A Classroom Full of Ideas

I subbed in a 2nd grade classroom this week and I fell in love with everything about this classroom. You can tell a lot about each teacher of the classroom you visit. I could tell this teacher was organized and created, shared, and used wonderful ideas to benefit her students. I took some pictures of some things I want to include in my future classroom.

Let's start from the moment I sat at the teacher's desk. The pink paper in the picture was a laminated piece of paper labeled "Substitute's Procedures". This gave me an idea of how an average day goes with key pieces of information. She answered questions I had such as, "Do I pick the kids up from recess?" and "What is her behavior plan?" 

 Her lesson plans were impeccable I could tell these were her daily plans not just ones for the sub but they were so detailed I could follow them with out a problem. I noticed something on the top of her typed lesson plans that the template was from planbook.com. 

I searched planbook.com and this is a snip from their main page with the pros of using their site:

And it's only $12/year. Seems pretty reasonable! (Planbook.com has no idea who I am I just really love this idea)

Moving on....

Behind her desk were bins label by each subject. In each bin held manuals, textbooks, and all the work for that day/week. This was a very accessible feature in the room and it prevents you from just having things pile up. Piles = yuck!!!

Math:

These drawers hold all the manipulatives that the children will need during math (base 10 blocks, coins, rulers, shapes, etc.) Instead of having a huge stash you need to distribute they have been per-distributed in each drawer. Each drawer is assigned a number and each child has an assigned number. This saves a lot of instructional time and there are no arguments because every child has their own stash and it is all labeled with THEIR number.

This is inside one of the drawers:

So great right?!

The final gem I will share is this table/shelf/podium on wheels. In most classrooms, instead of fumbling with workbooks and teacher's manuals I place them on a nearby table or projector. Two problems: 1. a table isn't movable and causes you to have to sit so you are close enough to see the print. 2. less and less classrooms have projectors and they are clunky. This table/desk hybrid was easy to lean on and place everything I needed. I was able to teach a lesson using base-10 blocks very easily and I could move around the room with all of my materials.

On days like this subbing really has it's benefits!