My view when I first opened my classroom door.
Well, I’ve started to set up my classroom. It will take about two weeks to get it set. This fall, I am teaching six art classes to 6th-8th grade students. I have a nice normal schedule and I am very happy. I am teaching two Art 1 classes, two Comics classes, and 2 Design classes. This is the first time that I’m not pregnant at the beginning of the school year for this school. I am able to a lot more than what I have done in the past. Each time I go into my room, I’m spending around 4-6 hours organizing and setting up. The first day, I moved furniture. I am going with groups of four this year because I plan on having a lot more group work due to the training this summer. I had two great days of PD that were actually helpful to my class. Students will be going one to one devices sometime this fall. All my students will have Chromebooks. I have also router in my room, remember I’m in the basement. There is no signal.
After I moved furniture.
So after moving the desks where I wanted them I moved the old library shelves (pretty much all the stuff in my room has been pieced together from everywhere in the district). On the first day I cut cardboard to fit across the shelves. I save the boxes that paper comes in every year. You never know when it will come in handy. And on that day it did.
I also updated my set of classroom expectations and turned it into a painting. I painted two saying above my sink to help remind students what to do while at the sink. I painted them on my whiteboards with acrylic paint. (I picked this up at Home Depot. It’s a shower backing that they cut into 12” by 12” boards.) That way if I ever want to change it I can.
Picture sorting. So many to choose from.
The second day that I went in I started to hang posters. Something that I did last year, that made hanging artwork up easier this year was Velcro. This is slicker than snot. It costs a bit up front but then I don’t worry about putting holes into my walls or stuff falling down. I also don’t need to worry about tape on the front and back. I just put it up. It works well as long as I can remember which poster goes where.
I still have much to do to get my room ready. Enjoy the rest of your summer!
Artfully,
Mrs. Berry
Berryart's Blog 