A Peek Into My REAL Classroom and a Secret!

Today I'm linking up with Jennifer from Teaching with Grace to share with you all what my REAL classroom looks like. No, no, no I have not been sharing fake pictures of my room...but let's all admit it, we all straighten up our rooms before we post pics on our blogs right? I sure know that I LOVE taking pictures of my room before the first day of school. Everything is picture perfect. Once the students arrive, and teaching and learning has happened....it looks like a tornado hit my room! At least I know that by the looks of things, others can tell that there has been learning going on.

Here is a picture of my front board. Many many examples from different lessons that I forget to erase from the board and our anchor charts are totally cluttering the space too :/ 

This is my desk in the front where I use my ELMO. 

Uhm, please don't tell me I'm the only one who shoves things in my desk to make the top look 'neater' (which it obviously doesn't!) 

I'm also guilty of sometimes shoving things in there in the midst of the crazy..and then losing my mind trying to find that thing. 

My desk and our kidney bean table where I work with small groups.

Uhm..In case you couldn't see the messy teacher desk from the picture above, here is a closer photo for you all! :P 

I feel like my messy desk pictures are ALOT worse than others, so I did want to let you know that I am not a complete slob. Other than my areas, the rest of the room is actually pretty neat and clean throughout the day. I'm actually so proud of how neat and organized this bunch of kiddos keeps my library. 

I sometimes feel like a hypocrite when I'm always telling my students to clean their desks...but really, I ain't got NO time for cleaning during the day. I'm constantly sitting and working with kids. 

NOW. I do have a secret to share with you. It's a Cleaning Secret. The rest of my room stays beautifully neat and clean throughout the day (or at least is clean and neat at the ending of the day) due to the wonderful game called:

Find It and Fix It!

I learned about this game from an amazing 4th grade teacher from my school. Basically, you have the kids go around the room trying to 'find and fix' something that is not right. I give them 2 minutes, and at the end I pick a 'winner' that has 'found and fixed' the thing I was thinking about. They all move around the room ever so quickly and quietly while straightening things up, wiping things down, returning supplies to supply bins, picking up trash, pushing in chairs, shutting down computers, organizing the library, putting away manipulatives. You need it done, someones thought of it! The best thing about it is that there really wasn't even any secret thing I was thinking of to be fixed, I just want the room cleaned!! :D In all three years I've been playing this game, not one child has figured it out yet! 

I usually pick a random kid and check names off a list to make sure I got them all, and give them whatever coins I have (classroom economy money) in my pocket at the ending of the day . 

What are your secret tips for keeping the room tidy? 

Classroom Theme Linky

Today was my very last day to tidy up the room and run off copies for the official first day of school with students! I posted some photos of my classroom a few days ago, but for those of you who missed it I'll repost some of the images. Here is a panoramic view of my classroom this year. Please excuse the poor quality photos, I keep forgetting my camera at home (I also didn't have all of the lights on). 

I'm linking up with the fabulous Corinna from Surfin' Through Second for her:

Head on over to link up with her as well as to get some great ideas!! 

Here are some quick photos from my previous post..

Attendance Cards are double sided. When students come to school they flip it over to let me know they are Ready to Learn!

Genre posters

Daily 5 Rotations

Love these pocket charts from Target dollar section! 

Ran out of room so I had to velcro these charts to my desk! lol

Homework Club

CAFE and Daily 5 Boards

Student Work Display

Class Library (Forgot to snap full view shot)

Cubbies. I use the baskets above to collect all student work/homework

Math Resource Storage

If you are interested in the labels I used for my storage bins, you can pick up an editable copy here in my TPT store. :) 

Behavior Chart

Love this new organizer from Target!! Excuse the mess in that unlabeled blue bin...Those are my kids book bags (ziplock bags). The two binders in the lower right corner are unfinished work binders. 

Character Trait Board. Love these beautiful posters! I was planning on having the kids do a quick write each month about how they demonstrated the character trait. 

Love these pom poms!

So as you can see, I have extremely high ceilings!! If any of you are like me and wondering how in the world are you going to get those pom poms up there....the secret is.....

