New Classroom Must Haves!: Teacher Tips

hey guys today I am filming a video on what are some things that I would definitely have to have as a first-year teacher going into the classroom so when I was doing my QA I came across this question and I've been seeing a lot of it pop up on my YouTube channel and I've never really answered it because I said well I'll just film it as a video while I'm finally filming it as my video so today I'm going to talk to you about what are some of those I would definitely have to have as a first-year teacher in my classroom so let's go ahead and get started the very first thing that I would tell you that you would me absolutely have to have as a first-year teacher are baskets baskets baskets baskets because baskets will keep you organized baskets will hold your stations it'll hold your books for your library it will hold any supplies it will hold if you're doing games or group work baskets will keep you put together instead of you looking like you have almost like a clutter to mess in your classroom so definitely look into some baskets I would say go to the Dollar Tree for sure if your school gives you money and you can purchase some through really good stuff or going to a parent/teacher store that's maybe in your neighborhood I would try to check some of those out as well but the dollars treat guys I've bought so many baskets from the Dollar Tree they hold up really well I think I've had some for like two or three years after about the 3-year Marcus when you're gonna have to replace them but little by little you can start purchasing some of those really heavy-duty items that you could replace some of those Dollar Tree ones as you go along in your teaching career definitely don't go out and just buy them all expensive and one-shot because you're going to be so overwhelmed with how much money you're spending but look into going into the Dollar Tree getting some of those baskets and whatever you want to commit and just purchase some really nice basket sport you can go and do that my very first year teaching I went and I purchased really nice baskets for my library because I know I wanted my books to be in something that was sturdy that's something my kids couldn't break because books are heavy so I went to Walmart and I purchased some that they're fabric and I've loved them I've had them for going on five years now and they work like a charm I think I've only had one of them break and that was because the little boy was literally pushing down on it to the point where he wanted it to break so but other than that they have held up so nice in my classroom and they've been jam-packed with books definitely go through and purchase some baskets for your classroom you're going to need different shapes different sizes look into getting some big ones for your library for organize any kind of group works I would find the little they're about this big some small ones for your pencils and getting your student organized you can use those inside of your desk you can use them inside of anything that's kind of in your space area and you want to sort those I use them in small griten that's how I keep my students organized for small groups so everything is placed inside of their little basket and that's all the materials that they'll need for small group definitely looking to just various shapes and sizes I've had round ones before which I really do love I've even had smaller rectangular ones that will hold journals for like my math groups the bigger ones are firm I'm a stations so invest in some great baskets because that's going to keep you organized and keep everything put together my next absolutely have to have my very first year teaching is some type of an organization system for keeping you organized if you're organized then you're going to be less stressed and you're going to be able to enjoy your teaching and your kids way more so I went to Ikea and I purchased a kind of um it's a file system that just slides out and with this file system I keep track of any papers that are coming in to me anything that's pending anything that I'm waiting for anything that I need to file back away or any copies that it needs to be made but this is really nice to have next to my desk because it keeps me very organized instead of just having papers and papers and paper stacking up I know my first year teaching that was one of my struggles was that I didn't have a system I didn't have anything in place to keep me keep me organized so my desk look like a hot mess and so I'm telling you to get something to keep yourself organized whether it be some type of a basket that you put file folders in I've seen the hanging ones I've even seen they almost look like um you put they're kind of slanted up but you can put file folders I've seen those as well that system that I'm showing you it just works best for me so I really enjoy that again everything has to fit you and the way you work in the way your brain works so definitely find something that will allow you to keep your papers organized because you're going to get a lot of them the office is going to give you papers your kids are going to give you papers and you're going to have papers going all over the place just from your everyday teaching so definitely get something to keep you organized ok so my next item that I would say you would absolutely have to have are going to be books now I know what you're not going to have a huge huge library and I'm going to give you some tips on how to get that started too but for books I would definitely start investing in some of them while I was student teaching I went out and I bought every book known to me in time I would I was buying chapter books I was buying picture books just anything that I thought that it could be useful if a professor recommended it I went out and I bought it so invest in some books now don't go crazy crazy because when you start school Scholastic it's a wonderful resource for you so something that I've seen on the on other blogs as well is that they do a challenge and so every month they have a scholastic challenge and they create an anchor chart and they say ok guys let's try to make let's try to get $200 in and so they create a challenge and they show that the graph of being able to reach to the very top and if they reach the very top then you can give your kids an ice-cream party or a pizza party or you can have just some type of incentive for them so that you can get some of those points y'all those points are fantastic and you're these are great great resource kids love scholastic it gets them it gets books in their hands at