CLASSROOM TOUR | Behind the Scenes Look At My Classroom

welcome back to my channel and welcome to my 2018-2019 classroom tour I know what you're thinking Michelle isn't at the end of the school year yes yes it is but I wanted to change it up this year instead of doing a class room tour at the beginning of the year when everything is beautiful and in pristine condition which we all know does not last long I wanted to give you all a tour of my classroom at the end of the school year so you could see a realistic view of what a classroom actually looks like [Music] before we jumped into this I just want to let you all know you are gonna see my classroom exactly the way my kiddos left it today it is Tuesday June 4th we have about eight days left of the school year I have not gone around and cleaned anything up so you're gonna see a very unfiltered view of my classroom and that's truly what I want to show you because I think a lot more teachers need to see a realistic view of a classroom especially new teachers so many classroom tours especially on YouTube show these perfect classrooms and that's not the reality even for me as a very organized person you're gonna see not everything is organized in my classroom so keep that in mind as we go around but if you are enjoying this video please go ahead and give it a thumbs up share it out to your teacher friends and let's get started [Music] we're gonna start by my door because that's how I come into my classroom every day the only thing I wanted to bring your attention to is this curtain as teachers we have to be able to cover windows and things in emergency situations so I've got this off of Etsy it is handmade so I will link it for you in the description box the woman that I ordered it from had excellent customer service I have it attached at the bottom with a piece of velcro and it rolls up and then it kind of hangs in these pieces of ribbon the only thing is that it's a little bit too short my window is pretty long so to problem-solve with that gap egde I put this magnetic pocket that I got from like some teachers store several years ago and I just you know plopped it on up there with the magnets and that covered that then next to my door I have this bookshelf this is kind of like a landing spot for my students in the morning so first of all they come here to do their lunch sticks so my students have to do a lunch count every single day they each have a popsicle stick in this basket with their name on it the cafeteria options are in here on little cards and I have a lunch counter s'en and they're responsible for counting out the lunch sticks I'll show you later on in the video I promise like where they actually put the lunch sticks but this kind of houses them when they're not being used I have hand sanitizer which is a necessity especially in fourth grade I typically have a box of tissues but they ran out like a week ago and I just I haven't put more out and then I have a bathroom sign-up sheet for my students and we literally just have two pencils that were found on the floor and that's how my students are signing out then underneath I have all of my stem pins I'm not going to spend too much time on this because I do have a full video which I will link for you in the description but can we just acknowledge for a second this you know at this point that your don't even care about fixing it next we'll come over to my cabinet so I want to start by talking about my impact letters these were inspired by my friend Bridget at the letter classroom but she has the word choice up on her wall in her classroom and I loved it so I picked the word impact because for me it's just a very powerful word and I a lot of really good discussions with my kiddos I like to tell them about how they have an impact on their education with the choices that they make they have an impact on other people based on how they treat them and they have an impact on the world and we have a lot of really good conversations so I like to have the word nice and big up on my cabinets as a reminder these are canvas letters from Michaels I had to hunt them down from a bunch of different stores and this a it was flown in from California by crystal so crystal thank you so much for that and I just spray painted them and connected them with man hooks so now let's go to the actual countertop Wednesday folders and graded work I teach two different blocks of students and I have a homeroom class so I'm responsible for passing back graded work to my homeroom class and I will show you how I manage like getting all that done but whenever we get graded papers for my homeroom class whether it's from me or from another teacher my students who are my like mailman people they're responsible for organizing it into this graded work and thin so this is just these pile box that I got from Target and I have the folders organized by you number that way I don't have to redo it every single year each student is assigned a number and they put their graded work in that folder then on Wednesday mornings they take the work out of the folders and they put them into their wet stakeholders which are kept in here they take them home leave the papers get it signed to show that their parents saw it and then they return it here the next day these labels aren't editable and they're available in my store so I will link those for you as well next I have my clipboards I am very flexible with allowing my students to work around the room so they're able to come over and grab a clipboard whenever they want the clipboards themselves I got off of Amazon so I will link those for you and then the organizers I got from really good stuff I spray painted them black they're originally like a wood color a blue so I will link those for you they're kind of pricey but I will say really good investment next is this box bin tub thingy but this is my lost and