Day 1 (sort of)
Back to school to do list:
- Set up classroom
- Design and complete three bulletin boards
- Set up electronics (Projector, ELMO, Classroom computers)
- Organize desk and closet
- Create seating charts (for three classes)
- Decide on classroom rules, procedures, and forms
- Create/edit back to school PowerPoints
- Figure out how to organize stations
- Make a model interactive notebook
- Find resources
- and...
Getting ready for school is such an exciting, trying, fun, and stressful time for me. This year will be my 6th year teaching, so some of the above items will fall into place very quickly but I plan to change other items to keep things interesting.
Today, we (my children, some friends, and I) started working on this to do list. I set up my classroom using a model from Fred Jones's Teacher's Tools. The model uses three rows of eight chairs (two chairs, aisle, four chairs, aisle, and then two more chairs). I have used this model at the first of each of school year since I started teaching. This is a great set up to use while getting to know your students because it allows you get to each child quickly. This arrangement also shows students that you are in control and that you "mean business".
While I was working on moving the desks my son, CJ, connected all my electronics and my daughter, K, and some of her friends worked on organizing my desk and closet. Its amazing how much stuff I'm able to cram into my closet at the end of the school year. The results were great. Now, I can find everything I need quickly! I can also see that I will need to order supplies very soon.
So here is my list after day 1:
- Design and complete three bulletin boards
- Create seating charts (for three classes)
- Decide on classroom rules, procedures, and forms
- Create/edit back to school PowerPoints
- Figure out how to organize stations
- Make a model interactive notebook
- Find resources
- and...
Not bad, 11 more days to go!
Mrs. L.
