REACTING TO MY FIRST CLASSROOM TOUR (PART 2)

hello there and welcome back to my channel this is part two of me reacting to my first classroom tour video so if you have not seen the first part do make sure you go back and watch that [Music] i'm gonna be picking up literally halfway through my original classroom tour video just as a reminder this was my third year of teaching second grade so it was my last year teaching second grade it was my fourth ever youtube video oh well that explains it kind of cringey to go back and watch and by kind of cringy i mean extremely cringy i can't i can't watch but it is interesting to see what ideas i had back then that i still stick to and which ones have changed so we're gonna go ahead and jump in from where we left off we have already done my like front board teacher desk and library that was all in part one and now we are picking up with the rest of the room so now i'm coming over to the opposite side of my room this is where all of my student cubbies are and this is also where i have my word wall now this i actually put up last year so it kind of looks pretty sad right now it's kind of falling apart i plan to redo it it just has not happened yet um up top of my cabinet i have these white locker bins these came from dollar tree that's where i store a bunch of my math games and science materials and things like that i had labels on them all but i've decided to redo them and i have not put them up yet okay so let's talk about that word wall first of all i put on the cabinets because my cabinets were a green color and i hated them so it was a way to kind of cover that which was fine but i ended up taping the word wall cards to the paper that i was using to cover it which meant i'd have to rip it all down to be able to start over because trying to take tape off of that is just awful i think it is best if you're going to have a word wall you need to add the words on with your students and have a discussion about it rather than just giving them a wall of words because they're not going to use it so in hindsight totally should have found a better way to do that whether it was you know using cork so i could put push pins and easily take them down i don't know but that was not the most efficient way to do it those locker bins that were up top i remember that was a way to kind of maximize the space but because they were open bins they would get so dusty on the inside it was always disgusting so if you are going to have bins on top of cabinets like that which sometimes is against fire code but you know whatever um i recommend having ones that have lids so that you don't have that problem one of my summer projects was reorganizing all of my cabinets so i decided to go with these sterlite lock bins that way i'm actually going to be moving classrooms at the end of this year i'm going to be moving to a different area of the state and i'm gonna have to pack up my entire classroom so i wanted to make sure that i had things organized so that it was nice and easy to move still love those bins still have those bins they held up beautifully they made moving super easy but i remember that summer collecting them all constantly going to big lots and home depot and lowe's and walmart and target to collect them all it was craziness i also remember taking this picture where they were all stacked up in front of my door and i posted it on facebook and i remember billy was working the night shift that night and he like checked and he's like um am i gonna be able to come home in the morning but i will say that is a system i have continued to use and still love so i decided to go with these laughings and what i really love is they come in all different shapes and sizes now these labels are in my tpt store they're my black and washi labels and i have three different sizes the ones for the really big bins and then there's the ones for these flatter bins and then for these mini bins as well and they are completely editable and they're available in like 10 different colors so you can pick and choose what works for you so you know looking back those labels weren't horrible they are still in my tpt store the great thing is they were custom-made to fit those bins now i use primarily my like assorted bright labels and even though they were not made to custom fit those bins you can find ones that fit it pretty well but you know looking back those were terrible they weren't terrible now i personally have mine organized by color based on what they are actually storing so in this cabinet is all of my extra classroom supplies and then the cabinet right next to it has a lot of my arts and crafts supplies so those labels are all pink you know i i can see what i was going for i don't think it's a bad idea but if they're all gonna be in one cabinet together i don't see what it matters what the color is i guess so i know what cabinet to put them back into i don't know interesting and then over here i have a lot of my math manipulatives and i chose to use yellow for those so that way i know what is stored in the bins just by the color and then each bin is actually labeled by what is inside okay so thinking back when i moved from second grade to fourth grade i did end up no longer storing my math manipulatives in closed containers like that because it took more time to be able to get out the manipulatives that i needed i switched to having them stored in open containers which actually i can see some of them over in the corner we're getting there and that worked a lot better because my students could get to them i could get to them so just keep in mind things like manipulatives maybe not best in closed containers last copy is an extra so i just use it to store some of my extra materials so up here this is my vip caddy it's not really cute it's very simple but it gets the job done so this has smelly markers glitter glue some of the crayola twistables and some glitter crayons i forgot that i did that actually that was a lot of fun every day i would pick like a vip student based on something good they had done the previous day and i made sure like all of my students got recognized for that at some point and they would get to use that caddy of stuff actually that was kind of fun these are for my groups um they actually earn points and once they get to a certain number of points they get to use the vip caddy for the day and then i did end up i remember that so i started with