REACTING TO MY FIRST CLASSROOM TOUR

hello there and welcome back to my channel i'm not gonna lie i'm a little bit nervous for today's video i'm going to be reacting to my first classroom tour video okay so this was not my first year of teaching i did not start my youtube channel until my third year of teaching now if y'all remember and you've been with me for that long i used to teach second grade that's where pocketful of primary came from because i thought i would only ever teach primary grades and how'd that work out i was wrong but this was my third year of teaching second grade and then i went on to teach fourth grade for four years but um let's just let's just go ahead and watch it so i thought that today i would give you guys a quick classroom tour i will practice this by saying that my classroom is nowhere near actually complete this year teachers are only given one day to actually work in their rooms before open house which was yesterday so i still have a lot more to actually get done in my classroom but i thought i would give you guys just a quick sneak peek of what it looks like so far okay can i just say i feel like teachers at least teachers on social media all do this and looking back on it we shouldn't we feel like we have to justify why our classroom isn't perfect when in reality it's never going to be perfect because there's actual human beings in there using things but we feel like we have to justify like if things are incomplete or if things aren't exactly the way that they should be and i just feel like we should not do that because none of our classrooms are perfect and they never will be and that's completely fine [Music] so i thought i would start in the hallway and actually show you my student work display so i just have this long bulletin board strip to hang student work and i made these letters from my cricut and i just cut them out and then taped them to the wall and then this is that pencil banner that came from target and again i just cut out the letters and put them on there and okay i do remember cutting those letters out with my cricut and it was the best thing ever highly recommend but i remember buying that pencil banner at target no idea what i was going to use it for and i was really proud of myself when i came up with this little hour work is on point because i needed a word that was five letters i'm still kind of uh proud of that but in the background of this video i can hear this like clicking sound my first vlogging camera had these little hooks on the side to attach like a what is that called i don't know the strap that you would like wear but i've never worn that and they would flap up against my camera as i would move it around and make that noise i eventually like just remove them but it's very annoying to go back and listen to and then i used these little clips that were the pencils and those came from target as well noticed i had white nail polish which is still my favorite some things never change so this is what it looks like when you walk into my classroom through the door so this is just kind of a quick overview and then i'll go through it piece by piece so first thing you see when you walk through the that room was big in hindsight that room was very big i only had anywhere between 18 and 24 students in second grade when i moved to third grade i would have up to like 35 kids and my room was much smaller so i should have appreciated that bigger room while i had it the door is this desk and this actually stays here all year this is actually here for my students breakfast because they eat breakfast in the classroom every day so when the cafeteria workers come and bring it to the classroom they put it right here and then my students come to the desk in order to get their breakfast and then bring it back to their personal table so right above that front desk is my bulletin board and i use it to display my jobs i actually use black felt as the background of my bulletin boards and then these letters were cut out with my cricut machine i still use black belt for my bulletin boards it's my absolute favorite but can we talk about this triple bulletin board border that's going on i feel like the trend of doubling or tripling bulletin board border i see it both ways it is a little bit of a waste because you have to use three times as much border but it is really good for taking up space and so if you have a big bulletin board and you're not wanting to use it all it is a good way to kind of add visual interest without occupying or like with also occupying space but i guess it depends on like your needs and whatnot but just an observation and these job cards came from amy grossbeck they're in her tpt store and then each student has a number and it's just velcro so i put it up there my students actually keep their jobs for the entire term so they only have four different jobs throughout the year so i did love that job board by the way and when i switched to fourth grade i didn't do classroom jobs the same way because we were departmentalized so i didn't have the same students all day and i didn't have as many jobs whereas in second grade everyone always had a job but for second grade it worked really well so right below my job chart is actually where i keep my keurig one of the most important things in my classroom i personally drink a lot of coffee so it's really important for me to actually have it in my classroom so right on top is where i keep the keurig and then i have this mat just in case anything gets spilled and then next to it i have all my creamers and sweeteners and things like that and this actually sits on a cart that i got from michael's and this card is actually made to hold the iris scrapbooking bin so if you use those in your classroom i definitely recommend you get one of these i have no idea what happened to that cart maybe when i moved from second to fourth grade either i got rid of it maybe it broke when i was moving i have no memory of what happened to that but i did like it because i love those scrapbooking containers and it held it perfectly so this top blue one is actually where i keep recess games for indoor recess and then underneath all of these are where i keep my rooted in breeding packs um did you hear how i said it rooted in reading did love rooted in reading still love those scrapbooking containers for holding indoor recess