Organizing your Classroom

As pre-service teachers, we all have a grand scheme made up about how our classrooms will look one day. An endless amount of supplies, several areas to set stations up, and a large colorful rug to tie it all together. However, something I think we all refuse to acknowledge, besides time and money, is how much space we will have in our classroom. In the video below, a teacher walks us through the set up of her classroom where she manages to include it all, and her organization is admirable. Watch the video and try and see how many strategies and ideas she has in her classroom that are mentioned in Chapter 8 or even in previous chapters. The list below the video are the main highlights of what you should be looking for:

1. Students sit at tables instead of desks. (Hint: social collaboration)
2. She calls it her "meeting area" but what else could the rug be used for?
3. "Big comfy chair" could also be used for what in a literacy center? (Hint: Literacy Chair of ____.)
4. Classroom Library: Library Corner
     - Books featured by a student in the classroom --> which can made made at the _______? ("Author's Spot.")
           *Awesome thing she says at this part is that, "the children really get a good look at each other's work and they know they are writing for a purpose." Which strategies for motivating reading and writing does this pertain to?
     - Themed books
     - Author Studies
     - Leveled Books
5. Guided Reading Groups that the teacher picks books from! (Chapter 6!)
6. Word Wall (Chapter 5!)
7. "Fab Vocab" sounds a lot like Very Own Words... (Chapter 5!)

The words in orange refer to the list of items that one would find in a literacy center! This teacher really has a great layout in her Library Corner!

What are some other things that you found in the video? Anything that you really want to see in your Dream Classroom?