Still Organizing - Focus Walls

 I have been reading a few blogs lately about the importance of a focus wall. Simply put it is an area that will hold information for the students in a useable manner. Some walls are full of information and the students never really interact with them except to read them and use as a reference. It is still  a focus wall. Other focus walls are interactive, the students help create and maintain the walls. They are tools used by the teacher to help support student learning.

 
I guess what I have you could consider to be called a Focus Wall. It is a main wall in the classroom and I had to think about how to organize it and what to put there.

This year we are in a brand new school. You know what that may be like. If not, let me inform you, it goes something like this, "Please don't put anything on the walls with tape or glue or other substances that could possibly peel the paint."
 
Hmm? A magical substance that will not peel the paint? That I have to purchase and use? Might not be anything on my walls at all then! (The price of command strips, removable and repositionable dots, mavalus tape and so on and so forth would be my entire paycheck. Dear Heavens!)

So, I have to make that one bulletin board in my room really count. I don't want something cutesy just for the sake of being cute. I want it to be functional. I want it to be a focal point of my room.
 
I started by dividing the board into three distinct sections:
 
1. Word Wall
2. Daily Organization
3. Classroom Management
 
Word Wall:
I don't have a traditional word wall. I don't have each letter and then the sight words underneath them for the students to just glance at keep going. I have a gifted classroom this year and I just thought about all the words we would be adding to that wall. Can you say overwhelming? I placed notecards in each letter of the alphabet. There are cards for Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies content words. This helps us categorize our words and it will also allow us to add hundreds of words to our wall. The students will get an updated "Personal Word Wall" at the end of each month.
 

 
Calendar & Jobs:
In the middle, I have the calendar and the jobs board. This helps me keep the classroom organized and makes sure that I am not having to do everything. With the jobs, I hope to build responsibility and independence. With the calendar, we are working on learning the dates, month, days of the week (spelling, order, planning ahead and looking back).



 

 

 

Classroom Management:

The last part of this board is full of classroom management items. I have the rules right in the middle. I am using the rules that go with Whole Brain Teaching. It is very simple. The students get it and the actions that go with the rules make them easy to remember. If you don't know about whole brain teaching you might want to check out

 

Chris Biffle at  http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/index.php/blog/Chris-Biffle.html?fontstyle=f-smaller

 

Beside that I have the noise meter. This helps us distinguish between the levels of noise in our classroom. It has a lovely chevron background and I am excited to use it. I am often very loud and the kids tend to pick up that excitement and volume. This will help me have a visual reminder of what type of voice level I need to use as well.

 

I obtained it through http://www.luckytobeinfirst.com

 

On the other side of the rules, I have my behavior chart. If you haven't noticed,  am using a "game" theme in my room and I wanted to add another game that I know third graders love. I created this myself after looking at a hundred of them on pinterest. It is my first attempt and isn't half bad. It says 'Don't be Sorry, U-No what good behavior looks like." Each section has an Uno card and some message about winning behavior or reversing the behavior path they are on. It is a neat way to keep track of who is moving up and down during the day. I will be using it in conjunction with Class Dojo to monitor student behavior.

 

 

I don't know if you can see it well in this picture, but I did put the 7 Habits of Happy Kids on the wall beside this board. I am going to be using the 7 habits in the classroom as part of our morning meetings. I am so excited about the kids taking responsibility for their learning and helping their classmates do the same! 

 

You can learn about the seven habits here: http://seancovey.com/books_7kids.html

You can pick up the posters here: http://www.thirdgradethoughts.com

 

This is what it looks like altogether. Overall, not bad. It is functional. It is a focus of the room. It will help me stay organized. Not bad!

 

 



Do you have a focus wall? What is on it? How do you use to organize your classroom?

 

TGT

 

 

 



Classroom Organization 2

        I have really been thinking about how the students will interact and move around my room. They each have a desk, of course. These desks are arranged in groups of five. This allows for plenty of table discussion and group work. I have a large area at the front of the classroom for whole group lessons. I have a round table for small group instruction. I have a small rectangular table that could seat 3 or 4 students for some independent group meetings. I have a few areas in the room where partners could meet comfortably (by the back supply cabinets, in the library area, on the floor by my desk, and in front of the book bag hooks. So, I certainly have many areas for students to meet and work.

    I have also been thinking about how students will complete extension activities when they finish the main lesson component. I have a shelf at the front that contains all of the writing supplies. If a student gets up to go to the shelf, they shouldn't really disturb others. It is a straight shot there and back. If a student needs to get a book from any the library areas they are all arranged on the outside walls of the classroom. This allows them to locate a book quickly and return to their seats. Again, not really located where they would be disturbing other students. If a student is going to complete a PETS (higher order thinking skill) activity then those bins are right beside my small group area. Close enough to be supervised, yet, not close enough to interrupt the flow of my group. Finally, if a student is completing a math, science, or social studies follow on activity then they walk to the back of the room (to a shelf located right beside the door). This area is not in proximity to any other student desks. For the first time in my twelve years of teaching, I actually think that my room arrangement allows for students to independently collect materials and get back work without bothering anyone else. It must be a miracle! Now, I just have to make sure that they don't bother anyone on the way to those areas and back.

Now I just wonder how do students move around other classrooms? What tricks have other teachers learned about room arrangement and classroom organization?

