This year I have been working hand in hand with pinterest to become more organized. I always considered myself to be a very organized person....that was until I discovered some of the people on pinterest who put me to shame. On that note I've reworked some organizational things, created a better classroom library, and am going to share some other features of my classroom.
That being said I got a year subscription to Reading A to Z (great great great website). Anything you print during the year you can keep so naturally I printed leveled readers from preprimer on to 3rd grade (About 20 books per grade level, comes with worksheets and activities).
After printing them in black and white I realized how bland they looked, and that is where my assistants came in. I set the huge stack of books on a table and told them whenever they are out of things to do (for example movie days, or during specials if I don't have copies for them to run) they could color. And color they did!
After that they laminated the books and stapled them together. Next I added a piece of duct tape to A) tell them apart and B) cover the staples. Each basket holds 2 levels of books so I wrapped half the basket in one color and half in another. Now I know where all the books are and during silent reading I can direct students to the correct leveled book and know that they can read it! There you have it folks, poor man's leveled readers!
This is not the best picture but I think you'll get the idea. I have students with severe autism and I have moved my cabinets to create a small box room that fits just the student and a teacher so the child can work and do structured play tasks in a distraction free area. I have placed a "script" of what to say when working with the student so we are all on the same page.
It tells the other staff member in the room specific phrases so the child will not become confused, things like "Look at your schedule, this is next" and "Now you are all done".
Next to it, the yellow papers, are actually picture and word instruction on how to play. And if you can believe it they are for the ADULTS in the room! During structured play time I noticed that some of the staff member in my room were awkward, either never having had kids or having kids who were all grown up. My wonderful SLP provided us with these little play scripts. One is for cars and it says things like "wreck them", "race them", "honk the horn". Another is for blocks, and another for puppets. It is a good reminder for us when we are playing with the student.
These are my math manipulative bags. Typically we'd been keeping bins of manipulatives here and there around the room, some on the "math shelf" and others near the kid's cubbies for easy access. It occurred to me while scurrying around pinterest that this was ineffective and unorganized so we made manipulative bags.
I attached name tags to the bag with a paperclip so that they can be removed for next year. Each bag has a clock, a calculator, counters, and other necessary items in it for math. The kids get the bags themselves when it is time to break down into small groups for math. It has saved us a lot of time and headaches!
Here are some reading items I use a lot so I put them in a tub and set them up next to the math manipulative bags. I sort of fly by the seat of my pants and while I practice sight words and the alphabet each day with students I know flashcards get boring so I use some items in the tub to make it slightly more fun, things like stamps, magnets and a book where you trace, draw and write the letters of the alphabet. Basically if you use it a lot, you should put it out some place where it is easy to see and get to.
Oh my, my binder system. Each student has a binder pre loaded with lots of work pertaining to their IEP goals. At the front of each binder is a weekly view of what they should be doing each day, for example there are some goals we practice daily and others we work on two or three days a week. Here is a sample of what this looks like
JD
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Monday
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Tuesday
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Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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Spelling
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Spelling centers
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Spelling centers
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Spelling centers
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Spelling centers
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Spelling test
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Alternate
Assessment Practice
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Math work
(3.2)
Round to the nearest 10
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Reading work
(3.1) Answer questions pertaining to a text (5 W’s)
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Math work
(3.2)
Round to the nearest 10
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Reading work
(3.1) Answer questions pertaining to a text (5 W’s)
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Math work
(3.2)
Round to the nearest 10
|
Reading
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-Phonics
(blending)
-Phonics worksheets
-Sight words
-ID story elements
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-Phonics
(blending)
-Sight words
-ID story elements
-Reading A-Z
|
-Phonics
(blending)
-Phonics worksheets
-Sight words
-ID story elements
|
-Phonics
(blending)
-Sight words
-ID story elements
-Reading A-Z
|
-Phonics
(blending)
-Phonics worksheets
-Sight words
-ID story elements
|
Math
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-Addition and subtraction (x5)
-Telling time to the hour (clocks)
-ID fractions
-Touch money
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-Addition and subtraction (x5)
-Telling time to the hour (clocks)
-Market math
-Touch money
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-Addition and subtraction (x5)
-Telling time to the hour (clocks)
-ID fractions
-Touch money
|
-Addition and subtraction (x5)
-Telling time to the hour (clocks)
-Market math
-Touch money
|
-Addition and subtraction (x5)
-Telling time to the hour (clocks)
-ID fractions
-Touch money
|
Writing
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-Write sight words
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-Write 2 part sentence with model
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-Write sight words
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-Write 2 part sentence with model
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-Write sight words
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In the front of the binder is all their reading work, usually a book they are working on, some comprehension exercises, sight words, and sequential phonics worksheets.
