Classroom Tour, 3rd Grade, 2014-2015

So...yeah.  I've been MIA.  For like, EVER.  Sorry about that.  I like, got pregnant.  Yeah.  That's my excuse for everything these days, because I'm 30 weeks now.  Lol.  Preggo brain.

But anyway, thought I'd come back and try to start posting again.  I have so much to say and to share!

I actually looped up with my class this year, so I have 16 of the same kiddos and 2 new ones and am teaching 3rd grade.  It has been an AWESOME transition and a great experience so far.  I am just loving it.

Check out some pictures from our room this year.

"Every Birdie's Welcome in Our Nest."  :)
 

View from the door.  I should really make the front of my desk cute.
Oh well.  Love my new rug from Ikea!

This pic is from our Meet the Teacher Night--the chalkboard is now all decked out!

The Good Morning section holds our Target Reading, used as part of our morning routine.

Then there is a section called Scientist Chat where I ask questions and learners can add their thoughts and comments.  Then next to that, there's a Wonder Board.  Some QR codes scan to certain videos and articles on Wonderopolis, and the learners can add their own "I Wonders."  Which reminds me, I need to read their wonders and try to post some QR codes for them to explore!  :)

Yep.  Our character board still says 2A.
We are now 3E.  Whoops.  ;)

Fiction section of our classroom library.
On the top, I "spotlight" particular books:  seasonal or books that tie in with our current learning topics.

Cubby tags.  :)

Our What Stuck With You Today board has been a big hit.

There's now a numbered grid, and each day before packing up to go home,

the learners jot down one or two things that "stuck" with them from that day and 

stick their post-it notes on the board.

I type in their thoughts on Answer Garden throughout the week,

and then I turn the Answer Garden cloud into a Wordle and share it on Twitter,

print it out for the kiddos to see in the hallway.

This week, we took the Cogat test, and I had them share

what part of the test was easiest for them/what their brain was best at

(working with words, working with numbers, or working with pictures).

I can't wait to read what they wrote!

Our Project Based Learning Board.

It is now constantly filled to the brim!

We just finished a project where the learners groups' chose a state in the

Northeast Region and planned a potential trip for one of our teacher's sister and her husband.

They researched landforms and natural resources in their states, the local climate,

and they planned out fun outdoor activities.

Then most recently, they created raps and illustrations to teach

the 2nd graders how to subtract with regrouping.  So fun to see them 

improving in their cooperation, communication, and critical thinking.

My desk.  It's way messier than this now.  :/

Must do/May do board.  Love this.

I love my daily drawers.  :)

Non-fiction section and my tall bookshelf with teacher editions

and more read alouds.  :)

Um...last year, that blank wall space was covered by bookshelves.

This year, I meant to continue the green & the border all the way down.

But uh...we're 9 weeks into the year, and it still looks like this.  LOL.

I guess you could say I've got bigger fish to fry.

And our hallway display!  I wish the lighting wasn't so awful.

This is also where I display their What Stuck With Us word clouds.

Hope you enjoyed the pseudo-classroom tour.

Hope you all are having a wonderful school year so far!

So I'm Teacher of the Year. WHAT?!

Yeah.  Craziness.  December 5th we had a staff meeting to find out who was the new Teacher of the Year, and lo and behold, it was ME.  *Cue the shock & awe, folks.*

Little ol' me

My silly team nominated me, and so did one of our fab Kinder teachers.  I was so shocked, I just stood there!  Someone made the comment that it was the first time they'd ever seen me speechless.  So true.  I always have a comment for everything, lol.

My principal had called my parents, so they were there to surprise me, and while my hubs was out of town for business (bummer), one of my besties who used to teach with me came up, as well.  So neat.

My principal and me

My principal created a Pinterest board for the new Teacher of the Year reveal.  Pretty funny because she always jokes that my classroom looks like Pinterest threw up in it.  LOL.

When she displayed the Pinterest board on the screen, I slowly started to realize that all the pictures she had pinned were of things I had created for my classroom.  It finally started to dawn on me that the new Teacher of the Year must be ME!  Too funny.

The comments with the Pins were taken from the application my colleagues filled out about me.  Wow.

Unique personality?  Check.  It's part of what keeps my students awake, I think.  Haha.

O.K., I didn't create this poster!  I believe I found it on

Technology Rocks Seriously's blog.  :)

So it's possssssible that I could be overheard saying "Ain't nobody got TIME for that!" multiple times a day.  Just sayin'.  (So this was a fitting tribute to me, for sure, lol.)

So yeah.  Pretty dang cool.  And now come the writing of the 6 essays, the observation, and the interview by a panel.  Say HUH?!  Yikes.  Excited about the honor, but a liiiiiiittle stressed about the rest!  :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the remainder of your time off.  This is the first somewhat-school-related thing I have DONE since December 18th, and I applaud myself!  :)

Here's to a great 2014 that includes good friends, good health, lots of love, and plenty of chips & queso.

