My Classroom

As you may remember from my previous posts, I am taking a year off from teaching because I had a baby (3-month-old Joseph) in October. He joins my little family of my amazing husband Wesley and my spirited 3-year-old son Frankie.

Taking the 2011-12 school year off has taught me one important thing so far: I LOVE BEING A TEACHER! I just can't wait to get back to teaching in September. I have so many fresh and creative ideas for classroom design and lesson plans, as well as interactive bulletin board displays. I simply can't wait to try them out.

I wanted to post some photos of my 3rd grade classroom at my school in Gloucester, MA. Here you can get an idea of what my style of teaching is. My goal for this September is to take wider photos of the entire classroom so you can see the desk and bulletin board set up.

The community supplies are in a central location and clearly labeled. These bins were purchased at Dollar Tree, they came in lots of colors. However, I am toying with the idea of having supplies for each table group instead of the whole class. This may make transitions easier and quicker.

Calendar and birthday wall. 

We keep track of how many days in school with this place-value pocket chart.

Interactive "Celebrate America" Social Studies board.  I put three books into pockets and wrote questions below . I left space on the right for student to post their answers.

In third grade Science, we chart weather patterns, so we keep track of  the daily weather. In addition, I used the language of Science - "observation" and "prediction" to remind students that they are indeed scientists!

Book baskets (from Dollar Tree). After testing each student,  I determined their reading levels and used those levels to make book recommendations which I weekly put in their book baskets. During Reader's Workshop, students needed to use a book from their book baskets. Each label has the student's name and the level books they are allowed to choose from.

Reading corner: I like to put books on display that correspond with a particular theme, season or unit. Below,  books are sorted according to level.

More classroom supplies and math manipulatives. Each bin is clearly labeled. The milk crates have clip boards, white board and blocks. I don't like the look of this so it will be more organized next time you see it.