found so whenever my students find things around the room which is approximately fifty two times a day I just tell them to come over and put it in here and then three today I just have a plethora of kids coming and going as they are looking through the bin and then this little one next to it is for like all the small things you know song buckling 182 anyway color pencils markers color pencils markers crayons glue sticks all that good stuff coat all that good stuff goes in here paper towel dispenser attached to the wall nothing special I do have some lights under here which is pretty nifty that's probably only the third time this year that I've turned them on but you know it's a feature this is an air freshener that I put in at the beginning of the year and have not refilled since then so my burns not smell into great this holds all of my students water bottles so they are allowed to have water bottles but we don't have them keep it at their desks because they tend to spill them so instead we call this our water bottle parking lot and they have to come put them back here and I have approximately 10 left at the end of every day because my kiddos don't take him home this was a sign that I won at APD earlier this year because I won like a trivia competition and got to pick something out and then these flowers are from the dollar store so let's go back over here my cabinets are one of the areas that I'm proud to say do stay organized I have invested in a plethora of Sterlite bins I love these they're called vid clip boxes or maybe it's latch box I don't know it's one or the other but they are you know they're in investment okay they're not cheap but they last forever so this is where I keep all of my supplies as you can see these labels are editable and they're available in my store so this is in several cabinet so I have that one this one which has more like crafty type supplies instead of just school supplies and then this will does not have it this one you still have that but I moved it so this one now has tissues super proud of myself for having this many tissues left in June I think that is an accomplishment wet lights over here baby wipes extra little water bottles and then sprinkles and M&M from different holiday parties that I need to throw away because I don't think they're even good anymore and then my last cabinet over here has more like plastic bags and wet wipes and things I used to keep all my wet lights in here but then I got too many so they kind of overflowed into the other cabinet this just has whatever will fit in it it has everything hand sanitizer assorted is like cups and random things I have these cups that won't fit in there so they're just sitting there plastic bags plastic bags and then more plastic bags but these are like my extra extra plastic bags and these are just like my normal plastic bags so I have court snack sandwich I have some little paper cups plastic cups straws toothpicks forks knives spoons more wet wipes and more hand sanitizer and I do have a duster which is disgusting but you know necessary now we'll come back over and do the underneath cabinet I am super grateful to have as much storage to my classroom as I have I know a lot of teachers are not that fortunate this one right here is primarily books these books up here are all my personal books these are called scrapbook pins from Michaels I will link them for you you can catch them on sale for like three for $10 and these are all of my like read-aloud books that i use during like study hall time our morning meeting and I have them organized as such I also have random gyrase please I don't know why these are our interactive read aloud ebooks which so far I am not had to use some type don't teacher reading but next year I'm teaching reading so I'm gonna have to look through those this summer in this one I'm even know what's in this okay so this one has a lot of extra student supplies so my students don't bring in an extra notebook at the beginning of the year so these are the ones leftover paper and then down here I have more notebooks and things this one has pencils and then I have dry erase markers highlighters and more dry erase markers so that will all be supplies that I roll over into next year and then I have aluminum foil don't really know why and then this is a container of all of the sampar materials which I will no longer be using because I'm no longer teaching science I will just be teaching reading about next year final cabinet this one kind of also has a weird assortment of stuff so let's just take a look this up here is mostly all structured play so our students do have some structured playtime built into our schedule typically during study hall we have some mousetrap games also stored in these scrapbooks containers this one at the bottom has just random stuff I have the game set which is a lot of fun I have some Jenga blocks and I have about four sets no five sets of these I have a twister game and then these I have not even opened up so we'll figure these out next year underneath I have a big bit of sticky notes and I have some magnetic bookshelves that I haven't really been using but again next year we'll be using them I have a laminator I have a whole bunch of books back here that I have purchased for my room but I have it labeled yet so I need to do that this summer and then I have these like dry erase paddle boards that were part of structure play but I have not used yet so now on to the big cabinets first of all can we just acknowledge that I have not taken down my bitmoji posters from testing nor do I plan on taking them down this cabinet has a mixture of stuff so that's all storage for me for like holiday stuff and student prizes flexible seating right now is in here which next year I will be implementing full flexible seating I wanted to do it at the end of this year but honestly I'm just so tired