School Days, School Days...

School days, school days,

Dear old golden rule days

Meetings, and messes, and lack of sleep,

So much to do it'll make you weep!

And so it begins. The pictures above are the horror I created as I tried to clean/set up my classroom between many meetings. As I was putting them together for the blog, I noticed my daughter - teeny, tiny in the background. I had to laugh. Like many of you I'm sure, I bring my children with me to work and throughout the day they get buried in the mess. Looks like she found a good spot to bury herself! She would never get away with that much computer time at home. She's a crafty one.

Well while the youngest daughter was locked in the computer corner, my oldest daughter decided to organize my BIG BLACK CABINET. It is the cabinet that houses everything that has no home, that is out of place, and that needs to belong. I wish I had a before picture of the cabinet and one of my daughter's face as she pulled Cheerios (for counting activities), scraps of paper (you never know), pretzels (hello...log cabins!), macaroni (I had to keep those; dried macaroni is so useful), goldfish (oceans, I don't need to explain), and other sundries from its depths. In the end, I thought she did a nice job. She works for Sonic Blasts if anyone is interested!

The rest of the room came together as well...eventually. It was a hard pull at the end. I was done around 8:00pm the night before school started. I heaved a sigh of relief as I snapped these pictures on the way out the door.

My AR board - compliments of The Teachers Cauldron
Sailing Through A.R. Pirate Theme

Part of my A.R. Library. There is a shelf like this on either side of my Promethean Board with  a display shelf in the middle for the books we are studying right now. I'm fairly proud of the shelves. They were ancient throw aways that I put contact paper and polka dot ribbon on to dress up. Turned out rather nice and saved me a bundle!

My computer center. You can see the Birthday Board back there. That is from the  Pirate-Themed  Classroom and Decor Organizational Pack from Rachel Parlett. I used it to deck out my room in pirates.

My Math Focus/Calendar wall. Again compliments go to  Pirate-Themed  Classroom and Decor Organizational Pack from Rachel Parlett.

My Morning Routine, Clip Chart, Daily Voyage, and Listening Anchors. I can't tell you how many times I have said...Listen like a Pirate. At the beginning of the week it was the happy "Arggh, we listening like pirates?" By the middle the week..."We need to listen like Pirates, please." At the end of the week..."Class, are we listening like pirates? Ears, feet, hands, and eyes, thank you. (In my head I'm thinking, "For crying out loud, sit still and listen! Whose idea was it to start school when it's still summer outside!!")

My room from the door. Not huge, but it works. I love the big window out to the courtyard. It us fun to watch the seasons unfold outside.

Getting Organized

Soooooo, you've mapped out your curriculum and you're feeling a little sassy about it. Then you turn and see the long to do list and your sassy flees in panic.

clipart-for-free.blogspot.com

Don't run away! Stay on course and do one thing at a time.


Step one - Get your year organized. Done, you now have a map of your year and you can breathe because you know that everything will be covered in time. Whew!


Step 2 - Get yourself organized.

It is a priority thing. The most important thing is that you cover the standards in an efficient and productive way. Then, you have to make sure that you are mentally and physically prepared for the year. There is a lot to keep up with and you need to be ready. Those children won't teach themselves (Interesting thought though. Wonder how that would look???)

Last year, I was coming back from a long maternity leave and skipped this step because I felt rushed to get ready. BAD IDEA! In payment for impatience, I spent the whole year juggling file folders and little slips of paper wondering if I was losing my mind. I was the Curriculum and Instruction coach for K-5 as well as teaching first grade and helping with the school play. This is also the year we introduced data, data, data and common core. That was quite a bit of paper people.

This year I'm not skipping steps. I've put together my teacher planner to match my classroom theme...PIRATES! How fun. And because I had so much fun creating mine, I just had to create one for each of my partners. Click the pictures below to get your copy. Each picture links to its own document.

1. My schedule goes in the front.
2. Student information comes next (class list, birthdays, passwords, lunch ids, transportation info, emergency #'s)
3. Monthly Calendar Pages (Year long calendar with holidays, etc marked, district calendar, calendar pages)
4. Staff and Team Meetings (paper to take notes, important staff #'s)
5. Common Core Standards (pacing guides, I can statements)
6. Curriculum planning (my passwords for district websites,  technology help sheets)

7. Miscellaneous (blackline masters I use every week, whatever...)
8. Lesson Plans
9. Grade Book
10. Data Book (new for me...thinking current data for the class - STAR Reading, STAR Math, DIBELS, Fluency Logs, Discovery Math, Discovery Reading)

Now I have a one stop notebook that goes everywhere with me and has everything I need. Some may not need all the dividers. I tend to be both slightly OCD and slightly scatterbrained. Yes, it is annoying, so I plan for both states of mind.

Enjoy!