Meet the teacher – The Teaching Texan

The Student’s Classroom: A Classroom Unveiling

theteachingtexan — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 02:05:00 +0000

As I started writing this post, I decided to change the direction of it. Orignally it was going to be a post containing a classroom unveiling and first day of school activites. But, once I started writing it I felt strongly that it needed to only be a classroom unveiling. You’ll understand why in a moment.

Before we get to the barrage of pictures of the classroom, I have to jump on a soap box – feel free to scroll on to the pictures.

I’ve seen some pictures of absolutely BEAUTIFUL classrooms on Instagram, Facebook, and blogs this back to school season. But, something keeps striking a chord with me. While beautiful on the surface, are these rooms actually decorated for the children? Are teachers thinking about involving the kids in decorating the room and hanging authentic artwork or other pieces as the “focal point?” Or rather, are these rooms decorated based on the teacher’s interests and ideas. I hate to say it, but I’ve seen so many classrooms with every square inch of wall space covered BEFORE students even arrive. My mind immediately jumps to, “that’s just wallpaper to the kids.” To me having the room completely decorated clearly communicates who has ownership of the room – and it’s not the children. I’ll admit that last year I started with a much more heavily teacher-decorated room than I went with this year – so I’m guilty too. But, I just can’t help but wonder where a student who may have ADD/ADHD, or just a trouble focusing, is going to rest his or her eyes with so much busyness on walls. Where are you going to hang student work? How do all of those posters tie in with what the students know when they enter your classroom? Do the students REALLY use all of those store bought posters about addition or sentence types?

Yes, these pictures look absolutely stunning on Pinterest. Yes, these pictures inspire teachers to be more creative. Yes, these pictures showcase countless hours of work. And yes, these teachers have put a tremendous amount of work into the space they have created.

But, do these pictures necessarily showcase a great teacher? Do they showcase student interest? I’m just not so sure about that.

I don’t intend this as an attack on having resources at the ready, or any posters at all up. More so I just want teachers to think through the eyes of a child when they are decorating and with the true interests of the child at heart.

With that being said, I’m dismounting my soapbox.

Let’s get on with the unveiling!

Remember, my thought process was organized simplicity. I wanted space for lots of student-created work. I didn’t even hang my Pinterest-famous [anchor wreath] or showcase another Pinterest favorite, the [teacher toolbox]. Instead, the wreath is in a box in my garage, and the toolbox is in a cabinet out of sight.

Why? The classroom is about the kids, not me. OK – this time I promise I’m off the soapbox! On to the pictures.

Here’s what you see when you walk in from our “shared space.” Our school is open concept so the view from behind the camera goes into a common area that links all 4 Kindergarten classrooms – no doors on the rooms.

Typical tables to promote collaboration and a lower table for group projects and activities related to our current units.

Here’s our word wall and Mimio board. All that’s really up on the wall at this point is student names and my/assistant’s names.

A closer view of the calendar/whole group lesson area. Just about all of these items are on Velcro or magnets (in the case of the easel) because I want the students to be involved. I don’t need to change the date on the “Today is…” strip. I don’t need to add the straws to the days in school or the money to the money chart. The kids do! That’s also why everything is at their level.

Moving over from the calendar is the painting area. It’s basically a white board built out from the wall that’s covered in butcher paper, but how precious that there is a dedicated painting area!

There’s also a glimpse of our nifty Daily 5 bags. I’ve always just used gallon plastic bags in the past, but I’m excited to try these out!

Right next to the painting easel is what I like to call the “command center.” Anything the kiddos could need supplies wise is kept here. It’s not hidden somewhere in a cabinet, but out where kids can access it. “Material managers” for each table will be responsible for making sure each table has the supplies it needs and retrieving any missing items from here.

Spinning right over into our library alcove is such a cozy area! I choose to level about 1/3 of my books by reading level and leave the remaining organized by genre, author study, and science unit. A few of the bins are empty now because we haven’t jumped into those units just yet.

This area isn’t so focused access and use by the kiddos – it’s the storage area just outside the class restroom. All sorts of files, read aloud books, and reading/math boxed centers are stored here.

If there were a second “command center” in our room, this would be it. Labeled math and reading manipulatives/resources and plenty of educational “free choice” options.

As you can see, there is definite organization to the room, but the decorating has been kept to a minimum. I want the kids to see walls full of their artwork – not posters that I’ve created. Short of our word wall and calendar area, the walls are open and ready for student work!