that I don't think I can manage it so these are the comfy floor chairs from Lakeshore Learning this is a lap desk from lakeshore and this is a pillow that I've had for years I've no idea where it came from and then down here is all indoor recess so we have different or mrs. Gaines and things organized in those same scrapbook containers and then I also have this organizer that holds the scrapbook containers so I will link this for you but I like to take all of my games out of the boxes and store them in these instead because they are far more durable and then this is like a plague restaurant set stored in a plastic temper for my students next cabinet is all math manipulatives so if we just focus my students done okay well these are usually pulled out to like the end I don't know what my kiddos I've done with them but this part looks really good up here it's kind of just collected random games and things that I just don't feel like organizing but these bins are from Big Lots they cost like three dollars a piece I think so they're pretty affordable super durable I really like to have open containers for math manipulatives so it's easy to get them out but these are all there again these labels are in my TPT store so this whole cabinet is all math and my final cabinet is probably the least organized part of my room we all have that space where we have the goals of keeping it organized and it just doesn't happen so you can see where it's starting to organize and then I just started shoving stuff in there but you know it is what it is these are these Sterlite three drawer like tower things but they fit really well there and here and I just hold random materials in there I have posters that I took down for part testing that I have not put that up here and here this is for science which I guess they can throw away because I no longer need extra bins and containers and things go in here these are all empty so these are photo cases for Michaels and they're used to hold test cards but I bought them and have it use them so they're empty more flexible seating stuff I'm gonna start using next year and then about wraps of that one so then we have my white boards now this border is magnetic border from Lakeshore Learning I will link that for you if these number talk of circles around the edge are in my TPT store I just printed them out laminated them and put magnets on the back so I will link those for you they are editable this puzzle wars is my current classroom management strategy that I'm using with my kiddos I explained this in my last vlog so I'm not gonna spend time on it right now if you want to see it just go check out that blog but it is on TPT so I will link it for you it's not mine it's someone else's this I included in a classroom favorites I love these erasers super super convenient so I will link those so this right here is a hot mess of markers but I've tried a lot of different marker holders like magnetic ones and they never stay up there they always end up falling down so I actually took just a regular plastic cup and I put velcro on it so I could then stick it to my board it worked out really well so that's just a little you know tipper Oney for you then I have my fan because my room gets really really hot then I have my smart board so my smart board has these lights let me hold on so these lights I got off of Amazon they can fade to different colors or I can set the color that I want them to be and I can change it and I love these lights so I will link those for you I attach them to my board using little velcro dots up there I have some different growth mindset posters that I got on TPT so I will link those for you as well these vans sitting on the side are really just here because I have no other purpose for them there's literally nothing in them except the wheels I used to use these to hold student materials now I'm not so they're just they're just kind of chilling there these are hands on equation materials this is my classroom stage at which I actually had donated to me so you can get these from their store I will link them for you in the description this holds all of my extra textbooks that I'm not using so that's really convenient cuz it's out of the way and then I can stand on it my kiddos can stand on it and I love it so these bins right here have colored popsicle sticks which I meant to put my students names on I put my homeroom class on them but I never put the rest of them but it's fine because I use flippity instead and if you don't know if what videos I have a tutorial I will link that description box but it is a random name generator and it saves your life so Dee's next year definitely going away then this board has typically my schedule and the day and my objectives these schedule cards are actually provided by our County I used to have my Schedule cards that I loved in there my TPT store but we were told we had to switch to these so that kind of stinks my secret word changes every day and whenever I say it my students have to give me their attention and I reward the first student who does so so that's a really fun classroom management strategy I also let a student who did a really good job that day pick the secret word for the next day so there's a small incentive up here is my date and all that jazz so these are magnetic letters these are for the Amazon so I will link them for you in the description but I hate writing on my board so I really like having the magnetic letters I have a student who goes in and changes my date and my schedule and all that every single day this is typically where I hang my objective cards however since part testing I have just not been hanging mine because I saw this poster here so that is what it is this part right here has all kinds of materials for math so I have you know cards this is a game from T 15 and then I have containers of dice I have containers