Classroom Setup: Back 2 School Series

Happy Friday!

It's the last day of the Back 2 School Series. 

Hopefully, come next week I will be back in the swing of things and school life will be a new norm. 

Today's final topic is classroom setup!

My classroom is actually very large. 

I've been fortunate enough to stay in the same room for all six years that I've taught. 

I love this room because it looks out on a hillside, and if you know me I love my blinds open and seeing outside.

I'm not a fan of desks in rows. 

I'm not even sure if I've ever had my desks in rows. 

I know some teachers do that because students just can't behave, and I hope I don't have to go to that. 

Instead I put my desk into clusters. 

No more than five together or else it becomes social hours.

Here's a little view of my classroom last year:

And here it is currently:

Welcome to my home away from home!

My new book section. 

I'm trying to work on a book corner where all of my books are housed in the same area.

Agenda and Homework boards.

Some new posters and miscellaneous stashing of books and other needed items.

I need to make this area look cute, but right now I'm not spending anymore money on my classroom. 

Those classrooms can suck the money right out of you!

Read Revise Edit

I love this wall!!

I challenge students to find mistakes, take a picture of them or cut them out and then post them on this wall. 

We find errors on billboards, fast food restaurant signs, on news channels, in the newspaper, on ads, etc.

I think this is a great way to show how relevant and important being able to read and revise your work is!

A view of the front board from my desk.

A wider view of the front. 

The bookshelf with all of the supplies to the right of the picture are the students' supplies. 

They don't have to ask me to use any of that. 

They simply borrow it and put it back. 

This way they don't try to take things off of my desk!

So that's my home away from home for the next 180 days.

It's a bit toasty in there right now, but soon it will be freezing and I will be wishing I could wear my winter coat all of the time. 

Have a great Friday! 

See you back here next week to wrap up the month!

How I Keep Grades: Back 2 School Series

Today's Back 2 School Series topic is Grades!

Grades are a huge topic in my classroom. 

We actually have a Reteaching/Retake Policy which makes taking and keeping grades so much more complicated. 

Do any of you have a policy like that?

The policy is long and complicated and there are so many loopholes. 

The point of it is to let students relearn material. 

The unfortunate thing is that the students have taken advantage of the policy over the years. 

My students will blatantly tell me that they don't study for tests because they know they can redo it. 

What?!!

That was not the point for the policy, and it makes me extremely frustrated.

So keeping track of grades is very tedious for me. 

My students are the ones who want to retake every assignment. 

If a student missed one question, they will want to redo it. 

I have a little plan in place to help me keep track of their initial grade and the retake. 

I first start off by taking grades on a Progress Book printout. 

At the bottom I list the date and title of assignment along with how many points it is out of and if it is a formative and summative assessment. 

Formative assessments I write in black pen and summative assessments I write in purple pen. 

Both of the assignments below were formatives meaning they don't actually count against the student. 

They are weighted as 0 and are just a check of how they student is doing.

If it's a quick check I will simply put checkmarks if the student was doing it correctly. 

If the student was absent, I will put an A to signify that.

Here's a look at one of my grades. 

If you look at the fourth column you can see that that assignment was differentiated, so it was worth different points for different students. 

So, I put their grade and the number of points possible.

After I jot all of this down on paper, I then transfer it over to the computer. 

Perhaps I'm old school, but I just can't keep it all on the computer. 

I'm so afraid of making a mistake that I need both ways to keep track of the students' grades. 

How do you guys keep grades?

Do you only use the computer or are you old school like me and make a hard copy first?

Friday is the last day of the series, and we will be discussing classroom setup!

How to Start Your Day @ School: Back 2 School Series

Welcome back for another week of fun Back 2 School posts!

I'm living all things back to school currently, so I thought my posts should reflect that. 

Today is the big solar eclipse day!

I think we are the ONLY district in the county and surrounding counties who is back in school.

I know some other schools in other states took this day off. 

While we won't see the full eclipse, we will see some of it. 

Our plan for the day is to take the kids outside to see it on paper plates. 

Unfortunately, we don't have glasses, so we will do the paper plate trick. 

I'm a bit nervous about some of our daring teenagers who will want to seem like hero's and will LOOK at the sun!!

In addition, we will see the eclipse around the time that our students are going home. 

I've very nervous that kids on the bus won't look at the sun, especially the younger ones. 

