My Classroom

These are some photos of my classroom.  I tried to keep the mess out. :)

I've obtained MANY of my ideas from searching Pinterest and tried to make them my own so they would work for my classroom.

Around the World - This is an extra credit challenge math bulletin board.  My parents travel a lot, so the goal is the get pamphlets and artifacts to use to create problems throughout the year.

Exit Tickets - I originally saw this idea on Pinterest.  I love it!  The students self-evaluate how well they have met the objective.  I even have a self-evaluation spot on their physical Exit Ticket so we can keep a record.  I also like that I am able to quickly assess whether my students think that they understood the lesson.

My Door and Clock - Another one stolen from Pinterest!  You'll see brains all over my room because I have a growth mindset theme-ish thing going on.

Growth Mindset Wall - I copied the chart from Carol Dweck's book and I saw the Mindset Moments on Pinterest.

Artie the Articulator and the Public Professional Voice - One of my former students made the name up for Artie and it's kind of just stuck.  The public professional concept come from Kate Kinsella's workshops.

R.A.C.E. Response and Citing Evidence - This wall has evolved as I have learned more.  I used to use R.A.E.E. (restate, cite, evidence, explain), which didn't really make sense as an acronym.  Then, I saw R.A.C.E. on ... you guessed it.. Pinterest!  And I thought... How come I couldn't think of that?!?  Even though I'm currently only teaching math and science, I still use it ALL the time.

Standards for Mathematical Practice - My school gave me a set of posters from Jordan School District last year, but there is a lot of (good) information on them and they are small.  I barely ever referenced them with the students.  Now that I wrote them larger, the students are consistently analyzing which SMP on which we are focusing. (I still put the Jordan ones underneath.)

Instead of "I got...," try - This developed out of frustration with students constantly saying, "I got 4" or "What I did is..."

Getting to Know You Pennants

Every year, I used to have students create a t-shirt where they would include information about themselves and include a hand drawn picture, which was a Tribes activity given to me when I first started teaching.  I would also take each student's picture on the first day of school.  This year I moved to a smaller classroom and decided to combine the ideas.  I used the picture I took of them for a Getting to Know You Pennant where they also include much of the same information in a different format.  I use this at the beginning of the school year, but it can be used at any time.

Here is my teacher example:

Here is somewhat of what it looks like it my room.  I (actually my mom) mounted the student pennants on black paper.  

 

I designed a template that can be used to give students.  You can find it at my TPT site. Check out the template here.

Academic Language Frames for the Desk:  I have had these frames in many different formats.  At my former school last year, I didn't need to post the frames because the kids were trained pretty well in the previous grades.  This year I have a high number of English Learners, so I have found it helpful to put the academic language frames on the desk.

You'll also notice I have labels for "Collaborative Colleagues" to help with various partnering situations.  I have these frames available at my TPT store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Academic-Language-Discussion-Frames-for-the-desk-2155694

Library sign - I saw this on Pinterest too. :)

Library Sign

Student "Mailboxes" - I've done a filing mailbox for the past couple years and I have really enjoyed the organization element of it.  I pass their homework, tests, etc. in their files.  As part of the their routine, they check their mail as they come into the classroom.  This year I have two sets of students, which makes it even more useful since I can't pass out papers to desks.  

Class Mailboxes