of counters and apparently some my students nope don't know the difference between dice and counters and then I have games that my students can play and I have decks of cards these are snack containers from the dollar store at a deck of cards fits perfectly so my students can come to these as early finisher options this is where my students turn in their work I got these bins from Big Lots several years ago so I don't think they're there anymore I also have highlighters because my students have to highlight their name based on their homeroom class and that helps us to sort papers to then put into Wednesday folders as I already explained under here is some more math materials so we have 24 cards these are provided by my school but I bought the container at Big Lots I think it was like five seven dollars or something like that and then I have containers of base ten blocks base ten blocks again provided by my school however I bought the container and these came from dollar store they're in the food storage section and then down here I have my rotating now we're at my desk area my desk is built in I know a lot of teachers that have gotten rid of their teacher desk I couldn't even if I wanted to but personally I like having my own space and I do spend a lot of time back here after school so we'll start up at the top this is my fluff collection pretty much all of them have been given to me by students or subscribers and it keeps growing so I'm gonna have to end up expanding to somewhere else because I'm running out of room in my cabinets up here this side has all of my curriculum binders and all of my ICANN statements which I'm gonna have to do some reorganizing because I'm no longer teaching science or social studies but that's okay all my binders are housed here the binder spines are mi TPT store they are with my binder covers so you get the binder covers binder spines editable different colors all that dad's so I will link those this cabinet over here has some other like curriculum type materials and then these are little fake plants from Ikea studies have actually shown that having greenery in your classroom helps your students perform better cognitively I don't know if it's true but studies show men is my teacher toolbox I absolutely love this thing I have all of my little materials and supplies that I need as a teacher up here the labels are editable in my TPT store so again I will link them for you and then I have some random stuff around it these are pop printer books so our students actually publish your own books they do the illustrations and all that our reading day is this Friday where their parents come in and hear them read it but my students are still working on their illustrations then we'll come over to the old countertop area these are my set of iPads that I got from DonorsChoose and I keep them back here just you know monitor them this is my cue ball and this is a throwable microphone ball I feature this in my classroom favorites video back in like the wintertime so I will link that for you so you can find out more about this this container is from Big Lots this is where I hold all my like clipboards and folders and things that I need as a teacher and then I have my sterling drawers these hold all of my copies and graded work and extra papers for students and all that fun stuff these are my sterling drawer labels they are editable in my tippity store you all know they will be linked then these are random things that I head out for science that I just have not away yet so coming down here I have a basket where I keep unfinished work and a basket for assignment reduce because our students can redo up to three assignments per subject area per marking period I have crayons and markers but note to self next year I need to find a better way to store it because this is not this is not working and then this was where my students could get permission to get extra pencils which I have now moved I will show you that in a second dry erase markers which are running low and then it Gulu sticks and then over here I have these containers where I keep my testing mints this one's kind of random I have like my clickers cards and then I have like counters so I don't know about that and then some random management tools and thank-you cards I also have my candy bin down here which is mostly dum-dums because that seems to be a favorite in fourth grade and then my calm down kit and my microwave then I have some smaller Sterlite drawers again editable labels in my store this is where I have like nurse notes our cup couteau cards which is like an incentive card for students and then I have binder clips for my different classes and I have them color-coded part numbers orange black one is pink and black two is blue I have a hole puncher my iPad is just sitting out because I was planning and then this was a book that I confiscated from a student who decided to read while I was teaching today then I have this little plant from like Michaels and it's super dusty can you see that so good phone tape stapler all the essentials this was a gift from a student magic 8-ball was inspired by CJ Reynolds too firm real wrap with Reynolds he uses this in his classroom he actually will have his students use this to see if they can go to the bathroom I don't use it quite that way but you know you just never know when you need a magic 8-ball then I have this sloth mug filled with pencils this was given to me by my TA because she saw it and thought of me and she put some pencils in there so I just keep that on my desk as a reminder suntan lotion not typically here but we had field day last week and I have not taken it home yet I have my head caddy which is one of my true love's sorry Billy this came from Target and I have it organized by different types of pens and it just makes me so happy and I love trying to explain to my kids when I