Hello and Welcome to the Bright Ideas Link Up! This is the ultimate Link-Up for the best ideas in your classroom. Be sure to click on more links below after reading my post!
I just wanted to capture some of the things I do in my classroom to keep things running smoothly. Some of these ideas might be what you already do, and if you are a new teacher, some of these ideas might be helpful to you. Either way, I love sharing, so enjoy a glimpse of my classroom!
I file everything by week. Since our units revolve around our reading program, this weekly organization thing is possible for me. If I wasn’t able to organize by week, I would probably organize by theme. I will lay out the week I am teaching, and two weeks ahead. That way, I can just file in masters or activities when I get a chance. I don’t have to do it all at once. Who has time for that anyway? I can file as I go, and when I am ready, I can take the folder into the copy room and fly through my copies. If you are really lucky, you could get a copy parent to do all this busy work:)
Putting a paper waste bin on each table has really helped me with keeping the paper pieces off the floor. I took it a step further and saved even more space by taking Starbucks cups and using them for table points. The nice thing about the cups is that the chips won’t spill into the paper waste bins! I just have the captains empty them twice a day! Makes my job so much easier!
I even got more efficient with the paper waste bin, and I have partner cards under the bins to remind my table groups of their numbers and peanut butter and jelly roles. This has always helped me with managing groups and partner sharing. I also don’t have the sticky tape mess and changing out partners to worry about.
This idea came from a colleague, but you can organize your books by level so that the students know which books are appropriate.
The last thing I would like to share is the way I document my parent communication, behavior, and homework. I send a early primary-friendly calendar home, and I make my parents sign it each night. On this calendar is the date, behavior for the day, and homework for the day. If the parent has any comments, they can write comments on the line. I love this because it really opens the lines of communication for the parent and the teacher! I was so surprised by how many parents actually use this to communicate small messages with me. It has been such a blessing this year!
If you would like more ideas from me, be sure to follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers, Pinterest, and Facebook to stay posted on the latest from me!
I hope you were able to take away something from this post! I am so glad to be a part of The Bright Ideas Link-Up and, I hope you visit some more posts from over 150 bloggers from the Linky Directory below!
