Classroom reveal 2016

I'm so excited to share my new classroom! It has been a journey to set it up.

 

 

 

This year I moved from teaching Prep (aka Foundation, kindergarten, the first year at school) to teaching a grade 2/3 composite class. I'm so ready for this new challenge! As well as the grade change I moved buildings at my school. I'm now in a 60 year old building, with lots of quirks and issues and my new room is smaller than my old room.

The most exciting thing about the building I'm in is that it will be demolished at the end of the school year because we are getting a new school building!! So, I was given free reign over what I wanted to do to my room - and my first decision was to paint it!

It was a pale blue to begin with, and I had it painted white. I love how bright and light it looks!

I decided to stick with a pretty simple colour palette of blues, greens and beige/whites. 

 

 

 

I'm so glad I did, because I got the brightest primary coloured tables!! Super fun!

After I got my tables it was time for the fun bit of rearranging the furniture, setting up my book corner and organising my 'teacher desk' (or lack of teacher desk). Two years ago I got rid of my teacher desk, instead I use an IKEA trolley to store all of my stationery, I have a bench that I put my planner and computer on when they're not being used, and I use my small group table as my desk when my students aren't around.

Here's my teacher desk area:

Here's my book corner:

Here are my awesome storage tubs with labels on them:

This is the front of my room, where my students sit for whole group instruction (I love love love my IKEA teacher chair!!):

I've got my tables set up in groups of six students:

These are some of my display, ready to go! This is our Wondering Wall (during our Inquiries students pose 'I wonder...' questions which we endeavour to answer over the course of the Inquiry):

I hot glued thumb tacks to the back of glitter pegs to make displaying student work easy:

And, this is where I display our subject buddies (the person they pair up with for different activities in reading, writing and maths, and they are of mixed-ability) and where we'll display our goals for the week (that will be another blog post):

All of these photos were shared on Instagram over the last few weeks, so if you'd like to stay up to date with my classroom I'd love it if you'd follow me on Instagram @jemluck

Teaching with Intention: Chapter 1

 

I signed up with Greg Smedley to do the Book Study, but being in Australia I'm not on holidays yet so I'm a bit behind. Time to play catch-up!!

I have owned the book Teaching with Intention by Debbie Miller for about two years and had it sitting on my shelf, unread, the entire time. When I heard about the book study I jumped at the chance to join in knowing that it would encourage me to read this amazing book!

My ideal classroom is lived-in and well-loved. I want the students to feel proud of their room and to take ownership over it - it's their learning space. It would have bright colours, but not look too busy. It would have student work on display, and anchor charts to show learning. Students would have their own space to store their things so they are responsible for their learning tools. They would have some choice during the day to engage them with their learning. Students would know what was expected of them for both their behaviour and their academic outcomes. There would be chatter, but not loud noise, with music to signal transitions. There would be charts documenting their achievements. It would feel welcoming, open and caring.

The students are involved in their learning and engaged with it. There are conversations about what they are doing, as well as conversations about their interests and what they've been up to. The students take ownership over the things in the classroom so they have pride in packing up their room. Students are working together and working independently. The teacher roves to support students, or works with small groups, or works 1-on-1 at a conferencing table. Students know what is expected of them, and the teacher has high expectations of what they can achieve. The teacher records learning, but lets the students share their learning in their own words. The teacher facilitates while the students do the work.

My students know my expectations of them, but we are still working on some behaviours (like calling out). I have charts around the room to document their achievements, like the number of days at school and a score chart for specific behaviours.

When they follow the description below a character as a whole class I tick off a number, when they've shown that behaviour five times they get a whole class prize.

I have bright colours in my room using furniture and posters, and the laminated cellophane on some of my windows.

I display a lot of student work, give them lots of jobs to help me so they are involved with running the classroom, I use some music for transitions and I document reflections in subject-specific journals to show their learning.

 

My students have an assigned seat and a tub that is under their desk, so they have their space which they take ownership over and which they have to keep tidy and organised.