need a certain pen I'm like okay you need to go to the middle in the back in the corner it's fun time then I have a write down holder for my sticky notes and random paper clips and rubber bands and whatever finds their way into that one these are the extra cards for rewards for the puzzle wars and I have not found a place to store them yet so they're just sitting back here I have a sign that was given to me by a student I have this organizer for my desk that could hold pens and pencils but I don't I'm literally just using it for the little slips of paper then I have this jar that was also given to me by student and I have Jolly Ranchers in here I have another organizer back here that was a gift from students those papers are my team teachers for social studies and then I have my computer area my drinks from the day my phone holder this is my wearable microphone so it Clips around my neck and my students can hear me better sell today and then computer document camera I do velcro my remotes onto it so it makes it super easy to find them then I have a tissues random other markers and things but it's closer by document camera so it's easy access this is the holder for our current incentive so our students are earning these tickets to have a pizza party with the teachers during the last week of school so up so once they earn their tickets they put their name on it they flip it in here and then I will be all set to do the drawing next week only other things around here is my homeland training bin so when my students have notes and things from home they put it here and this thing came from the dollar store and then I have my pencil dispenser which again is still out of pencils back here is my super bulky ventu which is not even working and that's why this is open because my custodian was working on it so hopefully I get some air conditioning but you know it's fine this stuff was all on here but he had to move it so again I just have some flowers for some greenery I have my letter board that says back favorite thing about my classroom is who I share it with then I have a caddy from lakeshore and this is used in my small group table with pencils dry erase erasers and dry-erase markers I have a stapler back here because I feel like that's just handy and then I have these tours which I got on Amazon they actually came black like my tool box which I had to spray paint black this has different math manipulatives so I found it to be helpful to have them back here while I'm working in small group so the most common manipulatives that I use are all back here and these labels are the same teacher toolbox labels so I will leave this version of the toolbox as well another caddy and these are place value charts but I had it turned around because of PARCC testing and have not used them since this is a thing of dry erase boards I got these off of Amazon so I will link them for you this is a box of legs for another floor table but I'm not going to use next year so it's just chilling and then this is where I keep block one and block two science and social studies notebooks which you know I will not need next year so I will have to repurpose these containers but yes this is how my students put them back on a daily basis I almost forgot I also have been keeping a lot of my flexible seating back here at my small group table until I transform my whole classroom into it next year so these are Auto stools which I mentioned in a classroom favorites video I will link their website and then wobbles tools from Lakeshore Learning in between my event and my library I have a PVC pipe which hold all of my meter sticks I just went to ace Hardware had them cut it and voila then I have my classroom library so these are those same magazine file holder things from Big Lots I really like these for holding picture books then I have these colorful bins and these are all from Lakeshore Learning I will link them for you I really really like them because they hold a lot of books as you can see here I have a ton of Magic School Bus books and they all fit in here now my labels let's talk about my library labels for a second I had similar labels to these that I made years ago I've been meaning to get around to editing them and updating them but I have been so busy so I promise my goal is to get them updated and have them editable I'm just not there yet so please bear with me I put so much on my plate I'm doing the best I can but they are organized so that the picture on the label matches the picture on the book so it makes it really easy for my students to put them away so again picture books up here chapter books down here I do have a librarian who is supposed to be organizing my library but at this point you know we're just we're just getting by then I have a full lower table so this is for Lakeshore Learning and my students have an opportunity to come back here and work whenever they're doing independent work and I really really like it I'm gonna be using it for flexible seating next year over here another testing poster not been taken down this is supposed to have my recommended book to my students which apparently right now I recommend nothing I then have the wobble chair and cushion stool what is this wobble stool that got cran on the bottom and thank you all for suggesting I need to use a hair dryer to heat up the wax and then wipe it off I just haven't done it yet so it has been out of commission since then I also have my our brightest work board where I attended to put student work but if we're being honest I had like two different things up here all year however in my defense we put a lot of papers up out in the hallway so I just think I'm gonna retire this and not use it next year then over here I have two bean bags I think this one came from Big Lots several years ago and then this big blue one is from Lakeshore Learning it's kind of a hot mess