2014 – 2015 Second Grade Classroom

I was able to go in and get my keys yesterday.  We don’t start school for two more weeks, but I have bits of things scheduled here and there, so I wanted to make sure I got some classroom time in every once in a while.  Here’s what I walked into:

I have the luxury of leaving all the stuff up on my walls, so I did.  It will make set up much easier this year.  There is so much space without the desks!  Maybe we don’t need them 🙂  Actually, I do wish I could have tables rather than desks.  I put them in table groups anyway.  But I also see the advantage of desks for all their “stuff” and so that students have their own space.

Sorry this photo is a bit sideways and blurry.  It’s the only one I have of this angle.  You can see my teaching wall that has a ton of storage behind it.  They’re working on installing the projector in the ceiling, which actually is installed at this point.  But, I think the only plug in for my computer / document camera are on the left (you can see it under the table).  How do you see what’s on the screen while using a document camera?????  I usually have it set up in front of the screen.  Oh well, I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

I also don’t normally have my rug here.  It goes in the back.  It got cleaned, though!

This is the other side (I didn’t take a photo of the back wall, for some reason).  The custodial staff piled all the desks on the counters.  I get why, but they’re still cleaning rooms at other school sites and not able to help me take them down!  So, this is about how my room looked when I walked out yesterday, too.  I can’t lift the desks down and there isn’t much for me to do until I can get the physical space set up.  I did move the carpet, the horseshoe tables, and a few other things.

Today, I’m dragging my husband (and kids) in to help me move the desks.  The kids don’t really help. We’ll see how much I get done with them around.  Basically, I just need him to get the desks down!

I’m super excited to start setting things up and getting everything in place.  It’s my organizational self coming out.  Home tends to be chaos (with a husband and two little boys at home most of the day), so I put my organizing and OCD self into my classroom.  I need at least one space in my life predictable!

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My classroom last year is much the same, with a few small changes this year.  There’s much more detail in the tab above, but here are a few newer pictures.

This is my whole room!  I made the mistake of standing at the door when taking the panoramic shot, so half the photo is a wall, but you get the idea of what you see when you walk in the room!

I tend to leave a lot of blank spaces to be filled in throughout the year.

This wall is next to the door as you walk in.  It’s our bathroom chart, job board, and Super Improvers wall.

This is our carpet area and one of my teaching walls.  I don’t use an easel, but pin chart paper to the wall.  I love having a large flat surface to teach on.  I use both sides, but generally sit on the right side.  The pocket carts on the right are our Daily 5 choice boards.  We’re starting with one rotation: Read to Self.  On the left is our Math Stations chart.

Moving down the wall . . . this is our writing genre display board.  I’ve since changed it to say, “Write a Narrative”.  I display all our writing anchor charts on here as well as a few other writing helpers.

Next to it is our bucket filler chart, which will be filled with cups and around it with anchor charts about bucket filling.

The top part are our writing goals and our ST Math Progress Chart (computerized math program).  Below are our QR codes for Listen to Reading.

This used to be where I had our computers.  We no longer have classroom desktop computers.  Instead, we received some Chromebooks.  The beauty of those is that they’re mobile, which means I can use this space for a Work on Writing Station!  That will be on the right.  On the left is our Math Wall.

I LOVE this corner.  It’s a little disorganized, still.  It’s our reading corner, and, of course, balance ball storage area.  Students have their mailboxes on the left and math manipulative next to it.  As you can see, I’m in the process of filling book boxes for Read to Self.

I also love this wall!  It’s another teaching wall.  Each of the whiteboards slides and reveals storage space behind them.  There’s a ton of space!  I generally put my agenda on the left and other static things on the right.

This is my guided reading table and teaching corner.  I don’t have a traditional desk, but this area serves that purpose.  It’s a mess.  And, normally, my blinds are open, but because I wasn’t in the room most of the day, I didn’t want to open / close them.

Here’s the counter with the cubbies.  Students will store their book boxes on the left and school supplies are on the right.

As I said, much of it is the same as last year.  I’ll return later and show you specific pieces, like our new Work on Writing area, as I get them more established.  This year, I’m not doing a lot before school starts, in terms of set up.  We’ll see what happens in the next few weeks!