Putting together my classroom

All links in this post will take you to where you can get those materials, if you should want them. Most are free, but the expectations posters, alas, are not.

This is one of my bookshelves. I'm working on installing rain gutter on my cork board as well. Both of these things allow me to display my books cover-out. Studies indicate that kids are more likely to want to read if they can see the covers of the books, so I have displayed my books that (a) are light enough to put in this and (b) have interesting covers. Those that don't have interesting covers or are too heavy (or don't have pictures in them) are displayed on this bookshelf:



                 


This bookshelf is painted so that it's graded by level. Blue is beginner, red is intermediate (which is a HUGE range), and yellow is advanced. The top shelf is for dictionaries and songbooks.

 This is my corkboard. On the far right, I have our class calendar. This includes everything from JCL events to stuff we've scheduled actually in class. The middle is my Craig's List. I'm teaching mixed level classes this year, but let's be honest - all classes are mixed level. This whiteboard (they make stick-on whiteboard!) allows me to write phrases or synonyms that allow kids to use the words they know or try to level up if they want. The left is divided in two - memoranda and roganda. There's a basket with little papers, and there are pushpins on the cork strip above the board. Memoranda are things kids have asked me to do and are reminding me to do by writing me a note. Roganda are questions that are either off-topic or that the kid didn't want to ask in the moment, and so they pin them to the board. I will answer them on the paper and pin them back up, or find the kid if they write their name on it.


This is my board. The center is for use, the left is for club info, and the right is for weather. Posted along the board are my question words. Each poster has the word, colored, in huge font (at least 90 pt), the word in English smaller in a less interesting color, and pictures that you could associate with the word. I add words as my kids ask me to, but right now, they are to where, from where, where, when, what time, to whom, who, what, whom, whose, where, what kind, how many, why, how. I may have forgotten a couple.




This is my costume corner. I have a massive collection of stuffed animals hung on chains, which are attached to the wall using massive command hooks. (all these are findable on amazon) All my fruit and small plastic toys are in the hanging blue and maroon boxes, which I got at Home Depot. I sewed a piece of fabric to the back and slid them through a dowel rod, which I put on the wall using massive command hooks. There is a smaller hook with fly swatters on. On the table, there is a football helmet that doesn't fit in a box, and a box of cool and intriguing props (ranging from cat toys to I don't even know what). Underneath the table there are milk crates that are zip-tied together. Each is labeled, in Latin and English, with the type of clothing in it. To the left there is a hat box (hats are very important to my students. this also includes wigs and beards). Behind the arch (which represents all buildings all the time), there is a giant urn I got for twelve dollars that contains my foam swords. Above all of that, there's a green do you understand? poster, and it shows them how many fingers to hold up depending on how much they understand.

 These are my expectations posters. One shows what I want them to do in class (sit up straight, respond when I call on you, etc.), and the other is what they call my level up poster. If you're earning a zero, you're not here. If you're earning a 1...etc.

These are my file cabinets. The left hand one is my teaching materials - glitter, ribbons, extra paper, printer paper, classroom decorations, paint, etc. The chest of drawers is paper plates, miscellaneous paper, club files, cleaning supplies, etc. The right hand is the art buckets. You can see art buckets on top of it. I got the buckets, as well as the jackets around/in them, also at Home Depot (pretty cheaply). There are nine (enough for each group of four to have a bucket), and each has markers, scissors, colorful paper, sharpies, glue sticks, colored pencils, etc. The green drawers on the right hold my socks (so we can erase white boards), mini white boards, markers, games (like story cubes and Jenga). The tall tubes of colored paper are in a cheap folding laundry bin I got from Target for five dollars years ago. This way, I always have butcher paper, and they have a place to turn butcher paper projects in.







This is my idiom wall. I have found, especially in reading, that having knowledge and comfortable use of idiom is unbelievably helpful. Each week, each class chooses one, and I put it on the board. Every time someone uses it correctly, they get a piece of candy. I add idioms throughout the year, so the wall never gets stale.

This is my weather board. I include the day of the week, the time of year, and the weather itself. We do the weather daily at the beginning of class. It allows us to practice all three tenses (yesterday was, today is, tomorrow will be...), and we get used to questioning, and we get some basic idiomatic vocabulary in. I made all of these in Word and laminated them at the school, and then I stuck magnet tape on the back. You may note that I have two the moon is shining. There is no good reason for that.