So here's to hoping it's a good and safe day!

Today I'm talking about How I Start My Day at School!

I believe that how you start things has a great affect on how they turn out. 

I never think you can be too early for anything, so I arrive to school an hour and a half before we have to be there. 

I love this time so much because I get SO much done and people aren't bothering me. 

One of the first things I do when I get in my classroom is turn on my computer and get all of my tabs open. 

I frequently have around 10 tabs open. 

I check my email and reply if needed. 

Then, I pull up that documents that I need for that day.

Next, I change the standard (s) that we're working on, write out the daily goal and post I Cans that are related to what we're working on. 

Then, I write out what the students need for class. 

They are trained to look at the board to see if they need anything besides their binder, paper, pencils and book. 

When they come in and see something written up there they know they are expected to get whatever it is before the bell rings. 

After that I write some more. 

Sometimes I might need them to actually do something, so I write that in the middle of the board and tell them to look at the board and do what I've asked when they are coming in the door.

From there I fill out the agenda and homework sections on the back board. 

The agenda is what I hope we cover that day in class and under homework is what they need to do that night or on upcoming nights for homework.

I then set out any papers that I will need to pass out. 

On this particular day we were working on argumentative essays. 

Each class was doing a different topic, so each class needed a different paper.

And there you have it. 

It really takes a lot of preparation and time to get my classroom ready. 

I am not one of those teachers who can walk in five minutes ahead of time and be ready. 

I wish I was one of those people, but I'm just not and that's okay. 

If you're a teacher, how do you start your day?

Do you have rituals or is it different every day?

Build and Organize Your Class Library: Back 2 School Series

Happy Friday!

It's the first Friday of the school year, and even though I've only had students for one day, we're all ready for two days off. 

Today's topic for the Back 2 School Series is How to Build and Organize Your Classroom Library.

I have had two great mentors to help and teach me about building classroom libraries. 

The lady I student taught with had a whole wall full of books. 

She taught at a local bookstore in the evenings and on weekends, so she got a good discount on books. 

The other 8th grade language arts teacher and intervention specialist have a nearly floor to ceiling wall of books, too!

I'm pretty certain they have more books in their room than the actual library in our school does. 

I've been amazed by these people, and slowly but surely I have been working on my own library. 

Last year I purchased the two black bookshelves from Target. 

I liked that they were tall and didn't cost an arm and a leg.

In addition, I've gained some other random bookshelves from people getting rid of them. 

Everything doesn't match, and that might drive me a bit buggy, but when it's free, it's free!

The hardest problem I have is how expensive books are. 

It's not breaking news that teachers aren't millionaires. 

There's always something to buy for the classroom without even buying books. 

Students are always asking you to buy something off of them, I buy treats and rewards for them and always am in need of supplies to do what I need to do. 

I've tried to slowly add to my collection by buying books off of Amazon and Books a Million. 

In addition, every once and a while I will go to Half Price Books and grab some bargains. 

This past summer I showed what I grabbed at the Clearance Sale.

This is probably the most affordable way to get books. 

It's so much more convenient to have the books in my room rather than having student trek down to the library, where they might find someone to talk to, to look for one. 

I will continue to add to my collection and have budgeted a small portion of money each month to buy books. 

As much as I want the students to have all of the latest and greatest books, it comes out of my pocket, and I can get a little picky on if I'd rather have a new top or new books for the classroom. 

This summer I bought a book scanner. 

In the past I had a sign out sheet where students were SUPPOSED to sign out their book, but as we all know that doesn't always happen!!

I was tired of losing books, especially ones that I just bought and were only read once. 

So, I asked my co-workers for suggestions, and I ended up purchasing a book scanner.

I love that it's meant for classroom libraries, didn't cost a fortune, and they gave a discount to educators!

I'm still working on getting used to it, but all I have to do is scan the barcode of the book and fill in what student wants to check it out. 

To add the books to the system you just scan the barcode. 

Unfortunately, there are some books that aren't registered, so you have to add a little tag and fill it in manually. 

I try to organize the books by genre, and then by series. 

I don't list them alphabetically. 

That is just too time consuming!!

Here's a little Science Fiction

And a little Fantasy...

I will continue to add to my collection as I find bargains. 

Do you guys have any tips on finding affordable yet current books?

Join me back on Monday when I'm sharing How you Start Your School Day!