SO excited for this year! I’ll be back tomorrow with a post on first day activities!

Classroom Unveil (Finally) & Meet the Teacher Night

theteachingtexan — Sat, 23 Aug 2014 16:21:00 +0000

Update 8/25/14: I am linking this post up with [4th Grade Frolics] for a Monday Made-It post. Yah yah, I didn’t post it on a Monday, but it is ALL about what I made for my classroom!

Inservice week is officially OVER!

We had a full week of PD and making final preparations in the classroom. Thursday night was also Meet the Teacher night! This means that my classroom is finally done (well almost)! So it’s time to share some pics of my new home away from home. I hope you are ready for tons of pictures!

Let’s start off with what I saw the first time I walked into my new classroom.

As you can see, the former teacher left many of the bulletin boards up, alphabet strip, etc. So I had to start by getting rid of all of her decorations. The bookshelves were also completely packed with 3rd grade materials – so I had to get all of those materials off the shelves as well.

Before we head into my revamped classroom, I have to share this college flag! This year my school has placed a college flag outside of every classroom. Unfortunately someone snagged the SMU flag before I could get it – but that’s ok because I have an SMU one hanging in my room. So I went with the next best thing! A Florida flag because it represents where I’m from! You can also see my anchor wreath that I made. You can check out how I made it [here].

In we go!

Fortunately I didn’t need to move the furniture around too much. Ok, to be completely honest I moved it around several times and finally settled on a layout that was fairly similar to how the room was when I first came in.

You can grab the alphabet poster set [here].

Don’t mind the calendar area, it’s not finished yet.

Here’s what I did with that HUGE green-wall length bulletin board.

This board was a TON of work because it is so big. But… it was the perfect space for [Homeworkopoly], a math board, word wall, student work wall, and college board (this one may end up with something else on it!). Most of them are blank because I am saving them for anchor charts, students work, etc. that will be created once the kiddos arrive.

Here’s a close up of some of the boards on this wall.

The word wall is one of my favorites! So bright and cheery. I used fabric to keep the background bold throughout the year, and added the rope and [anchor] accents for a bit of fun.

Check out how I made my word wall card box [here]. You can also grab the EDITABLE word wall labels/words [here].

I can’t wait to get some work added to these boards!

Working our way around to the white board, you can see where I will post our Learning Objectives (LOs) and Demonstrations of Learning (DOLs). These were a find from the fabulous Learning in Wonderland, and you can grab a set [here]. I glued the subject label to a piece of scrapbook paper then had the whole thing laminated. To finish them off I hot glued a page protector onto each so that I can easily slide the LOs and DOLs in. I plan to print them off weekly so that they are ready to go each morning!

Here’s a view of my semi-finished library. I still need to add a rug and get labels printed off for the leveled section. The lefthand side (red and blue boxes) are leveled by DRA level. The center and righthand side book boxes are separated by genre. I’ll be writing a post soon about my rationale for organizing my library this way.

Fortunately the carpet at the front of my room is HUGE and can seat 30 something students. Being that I only have 22 students this year that left the perfect space for the listening center. I also had to place it here because our building is old (built in 50s) and there are only outlets on 2 walls of the room.

To be honest I hit a bit of a road block while decorating. My previous school did not have any cinder block walls so I was able to staple my heart out when hanging things! My new classroom is ALL cinderblock besides the bulletin boards. *sigh*

So I had to do some problem solving to make hanging up all of my decorations work. Here’s my remedy.

I first placed painters tape where I wanted each poster to hang. This is a little tedious, but well worth it because it sticks well to the wall but is also removed easily without damaging the paint. Then I used a hot glue gun to place a thin line on each piece of tape before placing the poster on. The reason I chose to put painters tape on the wall first is because it makes removal EASY! You just peel the tape off to get all of the hot glue removed. No worrying about having the glue stuck to the wall! These have been up for 2 weeks now and I haven’t had a single issue!

You can also add painters tape to the backside of your posters which will increase clean up when you removed the posters because no glue will be stuck to the poster or wall!

You can grab this Nautical 10-Frame set [here].

After I had my classroom in order and almost completely finished, what was next??

For some reason I was quite a bit more nervous for MTT Night than I was last year despite the fact that my classroom this year is more organized and presentable.

When thinking about what I wanted to do special for my first meeting with my new students and parents I decided to make up some quick gifts that are totally Pinterest inspired.

I set up my small group table with a sign-in sheet to make sure I had record of who came, parent names/e-mails, and how students would be getting home the first day.