doing it with groups and then i don't know maybe the first quarter i switched to doing like individual students and that was it worked well and down here is where i store my base 10 blocks so these are just snack containers or some kind of container from dollar tree and they perfectly hold your base 10 blocks so the hundreds all go in the middle your tens or your rods go on the one side and then your ones go on the other side so these are really really easy for my students just to grab them when they need them still love storing those that way still have those containers and love them and then down here i just have a beach ball with different like question prompts that we use sometimes during reading so then i have this bookshelf that's actually built into my classroom so the top part up here we actually have lego sets for reading and math so those get stored up top and then i have these black bins that came from big lots these are the bins that when i switched to fourth grade i stored all of my math manipulatives in and it worked really really well they're super sturdy bins and this is where i store extra math books and then some of the materials that they use a lot so this one has all of the dice and i really really like these because these are dry erase i found these at dollar tree this summer those didn't work well because you would write on it with a dry erase marker and then the dry erase marker would end up like rubbing off when they would actually roll them wet erase worked well but that's always you know a pain because then you have to re-erase it i don't know not my favorite and i also have these little packs of dice so each little container and i think these came from dollar tree as well as a pack of 10 for a dollar has two dice so it's really really easy for the kids to get and they can actually shake them right in here so that way they're not flying all over the floor did still love that system still use that system this one has all of my decks of cards and these are snack containers from dollar tree most of the time they're two for a dollar but sometimes you can actually find them for three for a dollar and a pack of cards actually fits perfectly in there still love that as well you can also fit a pack of crayons one of the best things i ever did and then this one has a whole bunch of math flash cards and different fluency games that my kids use down below those i have all of my student book bins and these containers came from really good stuff i highly recommend them they're very very sturdy and i love all the bright colors that they have so these labels are also in my tpt store i just label the book bins by their numbers rather than their names so that i don't have to redo them every year and my students will store all of their books that they get from either the media center or my classroom library right in their book bin and it's nice and open and easy for them to have access to when they need them i did love that system it took up a lot of space and it wasn't a necessity when i moved to fourth grade but i did love doing it for second grade and then over here on the wall these are just the abc letters that came from target i decided this was a good area to display them so now we're at my back counter and down below i store a lot of materials in these black bins and i just think they look really clean and organized and it's an easy way when i need to just throw something in there i can still do that still have those big black stir light tubs when i moved to fourth grade i didn't have a space like that under a countertop to be able to store them but i would have one like under my teacher desk and even in some of my big cabinets but i still love using those bins and on the counter these are the same bins that are from big lots that i use in my library so this one has all of my writing prompts and i store my writing prompts in a binder so they're nice and easy for students to grab during daily 5 and i have just monthly calendars so each month there's 20 different prompts that the students can pick from and then on the back there's a list of 32 words as like a word bank so that if they don't know how to spell something they can just look on here and i always tell them if it's not on here and they don't spell it correctly it's fine so i have this for every month and these are actually in my tpt store so there's 20 prompts for every month plus the word banks and i also include individual strips if you want the students to cut them out and put them in a writing journal still one of my favorite things i ever did creating those writing props was a game changer i even kept them in fourth grade and i had it as like an early finisher option for my students i have since updated that product so it doesn't look exactly like that and i no longer have the strips for them to put into notebooks but it is now editable so if you want to go in and change a couple of the prompts or change some of the items on the word banks you can plus you could use it digitally because you could use like you know google slides and have your students respond so do still love that product so happy that i created those but i have five different binders so five kids can be doing writing for daily five at one time it's nice and easy they just grab the binder and i'm set for the year i don't have to do anything right next to that are my audio books that my students use for daily 5 for listening to reading and those are all kept right in there nice and organized and then these are just some different math fact practices things i've gotten from target dollar spot or things like that mostly dry erase boards and if a student finishes early they can just come back and grab one of those that was when frozen was like super popular i had this distinct memory of my entire second grade class singing let it go at the top of their lungs [Music] good times this black bin is going to be used to hold student headphones so i actually have a set of five ipads for my class that i got from donorschoose and my students use them a lot for listening to reading or for math groups so they each bring in a pair of headphones at the beginning of the year and those get stored in there if they're the bigger headphones if they're the smaller earbuds i have this container this came from walmart kind of where the beads are and i just put a small label down in each one labeled with their number so that way they