Our Classroom: 2016 Reveal

Welcome to my new classroom! The panorama above, while cool, does not truly capture the feel of my classroom. It's difficult to tell, but I have a bit of an L-shaped classroom. I had to stand in the front corner of my room to get a good picture, rather than the doorway.

Here is a view from the actual doorway. This picture was taken right before Meet the Teacher.

Setting up this room has provided me with a lot of challenges. There are still a few things that I'm figuring out, or that I just don't like. I've also had difficulty finding places to "put" everything-for storage and just general classroom needs. However, there are plenty of spaces in my classroom that I'm really excited about this year.


Empty Walls and Boards
As you may remember from last year, I have very strong opinions about my empty walls and empty bulletin boards-but that doesn't stop me from making them beautiful! I've got some things planned out, but most of the walls are just empty and without plans right now! Here are some photos:

Titles are a way to spruce up a board that is waiting for students. Banners are helpful, too-the banner over my interactive whiteboard helps add color and life to the front of the room without creating distraction. 

This sort-of-empty wall will be filled with photographs and hashtags throughout the year! I will have the kids help write hashtags for the pictures as we post them. If you think about it, hashtags are a great way to practice summarizing. 

Making it work
This is what you will see immediately upon entering my classroom. At first, I was really unhappy about that, because the bookcase was just so drab. In the end, I was able to spruce it up with the nice baskets and some pom poms.

Student Ownership
Below is a real life picture for you. The book boxes are getting full and are a little wonky, but I wanted to show how my students decorated their own labels. I've been trying to figure out ways that students can help build our classroom environment, and this was an easy way to do this on the very first day. They were also able to decorate their own name tags. They will be adding visuals to our procedures posters and a few other things as we continue through the first six weeks of school.

A Cozy Place
Here is another look at the front of my classroom. I love my huge and beautiful rug, comfy chairs with emoji pillows, and fun bulletin board borders. My kids like hanging out in this area, too, even though we haven't even turned on the computers yet!

Hope you've enjoyed and maybe even found some ideas for your own classroom!

xoxo,
Stephanie