right now because it's just been smushed around but it is what it is then I have a bulletin board which I use as my map focus board however I had to take it all down for Park and again have not put it back up but I use these dry erase leaves so it's really easy just to slip into information and then down here were vocabulary cards this is a set up task cards that I do use pretty frequently for math so I leave them out these rainbow drawers are from Michaels they're expensive but y'all I love them it was such a good investment they are labeled by unit so this is where I keep all of my materials for that particular math unit and I have different games and templates and things that are all in here and it helps keep it really really organized then over here I have a little bit more flexible seating so this is a balance ball I know what y'all are thinking okay I also have some scoop rockers these came from Walmart they were like four dollars or something and if they fit my fourth graders I was worried about that but it works and they're in one of these super big containers from Big Lots I think this was like ten dollars or something but it holds the scoop rockers perfectly then I have a basketball hoop which I use for grudge ball I got this off of Amazon I also meant to hang anchor charts here but I think I used like one anchor chart all year however this is a magnetic Ron from Walmart it's like eight bucks and then I just hang up my anchor charts using these little book clips and it works really really well down here I have this like silicone mat that I put under my pencil sharpener just to keep it from getting dirty this pencil sharpener was actually a gift from a student because my other one died like two months ago and I hadn't bought a new one so for teacher appreciation week this was gifted to me and I was super appreciative down here I have a bandwidth lined paper I used to have textbooks down there but we were just told that we could pack them up because we're not using them anymore so I got rid of those I have science textbooks and then these are my students morning work journals typically up here I had like a multiplication chart and like place value charts and all that but again they were taken down so I apologize you can go back and watch my classroom tour from last year if you want to see what that looked like I will link that in the description three desktop computers I had posters for the math practice standards up here but they were taken down this is where my students organized their lunch sticks so they choose grab and go salad entree one or entree two and they just put their stick in there and then my lunch count person goes and counts them so this carts I don't know where I got this I've had it for years but this is where my students organized the papers like my mailman people so I put grated work down here if they organize it by homeroom and put it in these drawers and then they take it to those homework classes this bag is for bud RTA but unfortunately I'm so sad she's gonna be leaving us next year so I will repurpose this but it just has random stuff in here like my megaphone and my whistle that I take outside to recess every day this is a news board this is typically where I put band schedules string schedules corner schedules lunch menus and all that kind of stuff it all just goes up here and then emergency bags sweepers and we're back to the beginning almost forgot I also need to show you my desks my desks are in these really long columns down my room because I do have a lot of desks and my room always appears big on camera but I guarantee you in real life it is not as big as it looks and it's really really difficult to fit 30 desks in here so this is one of the few ways that they actually all fit and my students can maneuver around so that's how they are and can we just acknowledge that this is how one of my desks was left today actually it's better than most days but still come on like everyone else clear up their stuff but there's always one so that is my classroom I know you all have seen it a lot in my vlogs but I wanted to just put it all into one video and again I wanted to show you what my classroom actually looks like no it's not perfect but it makes me happy when I'm in here and I know it makes my students happy and that's all that matters to me next year I am going to do a full classroom tour at the beginning of the year because I am moving classroom so now that I have filmed all this I have to pack it all up into boxes so that it can get moved to my new classroom over the summer if you enjoyed this video please go ahead and give it a thumbs up it really really helps me out share this out to your teacher friends if you have not already subscribed to my channel and hit the notification bell so you do not miss any future videos as always thank you for watching I love you all so much don't forget your posse pants on and I will catch you in the next one thank you so much for watching all the way to the end of this video and for supporting my youtube channel if you want to check out any of my older videos you can use the two links right down here if you want to subscribe to my channel so you don't miss any future videos you can use like right up here the links to all of my social media sites my teachers pay teacher's store my merchandise store and my Amazon store are in the description box and I'll catch you guys in the next one

Channel: Pocketful of Primary

Views: 681,936

Rating: 4.9243813 out of 5

Keywords: teacher, classroom, vlog, 4th grade, pocketful of primary, tips for new teachers, tips for teachers, new teacher tips, teacher tips, classroom vlog, vlogger, teacher vlog, teacher vlogger, classroom tour, a day in the life of a teacher, a week in the life of a teacher

Id: sdANJznTtTs

Length: 33min 6sec (1986 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 09 2019