home and then it also gets books into your classroom so once you start teaching I would definitely look into doing scholastic orders every month and creating some type of a challenge to get your kids motivated to want to bring in those orders all right the next thing that I have for you is going to be a stand so I struggled for my first few years with a stand in my whole group area I love this scene that I had this year I don't think I'm going to have that next year which is a little scary for me because I've gotten so used to it so this may be something I have to go out and purchase on my own so that I can have it in my classroom but what I love about this stand is that it allows you to create anchor charts with your students the stand that I'm referring to I'll show I'll put a link down below so you guys can go and check it out but there is a magnetic dry erase board on one side on the other side is a felt board typically I've never used that other side but what I did was I put a pocket chart on the other side so while we are reading books or we're sharing things we're doing some type of a shared writing I can put those sentence strips on on the pocket chart on the opposite side I've used a dry race board at times or I just used it as a spot for being able to hold my anchor charts so this is where I would put my chart paper and I would just simply do all my writing there and this kind of became a really big focus for my my whole group area it's easier for me to write on that and to have kids come up and write and use that because I have shorties in kindergarten so it was really nice for them it was perfect tight for them to go and reach and write with it now I do know that a lot of especially your lower elementary schools will carry these inside the classrooms and they will supply this for you if not there's some really great I know people who are retiring that are holding garage sales I would definitely go and try to check some of them out because sometimes they're trying to get rid of some of theirs I know a teacher at our school last year was able to purchase one and it was really ix it had like four baskets at the bottom underneath it oh so beautiful but you would be able to store all of your writing utensils underneath that so I would definitely try to get something to hold your anchor charts next to your whole group area I've even seen where some people have taken if you go to like a kid's like a Toys R Us they have stands like those art stands that you can use and you can just kind of put rings at the top and that will hold your anchor charts as well just something that allows you to be able to write down your students thinking and allows them to also come up and write down some of their thinking so definitely try to check in and invest in one of those something else that I think would be really great for you to invest in is some type of a student mailbox system I absolutely love my mailbox system I'm excited because what I think and my father-in-law doesn't know this yet but what I think I'm going to do is have my father-in-law built me something that will hold for 48 students since I am team teaching next year so I want something big enough that can he that can hold 48 students stuff and it has to be able to hold a binder a some composition notebooks a pencil pouch so I'm going to work on that this next year not let you guys know how it works out but the mailbox system that I have wasn't too fancy it was very small I think it held about 30 30 spots for students so it's perfect for your lower elementary but this was fantastic because it held their communication folder whenever I was getting anything in from the office that needed to go in students communications folders I would simply just sort it out into their mailbox system and they would have it immediately so I wasn't having to sit around and pass out papers at the end of the day which can get really really hectic end of the day gets very hectic so my mailbox system was able to keep me extremely organized my students were able to go and grab all their things stuff their papers and then go and get packed up so definitely look into some mailboxes domes I know that they're the one that I had was kind of the fake wood and then add the cardboard in inserting in the middle I've also seen where you could just tie the complete cardboard it's just all cardboard and that would be a great start until you're ready to invest in something a little bit nicer but definitely think about getting some type of a student mailbox system the next thing that I would suggest for you is some type of pocket chart I would do about two or three different types of pocket charts only because I love pocket charts I do love them and the Dollar Tree has some great options target dollar spot also at the very beginning of the school year when they start coming back with all the back-to-school stuff has some great chart pockets so I got the black pocket charts I did get a large one that I used next to my whole group area on that stand that I was telling you about earlier and then I had I bought one that was really long and it's meant for scheduling cards it came with a set of scheduling cards but I didn't use it for that purpose I kept a lot of my anchors that was kind of my anchor for what we were learning for the week so anything new that we were learning or anything I wanted my students to reference to that as we were learning I would put those cards in those pocket charts I even had a blue one and I had a red one at my whole group area as well and this kind of housed my word families our sight words it housed our letters and sounds and some of those vocabulary cards so my students were able to reference that throughout the day definitely look into some pocket charts I know a lot of people still do stations if you're doing stations a pocket chart station is absolutely the best if you take your poems and you break those up and you have students build up that poem at that pocket Turek station and then they can read them to each other it's a great great option so definitely start looking into some pocket charts for your classroom the next thing that I would suggest that you grab is a calendar um next year I'm doing something a little different for my calendar since I'm not teaching calendar for the upper grades so what I did is I went and I purchased a really big chalkboard and I'm going to do a chalkboard calendar and it's so pretty it's framed with that very old wood so that's just a different way for you to incorporate that but I like to have a calendar because even for upper elementary I know lower elementary