My Classroom in Pictures

On Saturday, my husband and I went to see Raiders of the Lost Ark in IMAX.  The closest IMAX is two hours away, but we are both huge Indiana Jones fans, which made the drive not a big deal.  What was great about the drive for me is that I had uninterrupted time to get this post together.  I previously posted a slideshow that showcased how the other teachers in my school did a great job creating inviting environments for their students.  If you missed that post, check it out here:  A Tour of My School.

I am excited to share my classroom this year.  My classroom is a little different than most because it is for teachers and not students.  I tried to make an inviting room where teachers could learn and plan together.  If you have any ideas on changes that I can implement to make it even more beneficial to my teachers, I would love to hear them.

In my district, our weekly teacher meetings are called cluster meetings, hence the name of the room.  On the door is our family tree.  The other master teacher in the building is much more artistic than I am.  I showed her an idea from Pinterest, and she created this door.  The leaves on the door have pictures of all the teachers in our building.  In the hallway next to the door, is a quilted sign that she also made (like I said very talented).

On the inside of the door, I recreated the We do lists that have been floating through Pinterest (inspired by this pin and this pin) to fit my teachers and our beliefs.  My favorite three are the last three:  We never give up.  We belong.  We are FAMILY!  That is truly how I feel about the wonderful teachers I work with each day.  We have created a family.

My two week schedule is always posted (for my benefit and my teachers).  I poster-sized two blank schedules and placed them side by side.  I color-coded it for my benefit.  The blue sticky notes mean that I have a professional development I have to attend (or lead).  The pink sticky notes are meetings that I have every week.  The bright yellow sticky notes are times when I will be in my teachers classrooms.  At the end of every cluster meeting, the teachers sign up for times for me to come see them teach.  This week I am going to be adding more choices:  observe a lesson, co-teach a lesson, model a lesson, or work with a small group of students.  The purple sticky note lets me know when the cluster room is in use by the other master teacher (we have to share the room).

I love to decorate using picture books.  I placed my favorite read alouds all around the room: Skippyjon Jones, Pete the Cat, and any Mo Willems book.  My teachers can check these books out from me at any time.

This kidney table is one of the places that I use to work with teachers.  Behind the table is a display that is in progress.  What I plan to do is place a pictorial timeline by month inspired by this pin.  I have been taking pictures of what has been happening each month since June.  I am going to put a title in the space above the colorful boxes.  I am stumped right now as to what that title is going to be exactly.  In each of the boxes, I am going to place the name of the month and pictures that represent activities that happened in our school that month.  The library is full of books that teachers can check out.  The books are correlated to the books Strategies That Work, Craft Lessons, and Nonfiction Craft Lessons.  I want to add a math library next and have books matched to math topics.  The tissue paper puffs hanging from the ceiling I created using the fabulous directions from Nicole at Teaching With Style.

This is the main teacher meeting area in the room.  In the middle of the table are sticky notes and containers that hold pens and highlighters.  During meetings the table also has bowls of candy (always important!).  On the wall is the evaluation rubric that everyone (including me) is evaluated by...there are nineteen indicators with each indicator having five to six descriptors.  This is our second year to use this evaluation rubric and I feel better about it this year.  It has really helped me to coach my teachers.  When I observe and know that something is not quite right, the rubric helps me pinpoint exactly what I can do to help my teachers.

I share the cluster room with the 4th-6th grade master teacher.  Her group has more teachers so she needed a bigger table set up.  We put three tables together for her.  Behind her tables, I have started a bulletin board titled "Strategies for Success."  Each time we learn a new teacher or student strategy, I put it on the bulletin board.  I was inspired by the CAFE boards that classroom teachers use.

I am lucky enough to have my own office to store all my stuff in.  It is not that pretty, but I mainly use it to do paperwork.  This is my desk (actually two desks put in an L shape).  My name plate was given to me by one of the first year teachers I mentored who became a great friend.  If you are reading this Rachel, I miss you! (She moved to Tennesse to be closer to her family...can't blame her but I do miss her).

My office is not very organized. It tends to be used as storage.  There is a table if I need to meet with teachers or students.  The bulletin board will hold data.  The yellow pocket chart will also hold data.

This is one of my favorite summer projects.  I was inspired by Miss Kindergarten's Where are we? sign.  Now my teachers know where I am if they need to see me.  Also lets anyone else looking for me, know where I am.  I am next to the speech specialist.  She loves this sign.  She gets people coming into her room asking where I am.  I have no idea why they are asking her, but now she directs them to my sign.  It was easy to make...just need modpodge and scrapbook paper.  I used a silver sharpie to color the little clothespin that holds the individual signs.

Outside of my office door, I have this great WELCOME sign from Jeannie at Kindergarten Lifestyle.  I also have a quilted sign made by the other master teacher.  The tree on the wall is vinyl decoration from Wal-Mart.  I have gotten so many compliments on the Welcome sign.  Thanks Jeannie!!

Thanks for sticking with me through the tour of my classroom and my office.  I would love to hear from you:  thoughts, questions, comments.

Want to see other great classrooms?  I am linking up with Swimming Into Second.