At my school every student Prep-Grade 6 (prep is the first year of school) has to have three individual learning goals - 1 for reading, 1 for writing and 1 for maths. My students have these. They also have to independently provide three pieces of evidence before they can achieve the goal and get a new one.

I need to work on transitions! I have a lot of wanderers, and other kids follow them. It drives me nuts, so it's definitely something to work on. I think my room can look cluttered, so I need to work on that, particularly with my 'office' area. I've got problems with lighting in my classroom because where I sit to teach is in front of a big window, which can cause problems for my students looking at me.I also need to brush up on my 1-to-1 conferencing. I get stuck roving or sitting with a group, and don't prioritise short, structured conferencing. I need to work on goal-setting. I set the goals for my students, rather than with my students, so they forget what their goal is and forget to show me evidence of it.

This was a great first chapter, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest!!

Reading Groups my way

I love Reading Groups - really, I do! I love the independence it teaches students. I love the freedom it gives me to work with different children in different ways. I love the fun activities we get to do in small groups. If I could run my entire curriculum in small groups I would. But, it's only Reading Groups for now.

This year I have created my best system yet for Reading Groups. Well, I think it's the best yet. Each year I come up with a slightly different version depending on the type of class I've got, the size of my class and what I've been reading on blogs. This year I changed the system again, but I think it's here to stay.

In a nutshell: we start off with a Big Book reading focus. Then we do silent reading. Then we do a small group activity. And finally we reflect/share.

To elaborate: I have a different whole group focus each week. It might be a reading strategy (like sounding out words, or looking at the picture for clues) or it might be about comprehension (literal or inferential) and early on it was concepts about print and full stops. It changes every 1-2 weeks, depending on how much time we need to spend on the skill. When we did sounding out I didn't use a big book, I wrote four words on the board each day and we worked together to decode them, looking at letter combinations (like sh, oo, ck).

I am still using the amazing Rainbow Tub System from last year.

 

But I don't use animal names for my groups anymore, they are just the colour of their tubs, ie. Blue Group, Green Group etc. In Tub 1 are a selection of books at their reading level that stay in that tub for about 2 weeks. Every day we complete 5-10min of Silent Reading. Which isn't entirely silent, but it is quiet-ish. During this time I either meet with a whole group (often my low group who need extra support) or I work one-on-one with students for specific skills or assessment. I have one student who is well above the expected reading level so I often read with that child. After the amount of time that suits both me (depending on what I'm doing during that time) and my students concentration span for that day, we swap to Tub 2.

I have been posting photos of my Tub 2 activities on Instagram. I love Tub 2 time!! I either do Guided Reading during that time, rove around to check on the small groups, or continue with assessment. Here are some photos of the activities we have been doing during Tub 2 time.

TL: Guided Reading. TR: Puzzles. BL: Playdough mats. BR: Beading.

TL: Making small paper balls (finger strength). TR: Letter matching. BL: Lining up MAB units on MAB 100s. BR: Guided reading.

TL: Pinning pictures. TR: Guided reading. BL: Sorting fiction and non-fiction books. BR: Pop for Letters.

TL: Roll, write, read sheets. TR: Sequencing cards. BL: Teacher group focussing on letters. BR: Playdough!

TL: Matching letters on an alphabet chart. TR: Pop for Letters. BL: sequencing cards. BR: Roll, write, read.

TL: Pinning pictures. TR: Tracing. BL: Threading pasta. BR: Cutting with fancy scissors.

TL: Pegging the initial sound. TR: Sequencing cards. BL: Matching CVC words and pictures. BR: Matching lower case letters.

I choose my activities based on each group's goals. For example, my top group is working on mainly CVC and sight words now, with an occasional fine motor skill or letter sound task to mix things up. My lower groups are working mainly on fine motor skills and letters, including letter identification. I love that Reading Groups allows me to differentiate the tasks to match student goals.

