Hey there! I thought for my second post I would give you a tour of my classroom. As I mentioned in my previous post, I took over a 2nd grade classroom mid- semester so I only had about a week to get the room together. Also, my classroom is sort of in a warehouse. The school I am at is temporarily at this old cereal plant for the entire year due to renovations at the current school, so, as you will see, I do not have full walls, a door, or any type of built in storage!
When
I came in at the end of December, I decided I wanted to give the space a
whole new look and feel. My goal was to create a functional, flexible,
hands- on, and student- centered learning space. I ditched the teacher
desk, a handful of tables, and a dozen chairs. Below are my results!
Before
After!
Here
is what my classroom looks like as you first enter. I do utilize
flexible seating, but I have enough "normal" seats for my students to
use for specials that are inside the classroom.
These
are the focus boards I created on the left side of my room. This is
where I will hang our anchor charts and resources for what we are
working on in each subject area!
This
is where my student's mailboxes are. Since I only have 13 kids (yay!) I
use the bottom half of the box to store clipboards for my students when
they decide to work on the floor. My "in-bin" is to the left of that.
Everything, and I mean everything goes in the in-bin (my students will
tell you that.) I hit up the Target dollar spot a couple of weeks ago
and got a TON of great things like the "be awesome" pennant and other
signs that are throughout my classroom.
Above is my "teacher table" and my area. I have a small group table
(yes, I ditched the desk!) and bookshelves where I keep my teaching
resources and small group materials for math and reading. Every group
has a bin for easily organization.
This
is the front of the room. I decided to really focus on having a Growth
Mindset with my students for the remainder of the year. Each gray cloud
represents a "fixed" mindset thought and the white represents a "growth"
mindset thought! The blue bins store my students' items such as pencil
pouches, textbooks, and other resources.
This
rainbow cart is my word work cart. (Huge shoutout to my friend Holly
for letting me use this!) Each drawer contains a different word work
activity with all the materials necessary for that certain activity. All
the student has to do is grab and go, it makes for a truly low- prep
word work center!
The
big carpet is where I do all of my whole group (and a lot of my small
group) teaching. I love having a carpet because it not only creates a
sense of community, but also cuts down on a lot of behavior issues
because of the close proximity. It is also super versatile- we can
easily create a circle for morning meeting, divide up into teams based
on colors, participate in think-pair-share activities, and so on!
This
is the reading corner (one of my favorite parts of the room.) My goal
was to create an area that was comfortable and conducive to reading
independently. All the books in the red tubs are leveled by guided
reading level and all the of the books on top of the shelves are not.
The students' book boxes are right in the reading corner for easy access
during read to self!
Here are some different areas from the inside (and outside) of the room.
I
hope you enjoyed my classroom reveal! If you have any questions about
anything mentioned here in the post (or anything you saw), feel free to
leave a comment and I will get back to you!
Happy teaching,
-Brennan
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