Yes! Command Hooks!! My fiancé was actually the genius behind this idea, so I can't take credit for this one :) He used my window opener (that long metal stick in almost every classroom in Hawaii) hung the command hook from the opener and stuck it onto the side of the ceiling beam. He then tied a fishing line loop and hung the pom poms. It was SO EASY! lol. 

Monday Made It, a Peek into my Class, and a FREEBIE Bloghop Sneak Peek!!

Hello out there! 

Tomorrow is officially my first day back at work, but I've been working throughout the entire summer changing up my classroom theme and getting it all ready for the first day. We actually don't get our students until the 5th of August, but we begin PD training and have 2 teacher work days. I am so happy for this, because this if the first time in 2 years we are getting paid to set up and train for PD. We will be heading to the Okinawan Cultural Center, and Pearl City Country Club on Thursday and Friday to learn about our new Teacher Evaluation program that is being piloted this year!! 

The past two years I've had a beach/ocean theme going on in my classroom. You can check those pictures out here and here. 

This year, I decided to switch it up...I asked my students what they'd like to see for next years theme and it was pretty unanimous that they would like RAINBOWs! SO instead of actual rainbows, I decided rainbow colors! AND..because the MR and I are really trying very hard to save money for our wedding (hopefully sometime next year!), I decided that I would use my summer days to work on creating my own things for my classroom. I've spent many days and hours creating, editing, printing, laminating, and cutting. Here are some of the things I've made. Linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for her weekly Monday Made it!

These are my labels that I used to label pretty much everything around my room. Love how they turned out! 

This area is where students turn in all of their work. White trays are regular class work and pink trays are for homework assignments. 

This is my cart that houses all of my copies for the week....

Some photos of my class library. I bought a TON of books this summer and also had a ton donated by some generous families who moved out of state. It took me so long to get them organized. I've finally found a set up on my bookshelves too that I like as well so that my students know exactly where to put the bins back on the shelf when they take them out to book shop. 

These are my two bulletin boards in the back by my library. My CAFE Board...totally in love with these colorful posters from Ginger Snaps. You can pick these posters up for free in her TPT Store.

The second board is where I will display student work. I love using scrapbook paper to display student work because you can easily put the work samples landscape or portrait and either way..it'll still have a nice border around it. 

My classroom doesn't have much wall space to put things up on...so I had to resort to using the door to display my Genre Posters by the amazing Beth Newingham! 

Speaking of having no room....I had NO ROOM AT ALL for my Daily 5 rotation charts! I was walking around my room today trying to figure out where I could hang my 3 charts and then I got a brilliant idea. 

I decided to velcro them to my teacher desk. This works out perfectly because 1. My desk is pretty ugly,  and 2. All students need to pass by here in order to go to their reading spots. 

This is what my charts look like. There are 3 charts, one for each rotation. The students will be dismissed by reading groups to go and make their daily choices. They will each have three of their name cards in their reading boxes/binders and will go and mark their choice on their way to their reading spot. 

Picked up those SUPER CUTE Daily 5 cards from Lori Rosenberg. I absolutely adore her work! You can find them in her tpt store as well for FREE! 

These charts fit perfectly across my desk!

I also hopped on the Homework Club bandwagon and decided to try this out. I've always had a difficult time with student turning in their  homework...so hopefully this will be some motivation! 

This is a board I set up for our character traits of the month. I was planning on having the kids do a writing assignment each month as to how they demonstrated that character trait. However, I found out that we weren't doing this this coming school year and just focusing on Habits of Mind instead. SO that means I'll be swapping this out tomorrow for my Math Rotations board. 

These are my attendance cards. They are double sided. When students come in, they flip their cards over to ready to learn. When they leave for the day they flip it back to the blank side. This will be an easy way for my attendance monitor to see who is absent. 

I'll be sharing some final pictures as I finish up my room in the next 2 days. 

Until then...please come back and visit me tomorrow for a bloghop that I have planned with some amazing bloggers who also live here in Hawaii.