It's GONE!

My door creation for the past two years is gone. I was inspired by this:\



Mine didn't quite equal this one that a ProTeacher showcased. For one thing--my door is next to a corner wall so I didn't have a nice large area to use. I teach in a school whose mascot is a bear. Using DJInkers bulletin board set I called mine the Reader's Club.

I now have a "blank canvas" to decorate. But that will wait as I am leaving on vacation for two weeks. When I return...I will have four days to create. YIKES!  EGADS! DRAT!  We begin Teacher Inservice on August 4. Open house is the 7th.

Another thing that is gone...my meeting area surrounded by our Fiction library. This is a change that will take me a while to adjust to. We have had this cozy in the corner near ONE of the TWO windows to meet, read, talk, laugh, learn, share. But with the addition of a ceiling mounted projector and SMARTboard slate I moved the meeting area in front of the board. The desks are surrounding the meeting area.

This too may have to change. With the prediction of having 23-24 students I will be forced to shove that furniture this way and that way to squeeze in that many desks (which I don't have!) 

So...during my vacation which may or may not include internet...I will ponder about the changes I will make. I worked a while today on bulletin boards and general straightening. Since I teach in my room during summer school I really don't have to pack away my room. All I do is stack the desks and chairs on the small tiled area so the carpet can be cleaned. HMMMMM  do you ever wonder why carpet is in an elementary school? Good place for little critters, lice, throw up, spills to inhabit.

I will gladly take all suggestions on that door! August 4th is coming.

Desks arrangements linky party

How appropriate that I can join Ladybug Teachers Files' linky party. I have always moved desks arrangements frequently. One of the things that I enjoy about desks is that I can arrange them into groups and have them into different setups. (My kids knew that I would move them even during the day while they were in specials. Last year I had them in basic arrangements of three or four groups.

 

I often arranged them at an angle so that when I was demonstrating from the whiteboard it would be easier for the kids to see.

I had the desks more on one side of the room with the classroom library/meeting area on the other.

 With the kid's having their own personal book baskets to house their independent reading books I then decided to put an empty desk in the center of the groups. After that worked pretty well I was inspired by a fellow teacher who had added a "shelf" to her groups. Her desks were a different style and this didn't work well. So my husband and I built little bench shelves to go between the desks to house their baskets, kleenex, and hand sanitizer.

 Toward the end of the school year I was able to get a ceiling mounted projector and SMARTslate. Then...changes again! With the ability to project many things to the whiteboard for teaching purposes, we were using that area more than the meeting area. I could now do all my calendar math on the whiteboard using SMARTslate. Now that I am teaching summer school I am trying a new arrangement. I moved our square tiles for the meeting area right in front of the whiteboard. The desks are around the meeting area. So we can now meet using SMARTboard programs and also project lessons. If they need to be at their desks I have tried to configure them so the kids can just turn and look.

 Summer school begins next week so I have a 19 day
"trial" to see how this configuration works.