games rooted in reading is now all in a big tub i cannot get rid of it but those were good for when i taught second grade so if you look here this is the month of october so i keep all the vocabulary cards in there all the books and any of the other printouts that i need for that month um so i basically hold five or six months at a time and then halfway through the year i switch them out for the ones that come in later and then this black bin that's right next to it is where i keep a lot of my extra paper extra dry erase boards and then i do have tissues and hand sanitizer right on top as well i had that black drawer unit from my first year of teaching until this past year i finally got rid of it but that thing held up really well so while i'm over this way i'll go ahead and show you my front board and then my front desk so this right here is actually a sloth that i got in disney when i was there i love sloster my favorite animal so that's kind of like my classroom pet um and he'll actually leave notes for my students throughout the year on their desks i totally forgot that i would do that the sloths still transferred to fourth grade obviously i kept them around my desk they no longer left notes from my students i completely forgot that i did that and then this right here is where i keep my anchor charts this is actually a magnetic curtain rod that came from walmart i think it was between eight and nine dollars and then i just hole punch the anchor charts and hang them with a book ring still do that still love that hack and right next to that is my classroom clip chart this is from learning and lunch sorry learning in wonderland she's absolutely fantastic i love all of her products so this came from her oh the clip charts um if i could go back would i still use a clip chart no but that was very trendy at the time live and learn get rid of your classroom clip charts and my students clips are right on there and i actually use it in conjunction with class dojo um i can do another video to explain how i do that right next to my clip chart is my classroom schedule these are just magnetic and i change them out as i need to throughout the week i still love having magnetic schedule cards i feel like it makes it very easy just to like remove them i've also had them in a pocket chart but i didn't love that as much up top of my board is where i display my classroom rules you can actually find these in my tpt store they're editable and i'll put the link down in the description if you're interested in those and i just put mine in these silver frames that came from michaels and i keep them hung up there because it was kind of empty space and i thought it was a good way to fill that space so ugly looking back on them i'm really sorry if you ever bought those um i no longer used like set classroom rules when i was in fourth grade as a class we'd come up with like promises but the rules i only did that in second grade and it's because that's what i learned in college like that's what you do in hindsight don't really feel like they're necessary but to each his own and then obviously up top of my board is where i have my alphabet this is also in my tpt store and i'll put the link for that down below as well it's like a black and brights kind of theme so over on this side of my board is where i have my calendar and yes i already have it set up for september even though my students actually come back august 29th but i figured there was no reason of keeping august only for a couple days so i went ahead and put september up i could never keep up with that dang calendar it was always like a month or two behind so i think this is the one and only time that i was actually ahead um right here is where i keep all my extra magnets i would put them on the board but a lot of times they kept falling off or they'd get bumped so i decided just to put it in this little basket and i think this came from target and then here is where i just have some extra dry erase markers and an eraser up here is where i display my objectives and standards for the day so i actually made these it's just a piece of scrapbook paper and then i hot glued a page protector to it and it's velcroed at the bottom and i just slip in the standard to it on the side and the whole thing is laminated so that it stays durable that was a system i still kept but rather than using like the page protector i would use dry erase pockets i still really like that system it was easy to put in and out i hate handwriting objectives on the board so i prefer to have them printed and then just slip them in each day but i actually have a set of standards and objectives that you can display if you want to do it this way um in my tpt store i only have second grade at this point but i'll put the link for that down below man i'm really plugging my tpg store good for me you know what this was like in my prime when i was working my tail off constantly creating products putting out videos and it was a grind so you know what michelle you get you get that tpt money i also wanted to show you my classroom sign this came from target and i've seen a lot of people do really cute things with putting their name on it but i am not good at painting at all so i actually cut out letters with my cricut and then i just laminated them and taped them on because that was much easier for me so on brand so next i'll go through my desk and kind of what i keep on there i personally wish that i could get rid of my classroom desk but at this point it's not really an option so i just make it work for me pretty sure i only said that because at this time it was super trendy for teachers to not have a teacher desk you know what i like my teacher desk it's my home base i can have all my organizational systems there i can get work done there i i like having a teacher desk let's just clarify that so up in the corner i have my school laptop and my document camera and it's right by my smart board projector so that way when i have students up here on the carpet i'm sitting right next to them but i'm still able to access my computer when i need it right here is a band that holds nurses notes and then i have my stapler tape dispenser and hole punch that get used pretty much every day back here i have these plastic holders this is where i put student late notes or nurses notes when they bring them to me that way i still have