Things in My Classroom That Just Make Sense - First Year First Grade Teacher

[Music] hello and welcome back to my Channel today we are back inside my classroom and we are going to be talking about things in my classroom that just make sense so this is six different things that I have put in place into my classroom within my first year teaching and some of this I started at the beginning of the year some of this I did not start at the beginning of the year that I wish I had the first thing is our paper filing system this is actually something that I did not start until probably the end of the third nine weeks because my ta gets pulled a lot and is split between four different teachers I maybe see her for an hour each day possibly even less so I kind of got tired of me having to file the papers into their daily folder and I was like something's got to give like I can't spend so much time on this and I realized I was like oh I have this large filing system that I can use and although it's going to take a little adjustment for the kids to learn how to use it I was like I think this is gonna work perfectly the kids can just go file it when they're done with it and then we'll move on so the reason this just makes sense and I hate that I didn't start at the beginning of the year is because I tell my kids go file your papers as soon as they're done with them so if we did anything in math go file your papers and go sit back down and they know that they file their papers and they go sit back down it's just very easy it gives them like a sense of Independence I will say it was kind of hard you can tell in the video that I have the numbers labeled and I did it in words and numbers because I do deal with first grade so that's nothing new and I wanted to make sure that they got used to seeing the word and the number form of a particular number so I numbered each student in my class at the very beginning of the year and so they know their number it's written on their name tag on their desk and I also have a little sheet of paper that I put some tape over that has their the numbers and their name so if they forget it's right there in front of them they can look and they can say oh here's my name I'm number six the thing that was hard with them was that they had to put their papers in the box that was under their number so their number was here this is where their paper went and they had a hard time with that at first I've tried to reiterate that I've had to say that a lot that like whatever your number is your paper goes under that number and that has been hard and I can absolutely tell where that's hard because in my mind I'm like oh this is my spot like this is labeling where I should put it but no you have to put it under so that is the first thing that just makes sense in my classroom second thing you're going to see is up at the front of my classroom I have a rather large white board which is where a smart board used to be back in the day but now we have these nice handy dandy smart panels and so it moved from that location and now I have a lot of area that I like to put out kind of seasonal books I talked a little bit about this in one of my other videos in my classroom tour so if you'd like to see that go ahead and check that out now but with this I basically sorted all of my books that are like my personal books and I put them into different seasons different holidays and things like that so currently I have up my spring stuff I just took down my Easter books because Easter has passed and so those are just books that I can grab each morning we normally do a read aloud so I can just grab a book I don't have to have it like set out and ready I can just grab a book from the front based off of maybe how long we have like if we had a slow start to the day and we don't really have as long I know which book is a little bit shorter which one's a little bit longer and so that is normally what I do with those books they are read aloud they're not for any curriculum or anything like that they're just fun books that I think are cute and exciting to read so that is another thing that just makes sense in my classroom is my wall of read-alouds the third thing that you're gonna see that just makes sense in my classroom is the pencils so any of you future teachers pencils they lose them they hide in their desk from them they never know where to get them so what I have is I have a sharpened bin of pencils and then I have an unsharpened bin of pencils so we have hand signals in my classroom which is honestly could be like the seventh thing on my list is our hand signals for me I don't want kids just getting up out of their desk so we use the hand signals so a two means that they need a pencil so I will say there are some times where the kids like holding their pencil and it's they're putting up a two but like I can tell they can still write with their pencil you're not going that's a no but if I can tell that their pencil is really low on the lead or if it's broken I give them a nod they go over there they put their unsharpened pencil in the unsharpened bin and then pick up a new pencil and just like that it takes a matter of seconds for them to get out of their seat grab the pencil go put it back and we're just Trucking on with our day I didn't have to stop they didn't have to ask me a question it just made it very simple they hold up the two go get the pencil come back so that is something that just makes sense I have been doing the classroom jobs which are behind me we've taken a break from that for a little bit because some of my kids just weren't doing the best job so we needed to kind of take a step back we need to really sit down and talk about those jobs and the importance of those jobs before I put them back up and start them back up and running again but normally I would have one person be the pencil sharpener and they would sharpen any pencils that are unsharpened at the end of the day normally this is a kid that I