I also placed a copy of the school calendar for each family.

Had I been even MORE organized I would have printed some nice looking signs for this table, but hand-written had to do for this year!

Each parent got one of these! The tags read “Parents like you are so refreshing!”

I placed a baggie of Goldfish on each student’s desk as a welcome gift. The tag reads “You are o”fish”ally in first grade!” This is a common idea on Pinterest, but it just fit so well with my Nautical theme!

Inside each folder I placed a student information sheet, Donors Choose release form, daily schedule, Daily 5 letter with breakdown of reading levels, explanation of grading policy, and another copy of the school supply list. All of these forms are separate from the enrollment packet the school will send home.

Now I’m off to enjoy my last Saturday before school begins!

Meet the Teacher (Blogger Style)

theteachingtexan — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 00:33:00 +0000

Y’all… it has been one heck of a past week and a half!

Between running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off to get my classroom organized and ready for open house next week, new teacher training with my district, and going to Wisconsin this past weekend for a family reunion I am BEAT! B. E. A. T.

But, besides all the craziness I am getting really excited to meet my new first graders! In the spirit of “back to school” I am linking up with Stephanie from [Falling Into First] for a Meet the Teacher post!

Some things you may, or may not, know about me:

My name is Bryce, and I am a second-year 1st grade teacher. First grade is honestly a lot younger than I originally wanted to teach, but I quickly found that I love kiddos at this age!

I have been with my mister for a little over 3 years. (How does time pass so quickly?!) His name is Dustin, and we bought a house together in Dallas just about a year ago now. We love LoVe LOVE to travel. I don’t even want to know how much we’ve spent on trips in the past 3 years, but there is just something so exciting about visiting other areas of the world and places that you aren’t familiar with.

I have 2 fur babies, a Pomeranian and a King Charles Spaniel. Their names are Peatree and Carson, and they are most certainly spoiled!

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS…

Coffee

PaperMate Flair Pens

Traveling

Blue

Anchors

Lily Allen

Country Music

Halloween / Fall

IF YOU WEREN’T A TEACHER, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO BE?

Batman! No? Ok, I’d probably be a full-time all-star cheerleading coach again.

THREE LITTLE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE YOU.

Driven

Creative

Fantastic

FINISH THE SENTENCE, “________, SAID NO TEACHER EVER!!”

“I really want to stay up tonight and get those papers graded, said no teacher ever!”

Q: IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY AND YOU CAN INVITE ANYONE {DEAD OR ALIVE} TO THE PARTY. WHO ARE YOU INVITING?

Hmm.. that’s a tough one.

Maybe my best friend from childhood. I lost touch with him over the years after my mom and I moved to Florida. He doesn’t have a FB either… go figure!

Q: IF SOMEONE WROTE A BOOK ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD BE THE TITLE?

The Mostly Awesome Adventures of a Coffee Loving, 1st Grade Teaching, Jet-setting Dreamer.

Q:YOU GET TO PICK ONE SUPERPOWER. WHAT IS IT?

Flying.

How awesome would it be to get wherever you want to go so quickly???

Traffic would be no more!

Q: WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE OR SAYING?

One favorite? How about several!

“The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.” Vince Lombardi

“Ships are harbor are safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” John Shedd

“Why not?” Bryce Sizemore

Catch that last one?

Q: IF YOU HAD TO SING ONE SONG ON AMERICAN IDOL, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Well lets start off by saying if I were singing a song on American Idol it would be the apocalypse, or maybe just the end of many people’s ear drums!

But, maybe “I Hope You Dance” by Lee Ann Womack. Just because it may be the only song I actually know ALL of the words to.

Q: ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT OWL?

I definitely feel like I can go between either, but lean towards morning person. If I have a ton to do I can usually just take a 2 or 3 hour nap at night and get up super early to get it done.

Q: WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE RESOURCE THAT YOU’VE CREATED IN YOUR TPT SHOP?

That would HAVE to be all of my new nautical decorating items! My theme last year (Western) never really came to fruition so I was on a mission to change that this year.

You can grab links to each of these on the [Nautical Bundle] page.

Q: SHARE SOMETHING WE MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU!

Something that many of you may not know is that I coached all-star cheerleading for 7 years. It was (and still is) a huge part of my life, but I’ve decided to take at least this year off and focus on teaching. And yes, I was a cheerleader for many years before I started coaching.

Head over to Falling Into First by clicking the image above to read about other teacher-bloggers and to create your own Meet the Teacher post!