Classroom Tour

Now that school has started I was able to get a few pictures of my classroom for the 2014-2015 school year. I honestly didn't change very much from the previous year. When you find something that works, why change it, right?

This year teach Deaf/Hard of Hearing students in grades 2-6 in a Special Day Class.  Students come and go throughout the day depending on their needs. I try and mainstream my Deaf/Hard of Hearing students into the general education classrooms with a sign language interpreter when possible. Most of my students are with me for Language Arts. My students are pulled out for speech/language services a few times a week. I have 7 students this year. 

Welcome to my classroom!

The view as you walk into the classroom.

Our new science area including science tools posters.

Our scientific method posters and science lab coats.

Junior Scientist lab coats I made for the kids to wear during science experiments. I bought them at the Goodwill, cut off the long sleeves and then used my sewing machine to sew "Junior Scientist" on each shirt.

My "command central" area near my teacher desk. Paperwork is much easier to find now that I have this AWESOME black file holder from Scholastic. On top I have my student progress binders where I keep data and work samples for each student.

Student computers for Typing and Fairview activities.

Laptop storage and check out chart for our Tech Friday activities.

Our classroom library area.

New birthday box and sign for student birthdays. They get to pick a prize and keep the sign on their desk all day.

Each month will feature a new author on the library table.

Comfy futon and pillows for silent reading time.

iPad storage and library boxes. All of my books are leveled by reading level and then subject for the non-fiction books.

The view from the library to the front of the classroom. Including my clean (for now) desk.

The back wall has a word wall. (I realized I didn't get a picture of it.) New this year is our little Writing Center.  Yes, that's another black mini pocket chart from Scholastic. I am in love!

Leveled Guided Reading books.

Front teaching area. This includes our Fairview materials and centers under the tv.

Fairview Learning binders and book boxes on the top shelf. Student reading vocabulary boxes on the left, bottom. White baskets contain our centers for our Fairview Learning rotations.

Our calendar area. Schedules for speech and PE. Behavior clip chart and student job chart.

Classroom Economy system. Students earn money and can visit the class store each Friday.

View from the front of the classroom looking towards the door.

I hope you enjoyed a little view into my classroom as we start the 2014-2015 school year.

Classroom Reveal

It's time for my classroom reveal! I've been hard at work and I'm excited to call it done! Now I can focus on my first week of planning. This is a record for me! I officially start back on Monday and students start on Wednesday.

So here's my 2013-2014 black and white classroom:

The view from the door as you walk into the classroom.  I'm in a portable so I am lucky to be able to staple any where on my walls. 

Looking towards the front of my room and math area as you walk through the door.

We'll start in the back corner of my classroom. Our little cozy classroom library. The black and white banners above the window are going to be for our self-drawn portraits on the first day of school. We'll leave them up all year.

My leveled classroom library. I have the books sorted by reading level and color. Each book has a colored star sticker that matches the color stickers on the boxes so students *hopefully* put them back in the right spot.

 Our futon with lots of pillows for students to use and our staff fridge and microwave.  Above the sink I've added a board to display the book covers of the read-alouds from this year. We're starting with David Goes to School.

Student/staff computer area.

This is view of the back corner from the front of the classroom. Right next to the library is our Guided Reading area.

Leveled Guided Readers that have taken us years to collect.

 My word wall that I *promise* to use this year. My interactive Word Wall books are ready to go and so are my new word cards.

The teacher/staff area.

My teacher desk. The only time it looks this neat! Before all the fun begins!

I've added some boxes for my staff this year. That way when they have down time they can help out by doing projects or making copies. I have two sign language interpreters and one signing instructional assistant for the classroom.

My student progress notebooks right beside my desk. I'll blog about these soon.

One of the only sets of cabinets in my room! I have our Classroom Economy earning and fines displayed here. Up on top of the cabinets are my seasonal centers, seasonal books, and other things that don't fit into the cupboards.

The front of my classroom where we use the ELMO document camera. I am starting the year with 9 students and several of those students are mainstreamed all day.

Our new polka-dot inbox for student work.

On the front board I display all of our literary elements, vocabulary and other activities from our current read-aloud.

 The front corner of the room is a small group work area and where I have moved our Fairview Learning board and centers this year.

Fairview Learning rotations are a huge focus in our classroom from 12:40-2:30. Student binders are up top, their reading vocabulary boxes and FV cards on the left. On the right, numbered 1-10 are the centers materials. You can read all about our FV program here.  

