nothing like a long day of plc leadership training followed by watching the battle of the seasons. i love me some battle of anything on mtv. nothing like a bunch of crazies competing in events that make my hands sweat to make me feel better about myself! but enough of my reality tv addiction that makes my mother cringe.
before school started i realized my vision for this little corner of the internet. chic classroom design & me. i scour the internet every year for new, unique decorating ideas and rarely find anything note worthy. my mission became simple. to find and feature cute, photo worthy classroom decor. i am lucky enough to be related to a slew of creative teachers, so finding rooms to crash were only a phone call away. now, the me part is just as it sounds. me. bree. life is flying. literally i think it is attached to the wings of an eagle. i want the memories. i need the memories. so here is where i will put them.
if there was some big book of classroom design (channeling doc mcstuffins big book of boo-boos...hollar if you have a 4 year old!) this would be considered apple-classtastic. my aunt's room is classic. embodies a very home-ish vibe. is neat. orderly. runs in true organized fashion. everything has its place and the students know that. heck, i knew it as soon as i walked in the door. she has been teacher of the year in her district. is a big ball of all teaching knowledge. and at 6 feet tall, totally rocks it out as a second grade teacher. here is her apple-classtastic space.
the celebrate me board changes throughout the year, and displays students writing.
she has tables instead of desks (LOVE) and each student has their own basket (sharing of germs? no thank you). the students begin to fill up their basket with the tools they will utilize throughout the school year (highlighter, pencil, crayons, etc.) after they talk about each and every one on the first day. the crate on the floor holds any books students will need.
author of the month is something i wish i could absolutely do in 6th grade. my obsession with children's books is something i will seek dr. drew's help with in the future. but for now i will stick with pining over the dream of implementation.
instead of having one giant library, she has 3 different leveled sections that are color coded. each child knows their color per say, which makes it easy for them to know which books are best tailored for them.
simple. to the point. most calendar areas i see in classes and online are chaotic to me. lots of different elements, colors, words. my aunt's calendar area is very direct. for example, instead of having separate areas for patterns and days of the week, she utilizes the calendar itself to work on patterns along with all things calendar related. all elements are there, but in a non-overwhlemeing sense. what surprised me is that she even has real, legit benjamin's that the students use to work on money. using fake money and then counting on the students to make the connection to real money can be risky. so it makes cents to use the real deal. get it, makes CENTS?! pun totally intended. (our meeting was really lonnnng today obviously!)
discipline system.
educational activities for free time. legos, puzzles. things students see as play, but teachers know is valuable.
mini student notebooks. taped crayon boxes so they don't fall out the bottom. (did i mention my aunt is completely meticulous?) and a commonly misspelled word reference.
and that my friends is the embodiment of apple-classtastic.