trust and I know can handle the pencil sharpener especially towards the beginning of the year you know they're coming in as like kindergarteners that they need a little a little more Guidance with the pencil sharpener so that is the third thing that just makes sense in my classroom and the fourth thing are my reading bins these reading bins are for my small groups I currently have three small groups and that's why you have three drawers in the bin and so I know all of my materials are there for that week so very much like my daily bins that were in my classroom tour I have everything that I need so I do weekly groups so we're going to read one book for the entire week and do different things with that book and so I know what book my plans are in there for my reading groups and all I have to do it's right beside the table that I pulled them at so I have another kidney table on the other side of the room this one that I'm sitting at is more used for like when I need to pull a kid one-on-one and honestly just gives me more desk space but the one over there is where I pull like small group and I pull like roughly six seven kids and we give them that small group instruction based off of their reading level and so that just makes sense it has everything in there exactly what I need for my low group I just open my bin and there it is so that is fantastic and just makes sense the fifth thing that you're going to see is my Cubbies slash folder slash lunch boxes and snack which this is all-encompassing it has many different functions but the first function is they have little Cubbies that they put their book bags in this keeps their book bags Out Of Reach during the day they're not going into their book bag finding toys finding whatever they may find in there it's staying in one place they do that in the morning they take their book bag they take out their folder they put their folder in the bin and then put away their book bag so that is the one part of that section is where their book bags go in the Cubbies the next thing that I kind of talked about is when they pull out their daily folders so they have a Home Connection folder that they take home every single day and normally about every day there's papers going home so the parents check those hopefully every night and so one side has like left at home the other one says bring right back to school and it also gives them kind of like a feel for what that left and right means they put that folder in that teal bin that you can see in the video and that is where they put their folder I checked this in the morning to make sure that there's not any notes from parents um like right now we're taking up field trip money field trip forms so I check in there for that as well the third function that this has is all of the lunch boxes go on top you can see that the kids have already put their lunch boxes on top and this just helps when we're getting ready for lunch they're not digging in a backpack they're going over there they're grabbing their lunchbox and they're getting in line it really is to just like cut down that time and that efficiency on exactly what they're doing they know every morning my lunchbox goes on top same thing with the snack and that's like the extra function in this is that their snack also goes up there they shouldn't be digging through their book bag throughout the day their snack is out their lunch is out their water bottle is already on their desk so it just makes it so much easier throughout the day with these little things and I'm gonna go off on a tangent here when you become a teacher do what's best for you for me I don't like clutter I don't like things that are going to add more time to my day or in a sense annoy me or pester me where they're constantly asking to go get a pencil they're constantly asking questions that's why I do the hand signals they have a signal for the bathroom they have a signal for let me think a signal for water like there's just it makes it so much easier for me to give like a head nod especially during instruction I'm not having to say oh what's your question and they're like can I go to the bathroom and I'm like that has nothing to do with what I'm talking about but then this way I know they just need to go to the bathroom and I just nod and send them on their way so for me it just makes sense to have these little things in my classroom and I I could not teach without some of these things that just make sense the last and final thing that just makes sense in my classroom is a file system for all of their grades so what I have is the bin and then the hanging file folders and then they each have a little manila folder with their name and number on it and I normally have my ta file away those or if I don't have my ta we have like fifth graders that'll come and help a couple times a week and so I will have them file those papers and this just helps me keep track of all of their grades but also I'm able to like I can kind of see their progression in their grades and I can look back and say oh what the beginning of the year they weren't able to do this but you know this test that they just took they were able to do that so they're you know ready to go it's also very important to have like evidence where you can show like hey this is exactly why I gave them this grade so that is my long spill and I hope you've enjoyed this video please like comment subscribe I am definitely going to be doing a lot of different videos back and forth here with reading and with my classroom because those are my passions so if you have a love or passion for reading or teaching please follow along I would love to have you here in my little Community here on YouTube and that's all I have for you today so I will see you on the next one bye guys [Music]

Channel: Allyson Felts

Views: 4,870

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Id: J6C1fVkCB0k

Length: 12min 40sec (760 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 12 2023