 This Fairview Learning Activities board helps us all stay on track and know which centers have been completed and which are still remaining for the week.

My sight word storage. I have a file for each of the Adapted Dolch Words as we teach them. The folders have word cards, the signs, and activities to help learn the word.

Student mailboxes. A simple file box with hanging files.

My math instruction area. We're starting with money this year which will help tie in well with the classroom economy moving to coins.

Math center activities on the bottom numbered 1-8 and student books and materials up top.

The view of my morning meeting/calendar area that I blogged about here.

The board as you walk in the door will be used for displaying student work.

So here's my home away from home. I spend enough hours here that I like how I've created a calm and organized environment for my students to learn. They are going to be so excited to be back on Wednesday! I'm not sure I'm ready for the alarm clock!

Morning Meeting

 I've been getting some work done in my classroom this week whenever I can. I didn't get as much time as I needed, but things are starting to come together.  The only thing in my classroom that is truly 'done' would be my morning meeting/calendar area.

I moved things around this year to make more room for the students to sit. Last year this was upfront and we had to slide desks out of the way to make room for everyone to sit. It was a pain. So I shifted a few things and love the way this area turned out. It's in the back of the room, but it was the only open area that could accommodate everyone being about to sit down. Plus, I got this CUTE polka dot rug at IKEA that was begging to be used.

If you remember, I teach Deaf/Hard of Hearing students. Language development is key in my classroom. Morning meeting / calendar time allows time for lots of language enrichment and concept development. Last year I ran a morning meeting on Mondays and my assistant did calendar time with the younger students each day. I plan on devoting far more time to our morning meetings this year.

First off, we read our morning message on the white board. I usually ask a question at the end and each student has the opportunity to come up and answer the question by writing a sentence on the board. Sometimes it's skills such as editing or finding nouns, etc.

Then we do our calendar skills. Today is, yesterday was, tomorrow will be.  (I set up the calendar in these photos to show you what it look like completed.) I made these cards last year when I switched over to the black and white theme. Then we use little star sticks to find the days of the week. Our place value, "How many days have we come to school" is next with straws and writing the number in word form on the little white board. We also talk about what's for lunch. This is the most exciting part for my students! Unfortunately, not all of my students know the signs for the various foods so we often have to pull out the iPad and Google image the lunch for the day.

I little side note about my calendar. Last year I was frustrated since I wanted a black and white calendar, but couldn't find a way to attach the calendar numbers. I tried magnets but they wouldn't stay straight. I'm too Type A to let that go. So I made my own 'pocket chart' by sewing old school transparencies right to the calendar. It has worked out really well. Now I can slip in my new holiday cards from this calendar set.

The Question of the Day is a new addition to my Morning Meeting this year. I'm excited to try it out. I added a little page protector cut down to size with washi tape holding the top together to hold the question for the day. This new addition is going to be a great language and vocabulary builder for my kiddos. I like the option of being able to extend the activity by having them fill out a graph of the question as well as just answering the questions.

On this back wall you'll find my job chart. I made this little guy last year but downsized the job list this year since I will only have 5 kids in my class most of the day. Since we are switching over to using coins in our classroom economy system this year, I also hot glued the amount of $ the student will earn by doing that job.  Also my new behavior clip chart we are trying out this year works well here. This behavior clip chart was a free download from Primary Punch here on TpT.

On the other side above the white board is our speech and PE schedule chart. I glued on page protectors to the poster and then I just have to switch out the paper to the correct day and this keeps us on schedule. Well, most of the time. Last year every time the phone rang it was the speech therapist. I couldn't keep up last year! This year I will have far less students so it should be much easier.

In between my white board I have a skinny little Sterlite drawers. These hold my calendar supplies (pointers, extra markers, etc), writing prompts (address/phone number practice, blank story writing pages, graphing papers, lined paper, etc), and misc. supplies (Handwriting Without Tears dry erase marker line tool, etc). I recently lined the drawers with scrapbook paper to hide the stuff inside and added some labels.  On top sits my question of the day box. I also have some black and white place mats that I found at IKEA last year that will serve as 'carpet squares' for my kiddos that cannot sit in their own space.

I can't wait to try out this space with my students and see how it all works out. That's the first little peek into my classroom this year! My to-do list is still quite long!