The Only Quote in my Classroom

There are many teachers with quote after quote up on their classroom walls.  I'm not one of those people. I've got nothing against them...I guess I've just never found that many quotes that I think could really make a difference. 

This week, however, I found myself referring to a quote I heard a while back again and again and again.  

Particularly useful in maths, where children must do many calculations or repetitive activities, I think this quote has a space in my classroom.  I was able to explain my personal experience with the quote when learning the guitar. I told them how I was learning chords to a song and the first time I got it right I thought I was done.  Then the next time I played the song, I got the chords wrong and I realised I hadn't learned the song completely until I'd practised it until it was never wrong. 

My Favourite Assessment Stamper

This is a just a quick post about an assessment stamper I had made last year which I love and have used loads.  Similar to the "Verbal Feedback Given" ones, this stamper saves a long essay in children's books and helps me keep track of which subjects which children need recapping on. 

The stamper says:

It can be used like this:

On that day, the child must come and find me during the lesson, I will give a quick input on the subject and then I'll tick where the stamp is in their book to show that I've covered it.  The child then has to show what they learned from my input by either doing a question or writing a sentence or two about what they now know, having "chatted" with me.  

I think it's effective because it keeps a record for the child, it's much less aggressive than "see me" and also means the subject is covered on a day appropriate to the planning for the week.

The stamper was one of these personalised wording-only assessment stampers from PTS Stickers.

Mrs P

A Tour Of My Classroom

So this is my 2013-14 #ClassroomTour which shows each area from the centre.  This year I was fortunate enough to have a brand new classroom, newly built and newly furnished. So below are the before (left) and after (right) pictures of each area.  Then scroll down for some annotated close ups of displays and areas.

Reading Corner

Theme Board

Introducing the Class

English Board and Desk Area

Whiteboard

Maths Board

Table Tidy

Groups and Timetable

A closer look at displays - I've annotated these using Skitch to show what will go where. 

Writing Display

Reading Display

Maths Display

Inspired By Pinterest 3 - First Day

I've been collecting ideas for starting a new year with a new class on this Pinterest board.  I've had the chance to try some of them out and here's how I got on!

1 - How do we treat books
Inspired by this pin and with a brand new book corner, I really wanted to put a focus on the treatment of books.  The children had great ideas which I will display in the reading corner and remind them of if things aren't looked after.




2 - Post-It Questions
This activity has been flying around Pinterest and Twitter for a while and I've always liked the look of it.  I never expected children to come out with the things they did or to be so engaged with it.  There are 6 things they must write on post it notes:
School is important because...
Our classroom should be ______ everyday.
What are your goals for this year?
What do you need to do to achieve your goals?
What does Mrs P need to do to help you this year?
How can we make sure our classroom runs smoothly?

The original pin (from my boards anyway) can be found here.

3 - Class Headed Paper
I loved the idea from this pin and so adapted it for my movie-themed classroom.  The children drew their face, I wrote their names and we stuck it all together and photocopied it many times. We now have personalised paper for them to write any free-writing or letters on. 

Inspired By Pinterest 2 - Displays

1 - Starring Board

I thought this pin showed a really great board for introducing my movie theme. Each child is holding a clapper board and, soon to be displayed is a book with information about the "cast"! (I've blanked out faces for anonymity).

2 - Reading Display

There are many of these on Pinterest so I took inspiration from this pin and this pin to create a reading display complete with question prompts and links to the reading AFs.  I learned to make the spotlights using this pin. There is a section of books on the bookshelf that are books of movies or books that have been made into movies.  The children asked if they could bring their own in if they had them.

3 - Movie Jobs

Finally, this display shows the jobs for the class set out as a cast and crew board.  Inspiration came from this pin and this pin.

Inspired By Pinterest 1 - Classroom Organisation

I've admitted my addiction to Pinterest and I don't feel so bad about it anymore! Setting up a new classroom in a new school has been a great opportunity to try out some of the things I pinned on my boards a long time ago. I'll put them up in a few separate posts, this one will focus on general classroom organisation ideas.

1 - Teacher Toolbox.

You can read all about this one and see step-by-step instructions in my previous post.

2 - Class journals.  

I saw this pin and immediately liked the idea.  I bought the notepads and sponge letters from The Range and decided these were the 4 topics.  The books will basically be free writing journals for kids to write about a sports event (like a report), a dream, a holiday or a wish. It's a really simple idea which, I hope, will encourage writing.  My job is to make sure children have time to use them.

3 - Assessment In-Trays

My husband and I bought a couple of sets of these each as an easy way of understanding how children felt the lesson went.  These used in the wrong way can be awful. However, with the right classroom ethos and understanding they can help teachers judge where to pitch the next lesson, who needs help on the next day and who is ready to move on.  The in-trays can be bought here. 

Creating My Teacher Toolbox

I have an addiction to Pinterest. There. I said it. I love it and I can't get enough of it. I will be satisfied to browse for half an hour without any luck if I just find one good idea.

In the few months that I've had a Pinterest account, something has caught my eye again and again: the beautiful Teacher Toolboxes that people create and post. So, having created a board full of Toolboxes I liked, I was inspired enough to create one myself.  Again inspired by Pinterest, I have chosen a black and white theme for my room, so I followed this when creating my Toolbox.

So here are the instructions.

You will need:

A tool accessory box, mine is this one from Amazon.

A laptop.

Some washi tape, like this.

Some double sided sticky tape.

Lots of stationary items to fill the toolbox with.

Spray paint that can go on plastic, I used Direct To Plastic.

A large area and lots of time, preferably with movies or a TV series, I chose One Tree Hill.

I collected my pieces and was ready to go.

First, choose a colour scheme that matches your washi tape then load up your laptop and create a table in word. I measured the fronts of each drawer and made the boxes of the table the same size (right click, table properties, adjust row width and column height). Then insert your words and a pattern image to the box of the table.

The next job is to put the patterned tape on the handles of the drawer. This is an easy job, just cut it, place it on, secure it down and tuck in the edges, like wrapping a present.

Hopefully you'll see that things are coming together! Next job: back to labels. This is where the double sided sticky tape comes into its own.  Cut tiny bits and attach one bit on each side of the front of each label, peel the backing off and you're good to go. Stick it to the inside of the drawer and, voila! 

Once you've done all your drawers, you're almost there.

The final job is to remove all the trays and spray paint the frames. Unfortunately my spray paint hasn't arrived yet so that job will have to wait! 

UPDATE: The boxes have been spray painted and I added some white sponge letters like these to the top.

I hope this helps those wanting to make one of these, particularly if you're in the UK as I couldn't find any information online about where to buy things! 

Let me know if you try one of these, I'd love to see how it turned out!