Gearing Up for the Start! Post #2 (Classroom Decorations)

Oh, the hours I could spend (and money too…) on decorations.  Although I don't have aspirations of many elementary school teachers with decorations (bless you all), I do enjoy setting up my class for the beginning of the year.  One of the things I'd like to ensure, is that my bulletin boards don't become stale or boring as the year goes on.  I need to come up with interesting things to change them out with.

So far this year, I've created two bulletin boards that I'm in love with:

This first board is covering both the Mathematical Practice standards and the cool posters I've referenced before.  I had them printed in color on white card stock at Staples for about $1 each, then laminated at my school.  I hung them on the board and then surrounded them with the rick-rack border. I'm still unsure if this is how I'll leave it because the border might overwhelm the posters, but it's like that for now.  I plan to reference these often this year, so wanted them front and center for the kids to see.

I also included on this board the IB Mathematical Criteria for grading.  Since we're an IB school, these are items I also have to incorporate into my curriculum and things I wanted my students to be just as familiar with.  I created these in MS Word with borders and just printed them out.  I glued them together (homemade… that's why it is just a bit crooked) and also had it laminated.

I guess you could call this my "standards" board.  I probably should have put butcher paper in the background, but that's a project for another day :).

I absolutely LOVE my next board.  A big shout out to Ana Haywood and her "Math Around the World" web page.  I totally appropriated everything from this site.  It looks like she might not work at this school any more, but I certainly couldn't take any credit for the information.  I'm planning to implement these worksheets (some mandatory, some for extra credit) this year as well as add to the collection.  It's pretty amazing and I don't even want to know how much time she put into it!  Anyway, I went a step further and created a bulletin board for the worksheets, highlighting the countries.  I'm really going to encourage my students to take part in filling out the board completely so that we can cover all of the continents.

I have a ton of other posters up, but these two seem to catch the eye of a lot of other teachers.  The top I got many years ago when I was teaching in Oklahoma… I have no idea where.  I had to put the border around because one of the corners looks like my dog chewed on it???  I created the pink poster last year when we learned that the math teachers and science teachers were all using different terms for graphing.  I created this listing all terms we used and then gave all math and science teachers laminated copies to post.

So… it's a good start for the year.  I'll need to update with butcher paper and then come up with something maybe to change things up with come second semester.  All in all, a job well done, I think!

Gearing Up for the Start! Post #1 - Prep Work

I cannot believe that there is only one week left before school begins!  Officially I have to report back to work on Wednesday.  Unofficially…. I've been back on and off for about 2 ½ weeks now.  Some summer in the future I'll have enough planned and ready that I'll have at least a month where I don't have to think about school :).  Not so right now…  But that's okay, because I love everything that I've been putting together in my classroom and with my two new 8th grade math teachers!!

Here are some things I've been working on:

1. Getting supplies purchased and put together;
2. Organizing thoughts from Minds on Mathematics (book study);
3. Decorating (obviously…);
4. Creating a "Math Around the World" bulletin board and notebook;
5. Math Survival Guides (woo-hoo!!!!), aka interactive notebooks;
6. Lesson plans;
7. I'm sure there is more and I'm just not thinking of them right now… :).

I'll be posting lots more soon on all of these topics - with pictures!

One of the things I've done is to create little notes that I'm going to laminate and tape into my plan book with reminders about all of the awesome prompts that I were in Minds on Mathematics (Wendy Ward Hoffer).  A huge shout out to Melanie from Confessions of a Grade 6 Math Addict who originally created these and allowed for sharing.  I've tweaked mine some, but I loved her outlines and colors.  I think these will be great reminders to me for class discussions and reflection time in the MSGs.  

(Okay… totally cool… this is the first time I've figured out how to embed a .pdf file in my blog.  Here's the website I used.)

Speaking of plan books… I was on Pinterest the other day (can you say LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!) and came across a pin about teacher plan books from Erin Condren.  Now, I am pretty fussy about my calendar.  I use Outlook on my computer because I get a lot of meeting appointments sent my way electronically, but I'm still an old-fashioned, big picture girl.  I like to see the long term plan ahead of me, so usually a two-page monthly calendar (with lines) is what I like to have.  Our planners at school are great (and free…), but they are a little smaller than what I'd like.  I'm also not particularly fond of spending a huge amount of money when I can create something myself.  However….. with all of the checklists I'd like to have after reading Minds on Math this summer, as well as a host of other things, I tried to weigh the time it would take me to make my own versus purchasing one of these.  They are so darned cute I'll bet you can imagine what I did :).  Yep… I bought one.  I'm so excited and it's totally personalized.  I guess that means no pedicure before school starts...

August Currently

I'm linking up with Farley again for the August Currently.  This one caught me by surprise :).  I'm not ready for August…….

I've had a super-productive summer though, so I can't complain.  I've gotten a lot of things prepped for the new school year; I had a great visit with my little sis' and her girls; ALASKA - do I need to say anything else??  Now I'm back at work here and there getting my classroom ready and meeting with my two new 8th grade math teachers.  Really I'm not supposed to go back until August 14th, but there's no way I could wait until then and be ready on time.  I'm having fun browsing through my Pinterest Boards though at all the neat ideas that I've come across.

Listening - So my kiddos new favorite movie is "Pitch Perfect".  I've been doing a lot of driving them back and forth to camps and sports, so they watch it (and I get to listen) over… and over… and over… and over.  It's a good thing I like Ace of Bass.

Loving - I found some fantastic 8 ½ x 11 posters of the Mathematical Practices (you can find a link on a previous post).  They are easy to read, colorful, and fun!  I've already had them printed up on card stock at Staples and laminated at school.  Pictures to come soon…

Thinking - I need to set aside some time for ME before school begins.  I think a trip to B&N is in order to find a good book.  We are taking the kids to a Rapids game tomorrow, so that will be fun too.

Wanting - I started using the Zone eating plan recently.  How come these meals won't just put themselves together when I go into the kitchen.  I actually like the plan, but its tough when I need to make a grocery run.

Needing - To make my kiddos a priority in the next two weeks.  My son would like to go golfing a the local par 3, we need to hit the pool, and we should do some fun cooking experiments.  Just have to put it all on the calendar…

B2S Must Haves

1. Definitely those Mathematical Practices posters.  They are awesome!!
2. I've been trying to find a good way to put supplies on the tables and finally found some small caddies at Mardel in various colors.  Now to stock and label them!
3. More foldables :).  I'm totally into this and created my first one today (posting soon about that too).  If you have any great foldables for 8th grade, algebra 1, or geometry, send me a message or follow me on Pinterest!