Extreme Makeover - Classroom Version

Here is one of the things I have been most excited to share!  School started on August 22nd, but I went back during the week of August 13th to begin setting up my classroom.

I was so excited that my tables were in and ready to use!  This was going to start my year off right. :)

There was only one problem....

The desks were still in there, so instead of arranging my furniture like I typically do this motivated me to clean out all of my cabinets!  It was crazy how much stuff I got rid of. :)  It's nice and refreshing though to have so much storage.

Another view of my room...

And another....this is one of the views of where I stand to teach from my podium with my document camera.

This is what I see looking out at my class every day from my podium

Prepare yourself... I even surprised myself with some things I put together! :)

I made my own pennant sign!! I was so excited about it :)  Sorry for the glare, this is on my window which faces the outside hallway.

And a cute sign for my Math wall

Then my pennants for my ELA wall

Here's the full view from the back of my room. :)  I got crates and put hanging files in them for my students to keep their notebooks and workbooks in.  My goal this year is to lessen the transition time by keep as much as possible near them.

Side view of my room facing outside. :)

Close up of my counter with my quotes in picture frames. I got that idea off of Pinterest :)

My Twitter wall!  I really need to get different sentence strips though... I just laminated them and taped them to the wall.  I haven't used it yet, still trying to figure out my new routine with everything. What do you guys think? Any suggestions? I was so excited about it but I'm kinda not sure anymore...

 The back of my class.  Yes that's a fish tank, no there are not any fish left... silly things died one after the other at the end of last year... during class!!!  I kept hearing "I think something's wrong with the fish!".  Thankfully they're 5th graders so we were able to kind of laugh about it since I have no clue what went wrong.  The pet store told me my water was perfect!  Oh well... :)

My AMAZING behavior chart (this will come as a separate post soon).  I absolutely LOVE the clip chart though :) and then next to it are my class expectations.  I have started reading about the Whole Brain Teaching and reading about discipline and the difference between rules and expectations.

My ELA wall with my standards posted as well as the steps to help the students in a lesson.

Well that's it for now! :)  Thank you for hanging in there with me. I appreciate it.  I will be posting again by Sunday, at the latest.  Let me just lead in saying that this first day of school was the best ever in 7 years.

Luv ya!

Sarah