know where to put it back and they don't get confused on whose is whose i remember that system working okay actually um but i feel like now i would have one of those big over the door like pocket systems you know almost like for shoes and each student would have a pocket and they could put their headphones in there plus anything else that they might have those ipads oh my goodness those were such a game changer because i used them not only in second grade i used them in fourth grade obviously because i'm out of the classroom i did end up gifting them to another teacher who needed them so i felt good that i was able to pass those on to another teacher um this little container just holds a lot of my chargers for the ipads and then i also have some extra sets of headphones just in case ew why why would i have done that because they use ooh no no i mean i'm sure i clean them afterwards i don't really remember those ever getting used to be honest i'm pretty sure my students all had their own headphones but you know good intentions execution not so much and this lamp i think it was like five dollars from ikea but i really really like that as well then i have these black um trays that i use for my student mailboxes so again they're just labeled with student numbers whenever i grade papers i put them up here in this bin and then why do i have three bins there stacked on top of each other i'm pretty sure those from the dollar store were like two for a dollar but why do i just have three of them stacked up there i don't know you tell me okay i have one of my student jobs is mailman and they actually sort the papers and put them in the mailboxes and then my students are responsible for taking them home at least once a week so that system worked really really well that organizational tray thing was actually purchased by my school so when i moved to fourth grade i did not take it with me however i kept a similar system in fourth grade but i did it all in a file box and i had a file folder for each student where i would put their papers and then once a week i would put those papers into their graded work folder they would take it home and get it signed this right here is a set of five laptops that we have for the classroom that are provided by the county then i will show you the inside of the cabinets that are up above there these bins i think came from walmart but this one has a whole bunch of extra paper this one has envelopes in it and then these are more of the sterilite bins they're just much larger this one holds extra construction paper and this one holds extra writing paper why did those need to be in a bin like why couldn't i just stack them on a shelf um then again i've always had a bin obsession so i'm not that surprised and again the cabinet right next to it is kind of a similar layout up here it's more of the stair light bins and this has extra notebooks extra folders and extra composition books these are just letter trays from walmart this is where i store some of my card stock and things like that those are a pain because they could barely hold anything they'd start like bending they would always come off of the tracks and get all messed up i hate paper trays i hate paper trays at least the ones that all detach from each other and then this is my treasure box so then i have one of these big cabinets with the doors on it and these containers are for math groups so i organize my math groups by color so a lot of times each group will have a different assignment that they're working on so i just put the assignment down here in the colored folder they get it out and then when they're done they turn it into the bin i don't think i ever actually use those color folders i would just have their assignment and give it to them i don't remember anything actually ever going into those folders but having colored groups to differentiate still use that still love that system and this is actually a table runner that came from big lots i think it was like eight dollars but i just put that on there to make it look a little bit prettier i did hate those cabinets they were very ugly and clunky but the table runner not your best effort michelle um this set of file folders came from target and then these are just some signs that i have that i put magnets on so it has days of the week and then also weather and in days of the week or the weather part down below never got updated ever inside of this cabinet is where all of my guided reading books are stored so that they're nice and easy to access during group another ad hold on so then this is my area that i use for guided reading i have this big round table i would love a horseshoe table or a kidney table but currently i don't have one so i just use a circular table i finally got a kidney table in fourth grade i think it was my second or third year in fourth grade i finally got a kidney table and it was the best thing ever the round table was okay but it was hard to like reach across the table and i couldn't fit that many kids i mean the second graders were smaller so it was fine but i have this long rectangular table back here just to store some of my materials for guided reading i do have my blends poster up and then up above i have some of my reading strategies oh i forgot about those i didn't use those in fourth grade because initially i didn't teach reading and when i did teach reading it's a lot more skill based in fourth grade and i missed those though those were so much fun and these bins right here are for things i use a lot during guided reading this one is for word work so a lot of times we'll do boardwork at the end and i just have a cookie sheet from dollar tree and then this is another one of those organizers from walmart in the jewelry section and this is how i store my letters so they're nice and easy to find i did end up upgrading those letters those letters were super cheap from like walmart i ended up getting the ones that were color coded so consonants were one letter vowels were one color and vowels were another color and i loved those new letters that i got and i still use them with the cookie tray when i moved to fourth grade i ended up giving them to a second grade teacher at my school but i i missed those letters that was a lot of fun i missed doing like word work and stuff like that that was a fun part of second grade when i need them right next side is on my binders with info so i got a reading binder