Organized Classroom

Not only does Organized Classroom have cost effective and clever ideas for setting up a classroom for success, but it also gives fun ideas such as creating gifts for volunteers and co-workers as well as classroom management tips.  As a pre-service teacher I am constantly searching for anything that is going to bring me ease in my upcoming first year as an elementary teacher.

I love creating things myself and the DIY classroom section hits the nail on the head. There are decorative ideas such as building a classroom calendar, but also ideas to help students such as fun summer ideas.

I am all for saving money and having fun creating things in the meantime!!

Although it is important to have an idea of how to implement technology in a classroom, a teacher must get there first before being able to enlighten their students. This blog did a really amazing job of showing various technological aspects that could help a teacher bring technology to the classroom. Not only does the blog describe multiple different useful apps, but also goes into a tutorial on how to use them.

Besides teaching about technology, there is also an organization factor present. With so many cords and devices to keep on hand, it’s important to be able to keep them straight and safe in a constantly moving classroom.

I found this blog useful because of it’s diverse and easy to access information. Not only can I learn about classroom organization, DIY projects, teacher tips, and technology tutorials, but I can find ideas for classroom activities as well. I loved the post within the technology archives about a create your own adventure website online. I know I always loved those as books and I’m sure my future students would enjoy creating their adventures as well.

4 The Love of Teaching

Next, I found 4 The Love of Teaching by 5th grade teacher Lana. I found this blog to be extremely down to earth and full of fantastic ideas. It’s my dream to teach 5th grade once I have my certificate and I’m storing ideas in my teacher toolbox until then.

To begin with, Lana’s blog was colorful and easy to follow. I was able to find links to different aspects such as an about her, her classroom, and then the general posts she has completed. Her blog is full of classroom management and ideas for fun things to engage students while still learning.

I really loved how she let her students pick which book they wanted to read through a raffle. I never remember having a system like that when in school. We were always just told what book we would be reading.

For my “book clubs” in the future, I am hoping to hold fancy restaurant “book tastings” where my students will be able to get a synopsis of what they might be reading and reviews as well before making a decision. This is how they will make their decision of what book club to join. I saw this idea in action on Musings from the Middle School and it looked like this:

Not only does Lana talk about how she engages her students, but also talks about the various academic aspects and includes links for easy access. I also loved within that post that she included how they do “flashlight friday” for independent reading. I feel like that definitely brings a cozy aspect to IDR and might bring more students to a love for reading. I always love getting cozy when I read so why wouldn’t my students want that too?

I really enjoyed looking through Lana’s blog due to her accessibility and WONDERFUL ideas throughout. She’s the kind of teacher I want to be someday. Innovative and creating projects that bring students to a whole new level of thinking. Her classroom emulates the maturity of her 5th grade students while still holding a happy, cozy feel. Lana gracefully integrations technology with the necessary learning without forcing it or using it frivolously.

4th Grade Frolics

To begin with, what caught my eye with this blogger was her love of animals and implementation of that into her classroom. Tara started adopting an endangered animal each year to serve as a class pet. Her class gets to research the animals available and then vote on which one they’d like to adopt. In the first year, they adopted a sea turtle and even got to track it once it was released back into the wild. I am ALL ABOUT THIS! I have been an animal lover since I was a little girl and would love to have a “class pet” in such a way in my own classroom one day.

Again, I love finding ideas for my teacher toolbox and this blog is full of them!

I want to keep my students engaged with multiple ways to learn. Differentiated instruction and methods of learning is important in order to reach each and every student. Tara’s blog is full of fun activities to do with students that help their learning. The very next post was all about doing math with skittles. What a fun way to keep her 4th graders interested in math!

In my future classroom I am planning on implementing at least some flexible seating. Tara even shows a DIY for crate seats that can be used. Even if not for flexible seating, they would be fun for IDR time!

I love how diverse these blogs are with the different types of information they give. Not only do these ladies give fun classroom activities, but also many money-saving ways to DIY a cute  and cozy classroom. I can’t wait to learn more from them in the future! Teacher connections are EVERYTHING to new teachers.