 

At the end we come together and swap between a few different versions of 'share time'. Sometimes I just ask who would like to share something about their Reading Groups task. Sometimes I will get my Guided Reading group to read their book to the class. I have some cards that I occasionally use that say "Today I enjoyed..." "Today I learned..." "Today something I found hard was..." "Today something I found easy was...". Depending on how much time we have and how the kids are coping with the morning I change the closure of the lesson.

 

All of this takes us about 35-40mins. Sometimes we go over that time if the kids are all working really well, other times I'll shorten the time we spend on each part if we are running late or have something that we have to ready for.

I'd love to hear how you run Reading Groups, or Reading Instruction if you don't have groups.

Classroom update and a SALE!

I worked in my classroom yesterday (Saturday) for a few hours because I needed to rearrange some furniture. Where I had my SmartBoard meant that it had sun glare on it for most of the day, and that's just not good enough when you're trying to watch GoNoodle!! Here are some photos of my newly rearranged room:

View from my teaching chair.

View from my door. My stuff is hidden behind the SmartBoard.

TL: My teaching table. TR: Rearranged the tables. BL: Looking toward the door. BL: Laminated cellophane to block the light.

New teaching space with new displays. I couldn't decide whether to display the numbers with 10 at the top or the bottom.

I also gave my SitSpots a wash. They are looking bright and shiny, and ready to be used again!

Washed them in warm soapy water. Gave them a good scrub with a scouring sponge. Then soaked the for a few minutes in some disinfectant. We had a little wee accident on the carpet, so I thought it best to give them all a clean.

Also, there is a TeachersPayTeachers Sale coming!

From May 5-6 my TpT store will be have a 20% off sale, and then you'll get extra off when you use the Coupon Code. Go and fill up your Wishlist now so you can grab some awesome sales!!

Peek at my week - week beginning 16 February

I love reading what other teachers are doing in their classrooms, and I love sharing what I'm doing. Here is a peek at my week!

Here is a recap of week four of term 1:

When my students come in each morning they unpack their satchels. Their satchels are blue, velcro-closure pockets that they carry notes, take home books and their diary in. They also transport money in them. Each morning they put their money pouch in the white box, their diary in the green box and their satchel in the blue bucket - we only started this routine last week and it is taking some time!!

We made these in maths. I love combining fine motor skills with other subject areas and number formation is an area we focus on. You can get the mosaic squares from Zart Art.

These were our four Reading Groups last week. We had guided reading with me, puzzles, playdough and beading. My students are still learning how to work in groups, and fine motor tasks are really useful for practicing group work. All students understand the tasks and can do them independently while I work with my small group. This week our phonological awareness focus was rhyme.

This is the board behind where I sit for Guided Reading. I write up our focus, and go through the black words (which are high frequency words from the book we are reading) before we read.

We started Maths Groups last week too. I will be doing an hour per week of Maths Groups, where the students will work in groups of 3-4 students and will complete 5 different activities. All activities will be focussed on number/place value. It is a great opportunity to do some quick assessment and see how different students are coping with the content.

My 2015 classroom

 

I absolutely love setting up my new classroom each year. This year I have moved back into the classroom I was in during 2013. It felt a bit like coming home. I wanted to give you a tour of my 2015 classroom. I have preps (5/6 year olds) again this year. I have 22 students in my class.

Here is a panorama photo of my room, taken from my doorway.

My small group teaching area/teacher desk.

What the whiteboard above looks like now.

My whole group teaching area. Love me Ikea chair!!

My timetable and mat rules on my portable whiteboard.

My amazing giant cupboard, tables, door to outside and trolley with resources on it.

 Close-up of my trolley with resources on it.

This is where I write up my learning intentions for the week.

Book Corner area.

Close-up of the Book Corner. My students LOVE spending time here.

I use these for my Reading Groups activities (on the right) and the ones on the left will be used for Maths Groups.

The view from my desk area.