Classroom Calendar 2.0

I have used the same store-bought dry erase class calendar for the entire 6 six years of my teaching experience, and I was ready for something new! So I did what any good teacher does, and searched Pinterest for some ideas, and I found something I loved. So, I got a cheap frame from a yard sale, a piece of white poster board, paint swatches and scrapbook paper in various shades of lime and turquoise, and a dry erase marker. I cut the paper in 3"x 3.5" rectangles and laid them in a random pattern (haha, what an oxymoron!) Finally, I glued them down, carefully placing them about .25" apart from each other. Then I assembled the frame and wrote out the month, year, and days. This is the result:

Mod Podge Heaven

I have only recently been exposed to the wonders of Mod Podge, thanks to (of course) Pinterest! I decided to try my hand at a couple of projects using Mod Podge and scrapbook paper and fabric. Here's the result:

First, I took an old cork board that was left in my room, and I painted the trim turquoise. Then I cut lime green polka dot fabric to fit over the board. I adhered the fabric using Mod Podge. Then I added a sparkly "G" to the bottom right corner. Much better than before!  (I still have it pinned in place while it dries)

 My second project was to Mod Podge scrapbook paper onto cookie sheets to make magnetic boards.  I will use these for classroom jobs, lunch choices, and possibly my Whole Brain Teaching scoreboard.  This is the result:

 Finally I found little tin cans at Michael's that were clearanced for $0.40, so I bought three (one for each of my three classes). I Mod Podged scrapbook paper around them to transform them to match my classroom decor!  I only wish I had bought more.

 There are so many other things that I want to do, but I'm running out of time...school starts for us in 2 1/2 weeks!  Let me know what you think!

Phase 1 Complete, on to Phase 2

Today was my 3rd day working in my new classroom and I finally completed Phase 1, which means the room is clean and I have all my furniture placed where I want it to go (I think!) I am moving on to Phase 2, which is to fill the room with my own materials. This will include setting up my library. I decided that since I inherited a room with a multitude of books (not to mention my own set of books), I would spend some time this summer organizing my library by book level and category. Not a small feat! I am creating labels to go on the books. These labels have important information, such as the title, author, interest level, book level, AR quiz number, and AR point value. Hopefully, this will help the children to keep the classroom library organized. It'll also help them to easily find a book within their ZPD. I think Phase 3 will be to decorate the classroom with my own personal touch!

New Classroom, Phase 1

I am so excited about today: it is my first day to begin working in my new classroom in my new school district. In years past, I've waited until the very last minute to organize, and as a result, my room has never been a model of perfection (or even close). I always run out of time, so this year after gaining much inspiration and motivation from Pinterest, I decided to start earlier than years past. My goal for today is to simply make sure the room is clean and the furniture is placed where I want it all to go. I stopped at the store to purchase a few necessary cleaning supplies, and called ahead to the school to make sure the doors are open. Now I am about to venture out into a thunderstorm to begin taking ownership of my room! I'll try and take pictures throughout my journey to create a room that is uniquely mine!

Finally, something to TWEET about!

I've been told that my new school is somewhat competitive when it comes to hallway bulletin boards, and every teacher is assigned to two 8'x4' boards (one vertical and one horizontal). So you could imagine how apprehensive I've been about this (I know, ridiculous, right?) I want to make sure mine measures up, but nothing cute or interesting was coming to me (even after a good while of searching on Pinterest and other blogs). Our grade-level theme is "Explore Third Grade" so I want to incorporate that of course. Also, I want my boards to be welcoming to new students. While "researching" I came across plenty of underwater, jungle, and beach themes, but I wanted mine to be original (kind of an oxymoron when you think about it: researching other bulletin board themes to come up with my own "original" idea). Then, while texting back-and-forth with my sister, it hit me! I'll make a bulletin board that mimics a Twitter page! So I narrowed my research and finally found a few pins that were inspirational. Then I set out to design my board on paper first (of course, inserting place holders and descriptions instead of actual content)...and here is what I came up with! Please note that not everything is to scale:

As for my other board, I'm still "researching."

What do teacher's do in the summer?

Many people believe that teachers completely take a break from all things school-related during the summer. NOT TRUE! I love using my summer to re-organize, plan, and prepare for the coming school year. This year, since I am moving to a new school and district, my summer is even more valuable. Here is a short list of my summer to-do's: organize my new classroom (I have to wait until floors are finished), create and update a class blog/website that will be a valuable communication tool between my students' parents and me, create a welcome newsletter and other important beginning of the year tools, design my bulletin boards (for some reason, this is a daunting task for me), study my new curriculum guides, and research other ideas/strategies (using of course Pinterest, educational websites, and other grade-level blogs). Well, so much for summer "break." Let the fun begin!