Day 5: Post a picture of your classroom, and describe what you see–and what you don’t see that you’d like to.
I’ve already shared some of these, but here they are again:
I love this classroom. I love the door to the outside, the natural light coming in through the window. I love my big desk, my Promethean board, and having separate computers for my desk and for the board up front. Also, see that little box in the front of the room, between the white board and the color posters? I LOVE that I can control the temperature!
I love this whole wall of white board, and the proficiency descriptors above it.
This bulletin board needs work. I’m working on numbers right now so students reference the posters a lot, but it’s not very pretty, and I could use the space better. I love Amy Lenord’s rejoinders word ladder bulletin board (she even sent me the word files for it!), but I haven’t gotten around to putting it up. I’ve also seen some great ideas for “Why Study a Foreign Language” bulletin boards – I want to put up something along those lines as well. Maybe in the hallway? There’s a bulletin board just outside my room I could probably use.
Lastly: student desks. The maroon ones in the pictures above are fantastic – there’s no bar on the side, so students can get in and out from either side. It makes it super easy to try different grouping arrangements (I’m always rearranging the furniture). Also, at my old school the student desks were in terrible condition – lots of broken seats, and many of them entirely too small for teenage sized bodies. I also spent a whole year at the old job with 28 desks, and classes of 30-35. The remaining students sat in chairs (with no writing surface). I know that chairs and no desks would be some teachers’ dream, but it wasn’t mine, so I am very glad to have adequate seating for my students this year – desks sized for adult bodies, enough seating, safe for students to sit in without sharp edges poking into their legs.
That being said…there are 33 student desks in my room. Why are classes of 30+ the norm? I really have fantastic students, but wouldn’t it be wonderful to have classes of 24, or even 28? I want to hear each of my students SPEAK, every day, to give them individual feedback, to write comments on their writing, to adapt my curriculum to their diverse needs. I do my best on all this – to differentiate, to interact with all students out loud, to adapt my lesson plans to give them more work on the topics they struggle with – but with 160 students, my ability to do that is limited. In my dream classroom, I would have less students, so that I could teach them better.
More pictures of my classroom here: Class Decor.
Details on the Reflective Teacher 30-Day Blogging Challenge here.
Ms. Brown Spanish 
I think I saw your pics in the #langchat chat one time. Loved the ACTFL standards around room. I have been meaning to do that. How do u make it big enough for all to see?
I got this idea from the Creative Language Class – again, they’re awesome! I basically studied Megan’s pictures and typed them up. I added a couple more descriptors, but I need to review the standards and make sure they work with the proficiency levels before I put them on the wall. I printed on construction paper, with titles taking up a whole page, and the subtitles sized to the page width. Here’s the dropbox link to my files:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fzct11qo4r7csom/proficiency%20rubric%20on%20wall.docx?dl=0
Use it, tweak it, whatever! Then send me a picture when you get it up on the wall 🙂
I really love your weather phrases around the door!
Thank you! They make me smile!
Have to give credit to the Creative Language Class – they have the best ideas! http://creativelanguageclass.com/2012/01/29/use-your-whole-room-to-teach/
Hi!! I was on your blog and I absolutely love it!! I am a Follower now!!
If you are into fashion, decor and beauty check out my blog http://fernandaschoice.com/ 🙂