them at the end of the year that's an interesting system i don't really remember doing that but what about the notes that are like really big you'd have to fold them probably not the most efficient system michelle this is a sign that i got the target dollar spot i think about a year ago and then i have all of my pens pencils oh this was pre black and white striped caddy oh oh that's adorable that's a hot mess um but as you can tell i've always been surrounded by lots of pens and pencils they were not always so organized glad i found that caddy rolls and markers each in a separate bin that way if i know i need a pencil it's much easier to find it and this smile sign also came from the target dollar spot i think about a year ago hold on i remember that sign once again impulse buy but in order to hang it up that like filing cabinet was metal and so i had magnets holding down the string but then it would fall down constantly and i'd have to like wrap around the magnets why i didn't just put command strips up so i could like hook it in i don't know but that was a hot mess and right below that is probably one of my favorite things in my classroom it is my teacher toolbox and if you do not have one of these i highly recommend that you make one the organizer came from lowe's but you can also get them at home depot and i think even walmart carries them now too so these labels are ones that i personally made they are mitpt store i really like them because of the clipart it makes it much easier to find what i need um but i also have these available without clip art if you want that as well i do still love my teacher toolbox i still have mine this one i remember it was blue and i had to spray paint it white i then got a black one and i still have those labels in my store but now i have just like the colored rainbow ones but i do still love my teacher toolbox up on top of it i have this little bin i think it just came from dollar tree but that holds all my box tops and i like it because i can open up just the one end and put them in very easily next to that i have a mailbox that came from the target dollar spot that's where my students can leave little love notes for me if they have them i don't think i ever got anything in that mailbox they would just put it on my desk let's be real this was actually given to me yesterday at open house by one of my students i had last year so i made sure that i put that on there i still keep in contact with that student i'm friends with her mom and her grandmom on facebook and she'll still randomly call me and it's just my heart and then that's just a decoration piece that also came from target and next to my toolbox i have three of these sterilite drawers and i use two of them to hold all my daily copies and then the third one just holds things that need to be either graded copied or filed okay still use that system what is happening with those labels obviously i just went on tpt and found free labels this was before i ended up creating my own labels for them so that's interesting um okay then at the end of my desk i have this white bookshelf that actually i think was in my bedroom as a child but i brought it into my classroom i have these bins for turning bins one is for homework and one is for classwork i think i want to say these came from maybe big lots but it could have been target um i'm not really sure but i think they're about three dollars a piece and those have worked really really well they hold a lot of papers in it and then down below i have all these black bins and these came from big lots as well and i have this one has all of my pens that i use for open house and then sharpies for when my kids do directed drawings and behind there i have my plickers cards that i use quite often and then i also have some supertizing cards that i use for number talks this bin has some of my classroom management things i have these signs for when students are doing independent work i can slip them on their desk and i have what i call smart beads so whenever a student is participating really well or make some kind of comment that was very very good i will give them smart beads and then these are my brain sprinkles anytime my kids go to take a test i always go ahead and sprinkle some on their head and they really really like it um this is from the dollar tree i think it's for sugar but obviously i didn't want to dump like a ton of sugar or sorry a ton of glitter on their heads so i actually have tape over it so only a couple little pieces come out at a time those little signs and the beads those were things i'd pull out like once a year and then forget about them but brain sprinkles highly recommend even when i taught fourth grade my fourth graders loved it and when they would go on to fifth grade if they had a test they would come see me that morning to get brain sprinkles so highly recommend then on the next one this is mostly for when i do small group for math um so this one has just some of the materials i might need at the table so i have some pencils but why am i keeping that on the shelf that's in the front of my room when my small group table is in the back not understanding that logic dry erase markers um tape and a stapler and i personally use the black ticonderoga pencils that way if the student walks off with it i know that it's mine and next to that are these photo cases these came from michaels and i have them in a couple different colors um these are for task cards when my students do them in groups and i have different colors so that each group has a differentiated set and it matches the color of their group okay i was wondering why i just had empty containers sitting there but actually that makes sense down here this basket has extra calendar pieces and then the numbers for my job chart which will go up once my students get their jobs and over here are my extra schedule cards for the board so this is one of my favorite oh my gosh okay it looks pretty but it's also like stimulation overload there is so much going on in this corner and just looking at it it's like meant to be a student area because it's the library but then i also have like my bookshelf of my books and binders and like the phone which doesn't make sense because my stu i wouldn't want my students to touch all of that interesting okay different corners of my room this is my classroom library i don't