A Well- Oiled Machine

Thought I would talk a bit about my ideal classroom layout and management system. I love order and for everything to have a place. My room will be enriched with text. I want a well- stocked classroom library that will be color- coded for reading levels.

I love this idea of having student names on clothing pins and when they take a book from our classroom library, they move their clothespin to the colored container they took the book from.

Classroom computers will be kept on a half- circle, kidney shaped table, because this allows for more of them at one table. Student desks are to be kept neat and organized. During my student- teaching I was able to be mentored by a teacher with excellent classroom management. One of the things she used to ensure her students kept their desks neat was she would do random desk inspections and if she noticed the desk was packed and cluttered she tipped the desk, along with its contents, over and had the student clean it up and organize it. I know, I know...this sounds harsh, but it rarely ever happened, because the class learned quickly to keep clean. Each student will have a classroom job. Paper passers, pencil sharpeners, chair stackers, etc...I also will have a cup on each team table for pencils that need to be sharpened. This will be taken care of at the beginning of class each morning before instruction takes place,as well as right after lunch. There is nothing that bothers me more than when students get up and sharpent their pencils when I am in the middle of a lesson. To add to this, I would like to hold "Job Interviews" and have students apply for the type of job they desire. It would be a fun unit that could tie into writing (i.e. having students fill out applications and create a resume'). It also teaches them responsibility and accountabilty. People respect what they have more once they have earned it. Reading block will be split into five categories. They will cover phonics, phoenemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. I like the idea of having five centers. Each center will be labelled on a paper and displayed up on the white board. Specific team names will be underneath these center papers. I will then be able to shuffle the center papers when I wish teams to rotate to new stations. This makes the process clear and visible, as well as allowing for clean and smooth transition. Often times, students will get caught up worrying about what other students are doing and want to report everything to the teacher. As a teacher, we are pressed for time and cannot and should not fix every single problem for the students. While at Southern Utah, one of my classmates created what was called "Tattle- Tale Tom..." This is a little box/man with an opening for students to write down their concern and put it inside Tom for the teacher to see at a later time. This way, the student feels as though they were still able to put down their concern and get it to the teacher, and the teacher is able to view this as necessary. Another helpful management tool is the chair pocket. This slips onto the students' chairs and they are able to store more things on the back of their seat. That way they do not need to move back and forth between desk and backpack while instruction is going on.

Homework and take home forms will be placed in the student "mailboxes." These will be labelled with each student's name and they will check their mailbox at the end of each day for things they are to take home.