2020-2021 (5th Year)
I did not take my typical classroom tour of pictures this year because well, you know how teaching was if you taught this year… It sure was a year full of changes! I am just grateful I was able to finish the school year with this time. We had a lot of fun and shared a lot of memories in this space, but boy was I looking forward to summer.
2019-2020 Classroom (4th Year)
Who knew starting into my 4th year that we would have to shut down schools in March and teach online for the rest of the year. This year was full of many emotions for me. I had a student teacher start in my room in January and right away she took over teaching for the day. I really only had this group of students until December.
2018-2019 Classroom (3rd Year)
I had such a great year with flexible seating during this school year. I ended up getting a lot of the seating you see donated through DonorsChoose and through the Facebook Marketplace. I also got a bit more organized with where supplies go. Stay tuned for a blog post that goes in more detail about this. I had 22 students, but enough spots to fit about 36. It is always better to have more than enough because flexible seating allows students to change their spots to create a better learning environment for that student. My husband surprised me and built a classroom stage for me this year too (not pictured). For my 4th year of teaching my classroom will have a similar set up with a few minor changes. This layout really worked for my students.
2017-2018 Classroom (2nd Year)
My 2nd year of teaching I loved the idea behind flexible seating so I went for it. Like I said before, flexible seating was a game changer for my classroom. Check out my blog post to learn why I decided to switch to flexible seating. I also talk about the dos and don’ts with it, because I learned that the hard way.
I learned how to use PowerPoint over the summer so I could create activities and bulletin boards for my classroom. I also bought all the things on Teachers Pay Teachers, Target, and Amazon to help with my set up. I had 27 kids my 2nd year of teaching, so my classroom management had to be on point because these kids couldn’t function with one management system.
2016-2017 Classroom (1st Year)
Can you say hot mess express?! Wow! I don’t even think I took pictures after decorating all the way, so this is what you’re going to get. I had no idea where to begin when I first got into my room, especially since it is so BIG! The 3rd grade hall has the biggest classrooms since it was added on after the school was built. How did I get so lucky?! I have no idea, but I am extremely grateful to have a big room. I had a clean slate to start because the previous teacher moved to 2nd grade and took all of her stuff. I didn’t mind a clean slate because that allowed me to add my own personal touch to my first classroom. I had the bare minimum because let’s be real, I had just graduated from college and had little to no money to buy decorations because during student teaching I couldn’t have a job. So, setting up this classroom required a lot of DIY projects. The dicut letter machine was my best friend for a few weeks. I even traced out letters by putting a piece of paper on my laptop screen with a font I was obsessed with because I didn’t own a printer and the school printers were daunting. I was crazy. If I knew what I know now back then cutting out letters would be a piece of cake all thanks to my Cricut.
My reading corner was a disaster because I was given books in boxes and literally no books were labeled, some were way out of date that they were older than my grandma…sorry grandma. I knew I wanted a classroom library from the beginning, so I conquered the pile of books placed before me. I sorted, labeled, and even tossed out the ancient books. Slowly but surely my classroom was coming together and I fell in love with it even though it looks simple. I put so much time and effort into it that I couldn’t not love it.
I didn’t have a teacher Instagram account my first year of teaching so these pictures aren’t in a fancy layout like the my previous classroom posts.