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Musing From The Middle School

Back to School 2017!!

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Pictures of my classroom

Happy Back-to-School 2017!!!! Can you hear my excitement!?!? You can’t??? Well, I’m screaming at you through the computer!!

Phew!! Friends, I am beat!! There is truly no tired like back-to-school TEACHER TIRED!! (Well, maybe just-had-a-newborn-and-also-have-a-toddler tired… but I digress!!)

So, we went back to school this week. I had in-service on Tuesday and the kids came Wednesday. So far, so good! Kids are awesome, love my schedule, love my team. We are certainly honeymooning!!

I’ve been sneaking snippets of my room on my Facebook and IG accounts this past week, but I wanted to sit down and break my classroom down for you and talk about what we did during those first three day. One of my goals this year is to highlight all the amazing TpT products that I use all the time that are NOT my own, so I’m going to be showing you those, too.

Classroom Tour:

Photo of my While You Were Out bulletin board in my classroom

This is the first thing you see when you walk into my room. My While You Were Out board is one of the BEST things I’ve ever done in my room. It makes absences a lot easier to handle.

Products:

For background fabric I used these flat hospital sheets. One of the 66″ x 104″ sheets did two boards. Easy and CHEAP!! I just made the letters for the days of the week on my computer. I used the KG Font Summer Storm.
Pictures of my 7 Habits display
I’ve been teaching this book for a few years now. You can find almost NO products to go along with it because the title is trademarked and the company is fierce about enforcing it!! But the amazing Amy Groesbeck created these editable templates that you can use to fill in with the 7 Habits information. To make the word “HABITS,” I used the same KG Summer Storm font and I just cut the “7” and the circles from construction paper.
Pictures of my Teacher Workstation
This is my teacher work area. I don’t sit at my desk much during the school day, but I did want a work space that makes it easy for me to move around, so I added a standing desk. Not sure who loves it more, me or the kids!?! I also put this teacher desk organizer on my regular desk. It’s AH-MAZING!! A little pricey, but I love the storage, the white board space, and the privacy 🙂
Products:
The HEART of my classroom!! Book shelves are Walmart, bins are Really Good Stuff, lamps are Target (decorated with Washi tape), and signs are from Hobby Lobby.
Pictures of alternative seating
I bought two of these stools last year and my students LOVED them. They really stood up to a beating so I decided it was worth it to by some more.
Picture of Mentor Text bulletin board
 
My Mentor Text board gets lots of use throughout the year. I’ll string some ribbon across the board and use clothes pins to hang the mentor pieces.
Pictures of Growth Mindset posters
Still in love with my Growth Mindset posters!! Frames are from IKEA and they are hung with Command Strips (my FAVORITE for sticking to cinder block!!)
Pictures of Article of the Week Bulletin board
This board will be getting tons of action through out the year. Read all about my Article of the Week routine here.
Products:
Picture of classroom decor
These are pages torn from last year’s Erin Condren planner and framed in cheap Michael’s frames that I spray painted white. (Lamp and “&” from Target. A former student made that “Smith” sign… so cute, right!?!?)
Pictures of Academic Vocabulary posters
These are my Academic Vocabulary posters. We refer to these words all.the.time!! Only bad thing is that I need to take them ALL down before state testing!!
Picture of I Can... bulletin board
This is my “I Can…” objectives wall. I absolute CANNOT remember to write down my objectives on the daily. But, I can remember ONCE to write them all down for the week. I created the letters and days of the week signs with the same KG Summer Storm font.
 First Few Days of School:
Over the first few days, we did:
Icebreakers that Rock from Cult of Pedagogy
The All About Me and Reading and Writing Inventories from my Back to School – The ULTIMATE Activity Pack 
I created a syllabus this year using the Infographic Creative Syllabus Templates from The Teal Paperclip. (Font is Amy Groesbeck’s Taco Tuesday!) I love how it turned out!!
Holy cow!! Thanks for sticking with me if you made it to the end of this post!! I know that was a lot of information. 
Anyway, I am exhausted and that is all I’ve got in me right now. I’m so looking forward to an awesome school year and I have so much content I want to post.
Hope the year is off to a great start for you!!

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  2. Unknown says

    Hello-I am enjoying reading your blog and LOVING all your ideas and suggestions. I am a new teacher this year after staying home with my children for 13 years. I taught before I had children but in K/1 grades. I am currently teaching ELA in 2 class periods with dual grades per period (Class 1–5/6 grade and Class 2–grade 7/8). I was completely overwhelmed in the beginning. I still feel a bit overwhelmed but not as much now that I am in the classroom and know my students after spending 5 weeks together so far. I am getting ready to start your ISN next week. I am a little behind, but I just couldn't get it done. I spent the first weeks getting used to my students and where they are academically. I did an overview Genre/Subgenre unit with the kids, Independent Reading with story of their choice since first day of school, along with some reading/articles/analysis of Scholastic Scope magazine. I am trying to figure out the best way to approach the ISN with the dual grade classroom. There is a reading series for each grade 5th and 6th and Literature series for 7th and 8th. I thought about approaching this with Theme/Genre Units: Nonfiction, Fiction:Literary Elements, Folklore, Poetry, and Drama. I would then pull stories from their reading series that is equal to their reading level. I would like to incorporate some novel studies too. Do you think my ideas would go with your ISN? I have 90 minutes per ELA dual grade class.

    Thanks,
    Shannon

    Reply

  3. Rebecca says

    This is an amazing post! I'm a new teacher setting up a classroom for grade 7 this year! Would you be willing to share your the 7 habbits text you used? I can't read all of the posters in your picture! (Or even post the completed 7 habits posters to purchase?) Thanks!

    Reply

  4. Beatriz says

    Hi! I love the poster template thank you for sharing where you got them. Do you mind sharing the fonts you used on the posters?

    Reply

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