XO,

Gayla

Another Opening, Another Show and Back to School!

So yeah.  I've been meaning to blog.  Really, I have.  But prepping for back-to-school combined with Tech Week and performances of the musical I was in, combined with Staff Development just didn't work well for me, time-wise.

(That's me on the bottom right--we had a BLAST doing this show!)

But it was all worth it!  I am sort of recovered physically from the past few insane weeks.  We just finished the 2nd week with students, and it's been good so far.  I have a very sweet group of kids, if a little talkative and energetic.  :)  I'm really looking forward to learning and playing with them this year.

Anyway, I wanted to share some pics of my classroom even though there are still a few finishing touches I plan to put on it.  (Is a classroom EVER truly "done?")

Haven't decided if I'm going to keep this display for Daily 5 check-in yet...

Will probably change this board to a Writing board for anchor charts, etc.

My new storage area for Word Work activities!  Love it.

(Need to take down that poster!)

My new writing area.  The stuff under the table is junk I still need to sort through and store somewhere.  :(

All my supplies for Work on Writing, so organized, whoo!

We are launching Project-Based Learning this year.  

My PBL board looks better now, but I haven't snapped an updated pic yet, sorry!

Our character quality of the month, Conflict Resolution Wheel, R Time Rules, and Rules for good manners, etc. are displayed here.  (The ugly dolls are my bathroom passes!)

My new Authors We Love wall!

I love how it turned out!

Reading cushions and buddies.

Our Wish List at Meet the Teacher

(about 1/2 of the items were taken, yay!)

Smartboard and my new alphabet line (made by me!)

I have since completed sectioning off the chalkboard on the left, 

and I'm still not sure how I feel about the BRIGHT lime green duct tape.

I HATE chalkboard!

My birthday photos will be posted on the black & white chevron board.

Yay!  The little brown table by the window will house our BioBubble Aquarium!

The next step is for me to allow my kiddos to research what fish and other items we should

buy to put in our BioBubble.  If you haven't seen/heard of them, you should definitely check them out.  SUPER COOL.  I think an aquarium will be a very calming presence in our classroom, and I'm so excited to get it up and running!

Math manipulatives still organized from last year.

(I have since put the label on the bottom left bin, heh.)

Storage for our extra supplies:

pencils, markers, crayons, glue, and baggies

Construction paper storage!

Also, I put the kleenex boxes inside that little lime green basket.  Much cuter.  :)

All the new books I accumulated over the summer.  WHY?!  

Why do I keep getting more books?!  LOL.  It's a sickness.

YAY for awesome library storage!

Guess that's about it.  For now.  If you made it this far, bless you. :)

Hope everyone's beginning of the year is going well!

My Train Wreck of a Classroom

AKA:  Before pics.  Ha!

But seriously.  If you are needing to feel better about the crazy state your classroom is in, never fear.  You've come to right place.

Here are some before pics when I went in on Monday:

These 6 (ish) desks are covered with FILES from my 2 tall filing cabinets.

I have since gone through ALL of this, filled a giant recycle bin to overflowing, filled a cardboard box to overflowing, gotten rid of 1 of the file cabinets, and rearranged the desks.  :)

Here's after working/sorting/recycling/filing for about 6 hours.  Yeah.  Ridic.  Oy.

This poor recycling bin didn't know what hit him.

After 6+ hours of work, I still had to sort through these piles, plus the bucket in the pic below.  

I thought seriously about harming myself, lol!

The last of the last.  I know you'll be happy to know, and will rest easier, knowing I COMPLETELY FINISHED sorting/chucking/filing all my files yesterday.  It gave me great joy to announce that I was finished to my teamies, who were also up there working.  They expressed their pride that I was able to stay focused on this one task for 2 days without getting distracted by shinier, more exciting objects.  Yay me!  :)

Moving on...

A bunch of the crap stuff I bought.

I'm keeping my awnings from last year, even though they are a little worse for the wear, or as I like to say--rode hard and put up wet.  But oh well.  Ain't nobody got time for that.  I re-did the borders on the left and right sections.  Go me.  :)

Birthday board.  Yay chevron!  Just need kiddos' pics for each month!

Now.  These next few pictures are the collective banes of my existence.  Cords.  Frickity frackin' [insert 4 letter word(s)] cords. 

No, but really.

Still more.  (I didn't even take a picture of the ones under the student computers.)

And one of my very favorite parts of my room this year:

What's that, you ask?  THAT, my friends, is the spot on the wall where my t.v. used to be.  They removed all of our t.v.s over the summer but neglected to patch/paint/etc.  So fun!  Guess I'll be finding a poster to slap over this hot mess.  (Do you like the shrine to my son on my cork board?  LOL.)

I rearranged my desk set up for this year.  Again.  (Yes, I change it every. single. year.)  I need a fresh start, people.

I'll be back soon for an update on my classroom progress.  You would think each year would get a little faster, wouldn't you?  Because in my 7 years of experience in setting up classrooms?  It so doesn't.  :)