really have a ton of space so it's kind of on the smaller side but it's because like half of the stuff from your classroom is sitting in that corner oh my goodness still works very well so i just have a bean bag that i think originally came from big lots but as you can see like it's very deflated i need to get more beans to go with it but for now the kids still like it i did buy more beans and they got deflated very quickly but i've had that until this past year and i remember at one point i bought a bunch of extra beans and my custodian when i taught fourth grade overnight like refilled it for me without me asking like i just had it sitting there thinking i'd get to it the next day and he refilled it it was so sweet um i have this little chair that i love because it's the perfect size for my kiddos this came from target um i actually got it 50 off so i got it for like 40 but it's held up really really well and then i have this blue pillow that i think came from big lots as well but i'm not exactly positive so right here is my filing cabinet i don't have a lot of things in there because personally i don't like clutter so filing cabinet is not one of my favorite things but i do have some stuff i need to store in there and i actually have these little labels i just put magnets on the back of letters to help me label so i knew which was in each drawer i still like that idea but i the little green pieces those are like magnetic border they would get moved around and fall off all the time like i kept them on there because i thought it looked cute but they were not functional at all but i will show you this top drawer is actually where i do store my construction paper so these are bins that came from target but you can also get them on amazon and this is actually where i store my construction paper and it actually holds a lot oh i can't get it open it actually holds a lot of paper in each one and i like it because i've had my construction paper sitting out before and then i've had substitutes use it and did not make me very happy so now i have it stored away in the filing cabinet but it's nice and easy to get to when i need it okay those bins i still love those bins i got them at target you can't find them anymore but storing construction paper in there is kind of a horrible idea because anytime you have to get out the paper you have to open up the drawer get the bin out open the bin up get the paper i'll close the bin put it back in that takes away so much time what i then started doing when i switched to fourth grade i still had it in like a file drawer but i actually had it in file folders that way it was open and i could just grab out what i needed but it was still kind of hidden away from the general people in my room so live and learn so the top of my library actually has another bulletin board that i use as my reading focus board so these letters again were just cut out with my cricut and then this burlap banner and the letters came from the target dollar spot i'm pretty sure that s is upside down yep i think it was a year ago um this pocket chart also came from the target dollar spot and i use this to hold my vocabulary for whichever book we're working on and then these are just plastic dry erase sleeves and those will hold the reading strategy and the essential question that we're working on so i still love using like pocket charts and dry erase pockets for those non-permanent items on bulletin boards that way you don't have to staple and then remove the staple to change it out and i do still love having like a focus board similar to this so you know what third year teacher michelle was doing a good job right below my reading focus bulletin board i have another bookcase and on top i just have my phone with the phone list and then this ceramic pencil came from the target dollar spot as well and this is where i store it's just chilling there not serving any purpose but i thought it was cute for a lot of my curriculum binders with all of the different copies and things that i might need in there i also have my teachers manuals for my math stuff and then these are all the books that i read aloud throughout the year and i keep them separate because they're not really books that i want my kids to have access to they're really just for me still like using binders i've never liked using filing cabinets for like keeping curriculum stuff i like binders but i will say i ended up switching to like mostly just all digital at this time i was not using google drive when i switched to fourth grade i started using google drive and then i just started creating folders and having everything digital instead of binders next in my bookcase i have this cart and on top i store what i call my book buddies these are stuffed animals that my students will read to if they don't have a partner and most of these came from kohl's and what i really like is they are characters from a lot of the books that my kids have read so they really enjoyed that those were adorable my students loved using them did not need them when i moved to fourth grade i ended up sending those to fernanda from one happy classroom so she i think still has those in her room and then this cart came from michael's and i really really like this one it has four of the smaller drawers and then two of the bigger ones and this is where i store all of my fluency things for my kids so when they go to daily 5 and they do read to someone they use a lot of these things so the top drawer has folders and these are just plastic folders and then i put fluency passages in them that the students will read throughout the year in order to practice and then i also have some fluency strips some games for fluency timers and then these are one of my favorite things as well these are whisper phones and these are just made with pvc pipe and then some duct tape and my students use these throughout the year so that they can hear themselves read and then down here i also have microphones that my students get to use sometimes when they're practicing their fluency as well first of all that cart still used in fourth grade i just got rid of it when we moved out to texas i gave it to another teacher in the building but loved that cart whisper phones my fourth graders still use them i used it a lot with small group in fourth grade so when i would do guided reading i would pick one kid