TGT

Classroom Organization

     As we get ready to go back to school tomorrow, yes, I said tomorrow, I have been spending time thinking about how my classroom is organized. I have spent a great deal of time this summer organizing my classroom library. We all know that he books in our classroom library are many times the center of our teaching and the heart of our rooms. We use the books in the library in so many ways to help teach our curriculum.

The top FIVE ways I use the books in my classroom library:

1. Read aloud - Read alouds help students to actually see what a good reader looks like, sounds like, and thinks like when they are reading. These moments also allow me to share with students great literature that they might not be ready to tackle on their own.

2. Anchor Texts - We use the books in our libraries to support our lessons. I call it 'writing under the influence" thanks to the brilliance of Katie Wood Ray. We look at real authors and how they craft their writing to better craft our own writing. We also look at the ways authors write in order to be better readers.

3. Life Lessons - We all know that teachers have to help students work on social skills. We spend the most time with these young minds and we have to help guide them into being responsible, independent, and cooperative members of society. I have a whole series of books that help them learn classroom rules and work on understanding, compassion, and teamwork.

4. Supplemental Readings for Science and Social Studies - Every time I teach a unit, I always bring in great stories and literature that supports our textbook understandings of history, economics, and science. Some of these informational texts turn out to be some of our favorites!

5. Leveled Texts for Independent Reading - Of course, Every classroom library is geared for the students to use on their own! If you are doing the Daily Five, The CAFE, or just doing Reader's Workshop, the students have to be able to select their own texts for independent reading practice.

Because I use my classroom in so many ways, I have spent a huge amount of time organizing it. This allows me the most flexibility in arranging my texts in the way I want students to visualize and understand reading.

Here are some pictures of the library areas of my classroom.

 The bookshelf with the white baskets are all  fiction books that are organized by series.

The pink bins on either side are nonfiction and are organized by topic. I also have one pink bin that has all my anchor texts for quick reference.

 

These pink bins are all organized by author. Some are fiction and some are nonfiction. The one green bin on the bottom is my REPAIR bin. Sometimes we just have to have a place to put it until we can get to it. This was my simple solution to help me keep track of what needed to be fixed and keep it organized. My goal is to fix books at least once a week and then let the librarians put the books back.

 

These six cubbies are sorted by genre. I have my poetry and biography sections here. As you recall, all of the pink bins were nonfiction and that shelf is labeled that way. The white bins are fiction and that shelf is labeled that way. I just wanted to make sure I had a designated section for biography and poetry.

 The last part of my library, I just realized I don't have a picture of it. At the front of my room, I have CUBICALS. You can buy them at Walmart, Target, Lowes, and Home Depot. They range in size from a 2 by 2  shelf all the way to 4 by 4 shelving unit. I bought the 2 by 3 units. So, I have three 6 cubical shelves (giving me a total of 18 cubes). I have my leveled library there. I started with the letter J and went all the way to Z. I also have one cube for my teacher recommendations.

 

     The last thing you need to know about my classroom library is that every single book in my room is labeled with Grade Level Equivalent, Lexile Level, and Fontas and Pinnell Reading Level. This allows me so much flexibility in grouping my texts for guided reading and independent reading. It also allows the students more flexibility in selecting texts for independent reading. I think that a well organized library makes for a well organized room. I spend less time looking for what I need. The students spend less time looking for what they want to read and they get right to work. I hope sharing my library has helped you get some ideas for your classroom. I also hope you have a successful school year that you always grow readers in your classroom!

 

 

TGT

 

I created this blog to help me keep track of the new and exciting things I am learning about being a teacher of gifted & talented students. This is a year a transition and this blog will help me see what worked and didn't work quite so well.  Follow along on m y new adventure. Hopefully, I will learn something and may be you will too.

Background: The county I am currently teaching in has started a new program to help grow the gifted and talented program. One teacher in each grade level in every elementary school will go through the gifted endorsement program and be the gifted teacher for that grade level. This means that our gifted students will go from having gifted education one day a week to every single day of the week. We spend so much time focused on our struggling students that these students often miss out on activities that could strengthen and enhance their gifts and talents.

I am currently taking the classes. I have completed classes one and two. Class one was the background of gifted education. It was also a review of Bloom's Taxonomy, Multiple Intelligences, Learning Style, and Interest Surveys and Inventories. It also introduce School Enrichment Models that help promote high achieving and gifted students. It was an excellent class. Loving it so far!

Class two was all about how to plan meaningful experiences for our gifted students and differentiate our instruction so we are meeting students on many different levels. We had to work with choice boards, learning modalities, learning styles, blooms taxonomy, and integration of curriculum. This class was much harder because we were really working with the curriculum. It made us look at the use of art, literature, problem solving, technology, and motivational issues. I learned a lot of really interesting concepts in this class. My students are addicted to playing SET online and solving logic elimination grids. It also helped me to incorporate more challenging follow on activities for my students. Overall, another really beneficial class.

When we go back to school in just over a week, July 25th,  I will begin my third class for the gifted endorsement. It is all about assessment and the gifted student. I am looking forward to learning more about assessment and ways to embed it fluidly into the gifted curriculum and the common core curriculum. For now, I am still setting up my classroom. I am using a games theme and having a fabulous time! I will post some pictures as I get around to finishing each area. School officially starts on August 1st. Wish me luck!

TGT