First Days Back...

Well, we now have had two days back at school with the students. I have twenty-four in my class which is the smallest class I have had for seventeen years. I am used to having classes in the 28-3o range so this is wonderful. One year I had thirty-three and that was quite a challenging year. There are sixteen boys and eight girls. We discussed ratio using this information. The days have been very hot and muggy but thankfully we have air-conditioning in the classrooms; I have never had this luxury before. A lot of people think Tassie is always cold but we have our fair share of stiflingly hot days with high humidity.

What have we accomplished so far? The students have learnt how to play Spelling Bingo and one boy did a great job of running it today. We play it first up every morning. More on this later. The students have all been tested on fifty demon words and some students on a hundred. Students worked in groups looking at the classroom games  in case of wet weather, and they have have had time to explore the classroom in pairs and ask questions about what's in it. 

Our class novel is called The Pinballs by Betsy Byars, and it is all about relationships and learning to get along. The central characters are Carlie, Harvey and Thomas J. Students have been filling in a tension levels graph as I read the story. It's basically a line graph following the plot.  They have a contract to complete with a reasonable amount of choice in the second section, and and rubric so they know what is being assessed. We have read through the rubric before starting the novel.  I have two copies of the book, and as I read one another student follows along with the second copy. There are enough chapters for every student to have a turn at this. Today I gave them a task called The Otherside. We all read an excerpt from the Mercury about an entrepreneur who was interviewed about his life and reactions to things. The triggers I gave the students were:                                                   My first memory is...

I love being...

My favourite time of the day is...

When I lose my temper I...

The thing I fear most is...

The thing people first notice about me is...

When no one is watching I like to...

The thing that would surprise people about me is...

The hardest thing I have ever done is...

I really don't like...

The thing that makes me laugh loudest is...

When I can't sleep I...

Most students have completed a first draft but some still need more time. I really enjoyed reading the first lot of finished drafts and have learnt a lot more about my students. I use sticky notes to make the corrections to their spelling and grammar, and students have to  transfer these to their Individual Spelling Lists to learn and do activities with. The ISL has been fully explained to them. More on this later.

The students also had their first assembly this afternoon looking at the Keys to Success and getting to know new  students and staff. In the classroom we have also being focusing on time management skills. There will be a focus on mathematics tomorrow. Students were also given a detailed list of all the stationery they received yesterday (Wednesday 15th) and what each is for. I asked them to get it signed by their parents as their first homework task.

Love My Awesome Desk

The games section is finished

The Little Library of Rescued Books is ready to go. Seats I got from Officeworks for $17 each.

The Maths Storage is a bit light on in materials but I will survive

Jordan and Tina giving my room a test run...

A quiet spot to sit and chat or look at books

 Put all my noise making toys out just for fun!

Desk I bought from Second Office

I love my awesome desk, it was worth the money, I will be very organised.

Well, the room is finished, finally. The desk came today flat packed from Second Office and two lovely young man assembled it for me. I am so happy with it and it was worth the money I spent to have it, since I spend half my life at school during school terms. I also supplied my own chair.  The cane storage units came from the Importer at $5 each; a good price so Heather in the library informs me. I luckily had a serviceable filing cabinet of my own which I moved in with the help of Bec, a colleague from Illawarra Primary, and the umbrellas I purchased from Chickenfeed. Tina, my wonderful neighbour, dropped in with Jordan and a coffee for me mid afternoon and we all watched the desk being expertly assembled. I just hope I can disassemble it when I have to move next.  Jordan and Tina gave a few games a test run. I finished off the maths area by putting up a few more signs.  I have also set up a little old-fashioned video area and taken over quite a few videos from home which used to be Nicola's and Travis' so the students can watch them when we have wet weather lunches.  My kids  also donated some of their board games and I did the rounds of the op shops to find others.

Transformation Nearly Complete...

Five coloured umbrellas hand over the Fun Stuff area

The front of the classrroom with the freshly recovered display board

The Little Library of Rescued Books

The white cupboard is still to be sanded and painted

Far Side cartoons by Gary Larson  adorn the wall

Nearly done, thank goodness!