your teaching calendar so I'll leave a link down below to the packet chart that I used for my lower elementary I absolutely loved that pocket chart so definitely look into that one if you haven't but the chalkboard one that I'm doing is also going to have just some important dates maybe we're having some projects that are due that are going to be really important or if we're having some type of school performance or assembly something that I just want my students to know what's going to be happening for the next for the month I also like to have it up in my room just as a reference for myself so that I can see what's happening for the month and anything that's due it just kind of helps keep us both organized so look into some type of a calendar you don't necessarily have to get the pocket chart calendar where you can change out the numbers I'm going to be using a chalkboard I know I've seen other people who have created a dry-erase calendar where they just took washi tape and they kind of framed out their calendar and they would just change it out with their dry erase markers every day which is another brilliant idea if you have a lot of whiteboard space in your classroom so calendar is it definitely unless it helps keep your students organized helps keep you knowing what's happening for the month and they also understand when things are due and also reference that as the day goes along the next thing that I have for you that I would suggest you start investing in are going to be little knickknacks I don't know what else to call these so I'm calling them knickknacks but for lower elementary we like to do things that are themed I think that having the themes kind of tying into everything that you do is really sweet it keeps kids interested it keeps them motivated and if you have the same skill game that you're kind of practicing throughout the year and you want to continue practicing that if you just change the little novelty items kids get really excited they absolutely love it and it just keeps them motivated and engaged in what they're learning so what I do is every month I go to the Dollar Tree I go to the target dollar spot and I start to buy the little erasers the little pieces that you can just find everywhere anything that I feel is we'll see that I might just want to collect and then use it for a game I start hoarding those so I keep a basket again this is where those baskets or tubs come into play but I keep a tub for every month and every month as I'm purchasing some of those little knickknacks that I'm writing to use into games or I may have them just count them or just anything that you can imagine it could be to cover up little game pieces but I will put them inside of those buckets and that that's where I will store all of my themed novelty items so start looking especially if you're doing lower elementary looking into some of those novelty items it keeps students engaged it keeps them really interested in what they're learning and I mean it's just cute it's fun I mean who doesn't like to make learning fun right so the very last thing that I'm going to suggest for you and I know this can be extremely overwhelming and purchasing things for your classroom is overwhelming and I know it is overwhelming because you're walking in to almost a blank space you're saying how am I supposed to create this inviting and welcoming atmosphere for my students and it can be very stressful all I can tell you is to start purchasing little by little every month to just go and grab something I typically whenever I go to the grocery store I pick one thing up so that's really all I can tell you I know it can be very overwhelming but my very last tip for you is going to be to purchase a printer some type of a printer it doesn't matter which type you have I have a laser printer that I absolutely love but that's because I print a ton of stuff and my husband knows it so especially when I started out with my teacher planer and wanted make it look really nice I went on ahead and went to the big jump and I purchased a laser printer for for our home life but having some type of a printer somewhere whether it be at school whether it be at home but a printer is going to be extremely necessary if you're in the lower elementary grades you're getting a lot of things off the internet that you're printing out you're either creating some of those resources for your kids but you're printing those out you can find a lot of free books for your students like paper books for your students that you can print out as well and that printer is almost your livelihood keeps you doing creative and fun things and you're not just doing things out of a workbook so definitely do something as far as investing in some type of a printer look into the ink I would suggest for that you look into the ink figuring out how many pages and then above all read reviews reviews are your best friend because it'll tell you what people are thinking about how it's working in their environment so look into some type of a printer whether it be an inkjet or laser printer just figure out what works best for you as far as your income and then how how much you're going to be using it I would definitely look into you a printer and take your time with it so that you are knowing what you're getting as far as what's coming with the printer figuring out what type of quality figure out how much ink is going to cost you because you will run through ink like crazy so look into all of that before you absolutely commit to buying a certain type of a printer okay guys so that is it for what is the things that I would absolutely have to have in my classroom my first year teaching I'm sure there's more things that I would absolutely want to have actually everything in my classroom I would probably want to have in my classroom but you can't really start with all of that those are just the main things that I think would be a great starting point for first year teeth so leave a comment down below letting me know which one that you think was the absolute best advice for you or if you have another piece of advice that you want to share to somebody leave that down below as well so that we can pick off each other brains but if you enjoyed this video please make sure to give it a thumbs up and I will talk to you guys really soon bye and you

Channel: The Lettered Classroom

Views: 71,131

Rating: 4.8576922 out of 5

Keywords: teacher, elementary teacher, New classroom, New classroom must haves, new teacher, classroom

Id: hWMj0cph0ZQ

Length: 19min 38sec (1178 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 07 2016