The Spunky Teaching Monkey: My Classroom

Here is my 2014-2015 classroom! Now, before we begin, I have to tell you that my classroom is definitely a "work in progress!" I'm sure you understand because YOU are a teacher too! I'll be working on my classroom all summer. In the past my classroom was very colorful and over-loaded with information. As someone with ADHD, I understand how hard it is to focus when there are a lot of colors and things going on in the classroom. This year, I decided to stick with a color pallet that includes pastel colors conducive for learning. Now, time for the tour!

Front door to my classroom

This is a fabulous inspirational quote mini-poster. I have this next to my main classroom door. The inspirational posters can be found {HERE}.

This is one of my displays for my students' work. Don't you love it? I will be posting their writing assignments here with a Common Core writing mini-poster explaining which type of writing we are working on (i.e. narrative, opinion, informative). You can find the mini-posters {HERE}!

My intervention table.

Here is my calendar and some more inspirational quote posters.

This is my unit bulletin board. You can find my Skill Posters {HERE}. They link to our Reading Wonders series.

View from my desk.

This is where I will display some student's work inside my classroom. I wanted it to be kind of like a Pinterest board. :)

Picture from my former classroom.

I love this writing poster! You can find it {HERE}.

My former fabulous lockers! It took 5 coats of yellow paint to cover the red. I love red, but not for my classroom. Red is definitely not conducive to learning.

I chose yellow, because it stimulates optimism, hope, and balance. It is also the first color a person distinguishes in the brain. I also painted my cabinet light blue. Blue is a tranquilizing color. It is calming and increases feelings of well-being. When you see blue, your brain realeases eleven neurotransmitters that relax the body, and may result in a reduction of temperature, perspiration, and appetite. Red is a very exciting color; it can be disturbing to kids with high anxiety. It can increase blood pressure and breathing, and stimulate appetite and sense of smell.

You can read about the impact of color on learning {HERE}, {HERE}, and {HERE}.

These are my current lockers, which I hope to paint in the future.

I am so obsessed with this activity! While students are reading a novel, students draw from the point-of-view a character. The reader needs to get inside the character's feelings. Students should provide a caption written in the point of view of the character. They should also combine textual evidence to visualize a scene from the text in the selfie.

Here's an example:

You can find them {HERE} for free!

My desk with my super cute community quotes! You can get them {HERE}.

Another view of my desk area.

My classroom whole brain rules at the top. You can purchase them {HERE}.

My early finisher's posters! I love them! You can find them {HERE}.

The blank one on my white board is to add another activity.

My super cute absentee work folders! This is where we put the work absent students missed. They pick it up the next day to complete. :)

Here are my absent work folders now.

I do a lot of Kagan structures. This poster is very helpful to remind students what appropriate praises are. I also have an anchor chart I use to show kids acceptable greetings and partings to one another. I only pull that out when needed.

School supply storage. If you like the labels you can get them {HERE} for free!

Here is my AR Book library and student checkout clipboard pinned next to it. :)

A fabulous teacher shared this with me. This allows students to assess themselves with what we are learning. You can read more about it from Why Not Get Smart.