This is the point of entry into the classroom

These are the students' bag and tote storage area, in the art area

Mission clean up the classroom is nearly accomplished. This morning I went in and vacuumed and Sonia joined me shortly after and we put up some displays: a Goosebumps area, and Games and Fun Stuff corner, a Gary Larson display, some maths signs. I can't believe the transformation. The Little Library of Rescued Books is nearly complete, I am just waiting on some more book easels I ordered last week. Thank God for op shops and  wonderful neighbours. 

Everybody Needs Good Neighbours!

Recovering the display boards

Tina, Sonia, Alan and Peter, best clean-up team ever!

One coat of varnish and already it looks much better

All I can say is I love my neighbours. Sonia, Pete and Tina came up to the school, and along with my husband Alan and myself,  spent the whole morning working like trojans to help me get this room in order. Peter washed the windows inside and out and got rid of I don't know how many flies, spiders and webs, cleaned all the shelves. Sonia and Tina made everything spotless including the tote trays. Alan took down the old whiteboard and put me up a little one near the entrance by cutting down and recycling existing support rails, helped with the window cleaning, put a lock on the storeroom, and brought us all over a yummy selection of food to keep us going. Little Archie, Sonia and Pete's grandson, was over here too and he was such a cutie. He loved the feel of the display board fabric and spent ages playing with a strip of it.  We moved furniture around a fair bit but I am still not 100% sure what the best arrangement is going to be. I re-covered the display boards which gave the room a much fresher look and varnished the old shabby bookshelves and cabinets. It's amazing what a couple of coats of varnish can do. There are now five different coloured umbrellas (courtesy of Chicken Feed, every public school teachers' saviour) hanging over the games corner.  I brought over all the board games my children no longer use as they are adults, so that the students have something to occupy themselves with during wet weather days. In the afternoon I set up two large shelves which house the Little Library of Rescued Books. http://littlelibraryofrescuedbooks.blogspot.com.au/ which I have been buying for very reasonable prices from op shops all over Hobart.

The Essential Maths Kit

Since I have inherited a classroom with absolutely nada and I am a keen maths teacher, I have put together seven maths kits. That's enough for one kit per group of four students. These kits are extremely handy. My former colleague and I made up similar kits at Illawarra Primary  using pencil cases to store the contents, incidentally where mine remain for the new teacher coming in to that school. Anyway, each kit consist of 1 protractor, 1 solar-powered calculator , 1 tape measure, 1 mirror, 1 Pack of Jumbo Cards, 6 matching six-sided die, 1 zero to nine sided die, 1 twenty-sided die, 4 film canisters each containing a set of 15 , i.e there are four colours so students can play games. There is also a calendar for 2012 enclosed, thanks to my lovely local Shell shop. All the other contents are available at Chickenfeed for very reasonable prices, much cheaper than the school catalogue offers. There is a laminated card in each box stating its contents. Students are usually pretty good at keeping these organised.  I will probably also add a compass to each kit when I buy some. 

Name Tags

I came home this afternoon after visiting the school for the first time and made up some name tags for the students to wear the first week so I know who's who. I collected the tags from an engineers' function at the end of it because most of them were going to be thrown away. They are very sturdy and magnetic so they can be easily transferred to their tote trays when they are not wearing them as the magnets are really strong.Tried and tested! Later on, they will be handy for when we have speakers in and for when we go on excursions.  So that eliminates any need to contact name tags onto the tote tubs and getting messy sticky muck off at the end of the year. Students can make their own design to slide in if they wish. These are just to get started.

Early Days

Well here it is, The Little Classroom Up the Back... before any work. It needs a lot of work. I will venture in next week to start on moving the furniture around, putting up some displays and bringing in a few of my bits and pieces. The shelves really need a good coat of varnish and the display board needs recovering. Hmmm, now how to make it a dynamic classroom the Tasmanian government is promoting out of my own pocket.