The back of the binder has all their math worksheets, addition, subtraction, money and clock manipuatives/activities. What separates the front half from the back is a folder where, at the beginning of the year, I'd put daily assignments until my assistants were more familiar with pulling their own assignments.
This systems saves me tons of time and energy, everything is ready to go and in one place. A data monitoring sheet is also kept in their notebook and collected each week. Here is a sample.....
After hearing/reading a story Amber will ID the main
character, setting, problem/solution
Anecdotal
Notes:
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Main character:
Setting:
Problem:
Solution:
Anecdotal
Notes:
|
ID all letters and sounds of the alphabet
Anecdotal
Notes:
|
Letter Sound
A A
B B
C C
D D
E E
F F
G G
H H
I I
J J
K K
L L
M M
N N
O O
P
P
Q Q
R R
S S
T T
U U
V V
W W
X X
Y Y
Z Z
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Use decoding skills to sound out words
Anecdotal
Notes:
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CVC:
A:
E:
I:
O:
U:
CVCE:
A:
E:
I:
O:
U:
BEGINNING BLENDS:
SP:
BL:
SR:
FR:
CH:
|
ID 15 sight words
Anecdotal
Notes:
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On the right hand side I have the goal written and the left hand side is a space to record. I have my assistants and myself record progress on goals each week. We try to get several samples a week but I don't require a set amount. there are also pages for math, writing and behavior. There is room for notes as well.
This is just a sample of some of the labels you can find around my room. This box is for students to turn in their homework and daily assignments. The one above is where students put their take home folders and assignment books. If you notice under the agendas are some other folders where I put homework.
Due to the fact that my students are severe/profound they do not technically get grades but I assign homework to built responsibility and for students to get extra practice. Some also do spelling each week so I put the students names on the pockets of the folders and keep them stocked with extra worksheets and copies of assignments for them to do at home.
Classroom jobs, they change weekly (if I remember). This was born out of the issue that every child argued over who got to line up first, who got to sanitize hands before lunch, and who got to turn on and off the projector.
Weekly spelling display is hung next to our calender. I differentiate spelling, there is a blue group, and a red group. Each morning we do some really fun spelling activities, I'll post some example of those at a later date.
A daily visual schedule is of UP MOST importance in a special education classroom. You can see that I use little number magnets to indicate that 4th and 5th grade have specials and while they are out the 3rd graders will be doing spelling and morning work. This schedule is the most important at the beginning of the year, at this point I sometimes forget to change it but the students are now familiar with what we do each day so they usually don't even need it.
My school uses I CAN statements to indicate goals that the class is working on. Because my students are on an alternate graduation track this does not really apply to us but I like to be as much like "regular" teachers as I can so I am not singling myself out. These "I can" statements are somewhat vague but they serve their purpose and reflect most of the students in my classroom. I've printed the heading and the "I CAN" and then put it into a sheet protector, I then wrote the actual statement with a dry erase marker so that the statements can change if necessary.
These are just some pictures of my desk area. On the left hand side I have a big metal filer that I store daily work and other items that I need each day. I also have several calenders. One big one, a small one to chart when I test students during alternate assessment, and another to chart when I teach alternate assessment materials. I also have a bulletin board where I hang an array of random things. I took a picture of the little Twix container that I keep my "good" ink pen's in. Each year my husband buys me G2 pens for my Christmas stocking!!!
So this is how I keep myself somewhat organized and how my classroom is set up! Hope you take something from the madness!
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