Hey hey teacher friend. How many of you LOVE the look of your shiny classroom floors on the first day of school? This week I took a few hours to go into school and set up my classroom and make copies for the first week of classes. Here is a sneak peak at the room before I rearranged and set up.
I had my helpers with me. This was the first time I brought them to my classroom to “help” at the end of summer. The room was pretty stark. I decided I am not going to go to crazy with set-up this year and I’m going to try to go for a more minimalist look. I’m going to try and limit the amount of personal money I put into my classroom. I’m sure you can all relate.
First we set up my word wall. I put this together when I was on maternity leave with my oldest. I bought it from Scaffolded Math & Science on TpT. You can find the link here.
Next, we rearranged the desks in to groups of 4 because this year I am going to use Math Wars™. I went through the course at the end of last year and used it during our review week. I had a lot more engagement from my reluctant learners, so I’m going to give it a try again. Cold calling is back!
Then we went and gathered all of the math textbooks that we will need for the semester. Good thing I had my little one to help. I’m sure glad she brought her muscles with her. I don’t typically use textbooks with my grade 10’s but I’m going to try and reduce my photocopying. Many parents asked for textbooks. I mean when the worksheet has 5-25 questions on it, depending on the lesson, how much more do they need? Anyway… it’s hard to please everyone, and I am tired of fighting that battle, so they can carry around yet another textbook.
Finally, I unpacked and got my shelves ready. Got the electronics charging and speakers set up. That was enough for the first day.
I went back the next day with helper number 2, because she was a bit jealous to find out that I took her younger sister the day before while she was at a sleep over with her cousins.
We made some first week photocopies and got my day 1 lessons uploaded on my Google drive and iPad.
I made copies of this review of grade 9 linear relations for my grade 10’s.
I also made a getting to know Mrs. Coulter activity for my grade 11’s that reviewed the grade 10 curriculum. Not surprisingly making just 10 questions doctored to have answers that were about me took a LONG time to create. I hope they like it. I usually post it around the room and let them work in pairs or 3’s using clipboards to work on the questions. I call this an “Around the room” activity.
That’s all I plan to do until Tuesday. We have a full day of PD and then I will stay a bit after school to make sure my Apple TV and iPad work to project my lessons. Other than that, I am as ready as I’m going to be.
I hope you enjoy your last long weekend of summer.
Just remember, done is better than perfect. My classroom is definitely NOT Pinterest perfect, and I am okay with that.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Sherry