The left charts are "Check Your Work" and "Give Me 5." The writing on the board is a trivia question to ponder over the weekend for a prize. "What is the longest river in the world to flow from south to north?" (And you should be very proud of me for writing in cursive.) The right charts are our morning and dismissal routines. (I need to actually add one for getting the teacher's attention.) Besides their books, there is the hand worksheet for the bulletin board as a morning assignment and a letter of introduction.


Now to the back of the room... This is my reading corner. On top of the bookshelf are two hermit crabs.


This is just an area for materials the kids can get out themselves: dry erase boards, paper, wet wipes, etc. The poster is ideas of things to do when they are finished with the current task.

Last is my area. Nothing too much to say about it except this may be the only time my desk looks this clean. (Heh heh...) The chart on the left is the job chart.

So, the room is ready. I've met the kids and they all seem sweet. I'm looking forward to a great year. If I can finish getting myself together.