each time that would kind of whisper read to me so i could check their fluency check their comprehension all of that and while they were reading sometimes the other students found it distracting so i'd have them use a whisper phone that way they would hear themselves kind of whisper reading rather than hearing the student who was whisper reading then on this back wall is my classroom library and i actually have two different sections of my classroom library i have this section which has all the books that i personally have bought and then over here is where i have books that actually belong to the school and i keep them separate that way at the end of the year i'm not trying to figure out whose is whose so these bins right here came from big lots and they were three dollars a piece and i use these to hold all of my picture books um this one here at the end is for the hospital so any books that are damaged and need to be repaired my students will put them in there and then holiday books i actually change out by the month so right now i have a bunch of different halloween books and i will change them out for thanksgiving books at the end of october i still love those bins i still have those bins from big lots they're phenomenal oh my old library label cards i still have this library label pack in my tpt store a lot of you who purchased the original one that looked like this will email me and you're like can i have the old labels back so they all match and i will send them to you but these were not editable so i constantly had people asking me to add certain labels so i ended up changing them so that they could be editable and i changed the style of them just a little bit but it's funny to look back on this version of them um my labels are in my tpt store so i decided to organize my library i was going to give each different category a symbol and then that symbol will actually be on the corner of the book so the students just have to match the symbols if they can actually read the words and figure out where they go i do still love that system though having the symbol on the book match the symbol on the actual label it worked well in second grade it worked well in fourth grade so i do still stand by that labeling system down below my picture books is actually where i store all of my chapter books and they are organized by different categories okay do you see if you look really carefully you can see the little pink pieces on some of them when i first started organizing my library my first year of teaching i had this i that similar idea of i want the color or the symbol on the book to match the color or the symbol on the bin so i got these colored labels from the dollar store and i was like okay the pink ones and the orange ones and then i ran out of colors because i had too many categories so then i started doubling them up and i'd have like pink and yellow was one and like pink and orange was one and it just wasn't a system that made sense plus those labels ended up easily falling off so i'd have to go in and reinforce them with tape which i still do that with my library labels with the circle symbols i will reinforce it with tape i just feel like it stays on much much better but it's interesting because i had the same idea for a system and then i just ended up kind of altering it as well and again they each have a symbol and i will put the symbol up on the corner of the book but that just has not happened yet but these bins came from dollar tree they were only one dollar a piece but i really like them they seem really sturdy and then i just attached the labels with these book rings i will say those bins were okay they did last better than a lot of dollar tree bins but something i've learned over the years is that dollar tree bins are not as sturdy and i would rather invest in bins that i know are actually going to last but when you're first starting out and you don't have a lot it's a great option this book cart right next to it has all of the books actually belong to the school and these are organized by lexile label and on each book i just have the lexile number written on a label and i personally tape mine on because otherwise i feel like they do come off throughout the year so i put the label down and then i just put a piece of clear packaging tape over top to help hold it on there and i'll be honest not a huge fan of leveling books or having them organized by level in your library i know some schools do require it but it is not my favorite way to organize them because i don't think that's how students should be picking out books but i had to because that's what my school did right next to that book cart i have some scoop rockers my students really really like these and i like how easily they can just carry them around the room these came from walmart i think they're about four dollars a piece which isn't bad at all and then i have my read letters and these came from target and i really really like that they're metal so they hold up really well okay those read letters those little suckers were expensive i even got them on sale and i think they were still 15 a piece so i spent 60 dollars just on those letters to hang out by my library which i did like them but then when i moved to fourth grade i wasn't even teaching reading i ended up giving them to a team teacher of mine so they were still well loved and well cared for but that was a total waste of money those scoop rockers on the other hand were a steal because even my fourth graders would use them and i ended up giving them to another teacher when i moved but those were phenomenal okay my original plan was to do the entire classroom tour in one video but i'm now realizing how long that would be so i'm going to break it up into two parts this was part one stay tuned there will be a part two where i will finish reacting to my first classroom tour regardless if you enjoyed it so far and it's fun to kind of look back on the past even though it makes me cringe please give this video a thumbs up and subscribe 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 to put your positive pants on and i will catch you in the next one [Music] you

Channel: Pocketful of Primary

Views: 44,342

Rating: 4.9411011 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: vZyXw3Tsw3c

Length: 30min 42sec (1842 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021