and some data binders things like that these bins came from walmart as well and this is how i organize my guided reading materials so again each group has a color and this is where i stored their books and any journals that they're working on and things like that this close reading toolkit this is actually a container of those photo cases as well and this came from target it already comes with these bins in there there's six of them and all these close reading labels and things like that were a freebie on tpt so you can definitely look that up okay michelle i did love those close reading toolboxes and even when i taught guided reading in fourth grade i still use them and i ended up giving them to another teacher when i left um this is just a black bin to hold any folders or anything like that i honestly haven't figured out what i'm going to use it for but it's there just in case i need it this right here is my pencil sharpener from classroom friendly supplies that was my first ever youtube video comment down below if you want me to do a reaction to that video it's so cringy i don't know if i can go back and watch it but i could try if you really want me to did love that pencil sharpener though and i definitely recommend that you get one if you go back in my videos you can see where i did a review of it and it really is one of the greatest pencil sharpeners ever and i keep it back here so that if i need to sharpen a pencil during group my kids don't have to get up and go across to the other sharpener i've got it right there this is another one of those ikea lamps and i have another stapler and tape dispenser on top and this is another one of those storage bins um this one i've actually had for a really long time so i don't remember where i got it but most likely it was walmart so i just have some of my resources that i use up top i have any flash cards with like questioning prompts i have some small white boards and i really like these because they're like sentence strips and they're really easy to use i also have some glasses and some magnifying glasses things like that just to make a little bit more fun during group and then down here i have some other tool kits with some other supplies that i use still love that container use that container i gifted it to another teacher when i left but that container held up very very well and these right here are stools that i got from ikea as well and these were about five dollars a piece and i like them because they stack and they don't take up a lot of room and it's much easier for my kids just to come and grab them when they need it for group also love those stools i had a set of ten of them that i used in fourth grade because i would have a lot of kids in in small groups because i had bigger class sizes but those stools held up really really well even my fourth graders could sit on it i could sit on them with no problem so then i will show you this is my back counter area with my sink so up here these are just small containers that i got from walmart i think they're like 1.99 a piece and this is where i store some of my classroom decor items that i use throughout the months those are so tiny i ended up consolidating them into larger bins and i had one for like fall and winter and one for spring but those are adorable they're like this big and then here is my sink and i do have a stool in front of it so that so my students can reach the water fountain um i forgot the second grader's gonna reach the water fountain that is adorable still have that stool by the way love it under here i just have plastic bins to store some of my cleaning supplies and things like that um up above here is where i store all of my extra hand sanitizer tissues clorox wipes things like that i do have tissues and hand sanitizer out on it i also have an air freshener and that air freshener which i had one on my desk too did nothing i don't even know why i had it but it never it never freshened the air this is actually one of my students who left it during open house so i have to give that back to them and then here is my other pencil sharpener that was a school smart one so as a first year teacher i was very fortunate my principal actually gave me like a chunk of well not personally gave me but i was able to order some things from my room i had like an allotment of money and a lot of the stuff i ordered was from that school smart brand that pencil sharpener though not my favorite i really like the exacto one on amazon it's like 30 40 but it holds up really really well these cabinets store some extra supplies as well so i just have extra markers and i have extra crayons in case any of my students need them these are actually dry erase board erasers still use those they're the little face scrubbers from dollar tree you can usually get them like three for a dollar and they make great erasers they actually hold up i'll use them for like two years at a time and then they get kind of gross and then i throw them away and get new ones but still highly recommend those and then these are more of the black bins from big lots and in here i just have things like um cups and forks and spoons and plates and things like that what was that random blue bin just kind of chilling up there no idea what that was i did have a bad habit when i first started teaching of buying all like mix match bins which i guess is fine it's more of a personal problem that i like everything to match but then i started getting more consistent with my bins and making sure they were all the same and that was just a good choice to make me mentally happy then in this drawer is also where i hold some extra supplies so if any of my students need a pencil they can come back here and get that i also have some extra colored pencils some extra crayons and then glue sticks and also when my students find a glue stick cap on the floor they'll come and put it back here as well um that way if anyone ever loses one we have extras okay glue stick cap tip solid why do i have extras in like three different places like i've got some in the drawers i'm in the cabinet why am i not consolidating and putting them all in the same spot you're better than that live and learn down here um i have these iris bins as well and these just hold some of my classroom read aloud books that i don't really want my students to have access to and these are organized by the topic then i have another one of these cabinets