Blog Hoppin Teacher Week ~ Classroom Tour

Still hanging in there with my blog posts for Blog Hoppin's Teacher Week Y'all! You know I'm slow as molasses so I worked on these posts most of Saturday afternoon and evening. 

This is my iddy biddy learning cottage (trailer) where 22 students come to learn everyday! After stuffing 23 desks inside, plus my reading table, cubbies and my massive classroom library, there was nowhere to get comfy for quiet reading, partner reading, or listen to reading. Soooo... I took out most of the desks. This year I'm going "deskless!" 

I do want to point out that my classroom is not the most decorated and organized, it doesn't look like it should be on the cover of a magazine... I'm not that girl! I'm trying to keep it real! I think it looks kind of like a kids bedroom with a few added items. My materials and such are where I can quickly grab them as needed. So it is a little cluttered, but it works for me! 

Here you can see that I have a large cabinet that houses all of math materials for the year, except manipulatives which have their own cubbies of course. The small bookshelf is where I put books that are part of our current themes and units for students to choose from. Back in the corner I have a beanbag chair and a lighted space themed canopy for some quiet read to self time. The chart stand turns around... I use one side for anchor charts and the other side holds all of my Fundations posters. I put numbers all around the front of the room so that when I call students to the rug for a lesson or story, they have a certain spot to sit at. 

Here you can see the mailboxes (which are holding a lot of personal supplies), math manipulatives, and student cubbies. I like wide open spaces so everything lines the walls. The single desk is for students that can't be part of a group, the big work table is available for students who need the traditional workspace for their current task. Surprisingly, many of them choose the table. 

This area is a mini-computer lab/reading area. Students can sit on the couch or the pillows (seen in 1st picture) for listening to reading or read to self. We have 11 iPads so computers are a backup as needed. I also snagged the shelf in the corner from the "get rid of" pile in the hallway during workdays to store my Fundations kits. It needs a paint job, but for now it works great! f

This is not complete tour of my classroom, and it is certainly not too fancy, still a little unfinished, but this serves my purposes and works well for us. 

We are still learning a little more everyday about being deskless... the biggest problem has been keeping supplies handy. We are currently experimenting with using cheap backsacks as personal supply bags that travel with the students around the classroom. Keeping them in the mailboxes was a nightmare, pencils were always getting lost. So I assigned 4-5 students to a basket to store their supplies... again constantly dealing with lost pencils and gathering and putting away supplies. Stay tuned for more news on the backsacks! 

If you see anything you'd like to ask about, feel free!