Class Rules: Back 2 School Series

Welcome back to my Back 2 School Series!

Today's topic is all about Rules.

Rules are extremely important, especially when you teach 8th grade. 

I know that I have to share and enforce my rules starting on Day 1. 

If I don't do that then the classroom will be a wreck! 

I'm a mean lady at first because I have to make the students understand that I mean business. 

After a month they typically get the hang of things, and then I can loosen up. 

Six years ago when I made my rules I wanted them to be simple. 

I didn't want 15 different rules that no one could remember, myself included.

I thought of what I really wanted my students to know and things that really irritate me, and I ran with it. 

Mrs. Knecht's 8th Grade Language Arts Classroom Rules

1. When someone is talking, you should be listening!
2. Always try your best!
3. Be respectful!
4. Bring all materials to class on time.
5. When you're absent check the missing work file and ask Mrs. Knecht if there's anything else you missed.
6. Ask questions!

Explanations:

1. The first rule is my pet peeve. I CANNOT stand it when someone is talking and other people are talking. It applies to students and adults. If I am in a meeting and another teacher is doing this, it drives me crazy. 

I will call the students out for violating this rule all of the time at the beginning of the year.

I explain to them that I'm quiet when they are talking, so I expect the same respect back.

It really doesn't take them long to catch on. 

Typically I will stop, mid-sentence even, and look their way until they quiet down.

2. I try my best, and I want the students to try their best. 

I always tell them I won't get mad if only they give me their best!

3. Respect is big for me. 

I will respect them and they will respect each other. 

I don't deal with name calling or degrading comments. 

In years past I would simply say "What did you say?" and the students would look at me and say "Nothing, Mrs. Knecht." 

They are quick learners and catch on quickly that I don't want to hear it. 

4. Students are old enough to come to class with a book, pencil and binder every day.

I will give them one warning, and then I hand out demerits. 

5. This is a rule that I wish students would follow more. Students think they can be absent and never make up the work. I have an Absent Bin in my room where I have hanging file folders by date. If a student is absent they should go to the date they were absent and see if there are any papers for them. As we work more and more online, a lot of things students need to do is online, so I want the students to ask me what they missed, so that I can explain what I need for them to do. 

I hope the students this year are better at this. 

I'm also going to try out Recap and Vocaroo that will allow me to voice record myself and post it on my webpage, so that I don't have to keep repeating what students missed 8 different times for each student who asks. 

6. I always share with students that if they knew everything they shouldn't be in this class. I want them to ask lots and lots of questions, and I don't want them to be afraid of looking "dumb." Each year I try to encourage them even more to ask questions.

Here are my rules last year...

And then the same rules this year...

What rules do you remember from your school days or what rule would you have to have in your classroom?

Today is a day full of meetings. 

I'm not good at sitting for long periods of time, so I hope I can contain myself. 

Come back on Friday for Building and Organizing your Classroom Library. 

Bulletin Board Ideas: Back 2 School Series

Today it's back to school for me!

It's our first professional day, and we get the whole day to work in our rooms!! Woohoo!

I will be spending a lot of time planning the first nine weeks with my fellow 8th grade language arts people!

To celebrate back to school, I decided I would do a little Back 2 School Series linkup. 

Today's topic is Bulletin Boards.

I'm going to showcase some of my bulletin boards from the past and some favorites that I'd like to do in the future. 

To begin I am not an elementary teacher. 

Those people are gifted in bulletin boards. 

My licensure is 7-12, which means no one cares what your bulletin boards look like. 

I'm not even sure the kids look at them, but I like them to look decent, so I decorate the one regular sized board in my room and the HUGE one outside my room in the hallway. 

If Our Characters Had Instagram

When you enter this classroom...

Be (inspiration)

Be (reality)

Bks r lke rly lng txt msgs...

Wt hv u rd l8ly?

If You Liked the Movie, You'll Love the Book

Emoji Recommend

Coming to Theaters

This was made by one of my classes last year.

What I hope the hall bulletin board looks like this year...

I will be finishing it today.

I can't wait to share what we are doing with the board inside my room. 

It's going to be a fun interactive board that we will use each week throughout the year. 

It's not quite done yet, so more on that later. 

I'll be back on Wednesday with Classroom Rules. 

If you have Classroom Rules or want to blog about what your rules would be if you were a teacher, linkup with me on Wednesday!

An InLinkz Link-up