with the doors on top so right next to it i do store a couple of carpet squares that i have so if my students do read the partner they can grab one of those i forgot about the carpet squares those were given to me by another teacher in my building when i first started teaching oh you know it's kind of gross when you think about it like i'm just gonna go get this old icky thing a carpet to sit on um it was better than them sitting on the floor but as i started collecting more flexible seating options i no longer needed those but i remember using carpet squares when i was in elementary school so i feel like that is an old trend that has maybe died over time again this is a table runner from big lots that i just used for extra decoration my clipboards are stored here with these clipboard organizers these came from really good stuff and they actually come they're like just a regular wood color and then these are blue but i decided to spray paint them black just to give it more of a clean look my obsession with black has not gone away but those were kind of pricey for my memory i think each one was about forty dollars i will say though worth it for me it made it so easy to organize my clipboards and clipboards have always been a staple that i use like very very often in my classroom so for me those were worth the investment i still have them they've held up perfectly um each one holds 12 clipboards but i was able to get an extra one in there so each one has 13 clipboards in it and right next to it i have some of my activities for word work that my students use during daily 5. i missed that so much it was a lot of fun always trying to brainstorm new activities for them to do so up here again these are just those bins from big lots that i use in my library um these are old keyboards actually and my students use them to help practice typing their words plus they get extra practice typing because they'll need that for when they get to the higher grades right next or when a pandemic hits and everyone's learning online i do still love that it was a cute simple thing like they've got a fake little keyboard and they just would type their letters but they were also learning how to type but i have cookie trays and these are just a dollar from dollar tree and my students use those for magnetic letters in order to practice their word work now i do have a set of five word work activities that can be used for any words in my tpt store i'll put the link for that down below as well and in there i talk a little bit more about how i organize my word work and i also gave some ideas for word work but i'll just show you a couple of them i do have these doodle boards that my students can use to practice their words um i also have stamps and each set of stamps is organized in one of these pencil bins pipe cleaners rainbow words where my students roll a dice and it will tell them what color to write the word i have some chalkboards bananagrams and there's a couple more of them but if you get my word work pack it's only one dollar it has five different activities you can use all year long for any words and then i talk more about my organization in there i was quite the little salesman back then um i still do though i i miss that so much i would just walk around stores and try to get ideas for ways that i could have my students write their words so the last thing i wanted to show you was how i store my student supplies because i actually do not have desks anymore i use tables and one of the first questions i always get is where do your students put their things so i have these bins from walmart they have three drawers and this is where i store a lot of students supply so on top is our community supplies it has markers crayons dry erase markers scissors and glue and again these are those snack containers from dollar tree not only do they hold a deck of cards but they also hold a 24 pack of crayons perfectly yep still organize all of that basically the exact same way i love the caddies love the snack containers for the crayons and love having those three drawer organizers by each group to be able to put like folders and notebooks and all of that in so in the drawers i typically use the top drawer to hold dry erase boards i have not put any in yet but those will go in there as we go on with the school year um the second drawer typically holds like their writing journal and their math journal that we use throughout the day and then down here is actually their math reference books we use everyday mathematics um and their journals so those stay in there so that was pretty much everything hopefully you guys enjoyed it if you have any questions about anything that i showed you if i didn't explain it well enough go ahead and leave a comment down below i'll either reply right on there or i'll make a different video to explain it a little bit better fun fact right before i started my youtube channel i donated my hair and i just donated my hair again so it's funny how things come you know full circle but it is cringy to like see myself on camera back then because i was very awkward and i feel like i've come a far away hopefully you agree and you don't think that i've gotten worse but that is going to be it i don't know how i feel about that i mean overall i look back and i still agree with a lot of the things that i did but of course there's things i look back and like oh michelle what were you doing however that's just part of being a teacher and being a professional and being able to learn and grow and become better so i hope that you all did enjoy this video please give it a thumbs up share it out with your teacher friends if you know they've been following me for a while and you think that they'd enjoy seeing that awfulness that was one of my first videos go ahead and hit the subscribe button and the notification bell so you know you don't miss any new improved videos as always thank you for watching i love you all so much don't forget to put your positive pants on and i will catch you in the next one [Music]

Channel: Pocketful of Primary

Views: 19,733

Rating: 4.9461279 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, a day in the life of a teacher, a week in the life of a teacher, michelle ferre, michelle emerson, reaction, reacting, classroom tour, tour of my classroom, classroom setup

Id: 5gm-zU9H-6w

Length: 31min 0sec (1860 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021