Check Out My Offices...or Classrooms!

I call them offices. I guess they could be considered tiny classrooms. Either way, here is a peek at my work spaces for this year.

Before we get into that, here is my first day of school picture. A selfie--which I'm not great at--because my husband had already left for work. This is the first year I have no kids in my picture! I had just left them in Oklahoma for college on Sunday.

I wanted to take it in front of my new "inspirational" arrangement--turns out I would need those phrases!

This one too.

My first day was actually miserable. It had nothing to do with school though. Without unnecessary details, let's just say we had money stolen and feared our identities and accounts were compromised. It made for a busy week of closing accounts, opening new ones, etc. All is well now.

These pics are of my K-2 office/classroom: 

My daughter made the wall files for me out of pine 1x3's and 1x2's for the depth. I always get questions, so thought I'd try to help you out even though I'm probably not explaining it well. 

I love my brain poster. :-)

Segment and Write boards from Pathways to Reading. 

It took me all week to get this counter cleaned off! :-)

New cart...no idea yet what I will use it for. Thoughts?

Two main rules of time with Mrs. Ratcliff. 

These next few pictures are of things I helped put together in the teachers' lounge and/or office. 

A couple of other teachers and I formed a P.O.P. (Power of Prayer) group a couple of years ago. We are a small district, so we divide the entire staff and board members into a weekly prayer list and cycle through it 3 times a year. We also display a verse of the week. At each building we have a weekly prayer meeting open to any staff that wants to join us. 

Finding time to meet as a staff is a challenge, so we have this calendar in the lounge to try and keep everyone updated on what is going on.  

I put together one of these in both buildings for staff to recognize staff. These are from Staff Morale Boosters pack on TPT. The pack included some other fun things as well. Looking forward to spreading some "cheer" this year!

Everyday at 1:30, I drive 20 minutes to the 3-12 building. This is my office/classroom where I work with 3rd-5th graders. I haven't made it as homey (other than the futon), but maybe some day.  

Excuse the mess on the table. Getting ready to plan/prep for MTSS groups.

Brain poster again! I'm planning to add the words: What's Happening in your Brain while you are Reading...

I have to admit, my first full week was extra long. I'm thankful it was also revival week at my church even though it made for late nights. The services helped keep my focus on the eternal after going through that first awful day, especially this sermon: Are you fixated on the right thing? I highly recommend it!

I'm rested up and ready to get back to it tomorrow! We're hoping to finish up testing this week, so I can start working with kids next week. Woohoo!

Check Out My New Room!

Hello there! I know it has been awhile. You might remember I am in the middle of getting my reading specialist degree, and between that, teaching, and coaching volleyball, I have very little free time right now. I'm lucky if I can keep my tradition of a Sunday afternoon nap! ;-)

Anyway, I had to make a video of the literacy spaces for a class I am in, and I knew you all would like to see it. I just moved into this space this year. I'm super excited about the windows!

The good news for me...volleyball season is winding down a bit. This Saturday will be the 6th tournament in a row, and then I actually have a Saturday at home next week! 

What will I ever do with myself? 

Probably laundry, clean the house, or homework... :-)

Crystal's Classroom Tour - Video Style

Well, hello there.

I survived the first two days of school (in case you were worried)!

And the first week of volleyball practice!

I'm the assistant high school coach this year…haven't made it home before 7:00 all week!

My sixth year teaching…you'd think I'd be used to the craziness of the beginning of the year. 

But no. 

I struggled this week to keep up. It didn't help that the tech guy decided I needed a new computer on the first day of school! 

I didn't want to complain because I did need a new one, but the timing was a challenge! That combined with the printing and internet problems we've had this week made even the simplest task  difficult and time consuming. Ugh!

 I have actually been at the school for hours today…on a Saturday. :( 

But I feel well prepared for next week, so that is good.

I decided to give you a video tour of my classroom. There is a part in there that will give you a hint as to how my first two days with kids went! ;-)

Feel free to ask questions if you see something I forgot to explain.

One thing I meant to say and forgot about my objectives board. I'm still getting used to how I want to word them, so no judging please! The last couple years, I have posted preprinted "I can…" statements, but I wasn't very good at referring to them. Also, even though my student helper reads them in the morning, I do go over them again during the actual lessons. Just wanted to clarify.

Hope you're having a restful weekend!

P.S. Once again the 20 minutes with Kindergarten (for science/ss instead of music) is going to be the longest part of my day! Bless you K teachers--I simply could not do it!

Who, Where, Why, When, What???

Happy Saturday everyone! 

I just finished my first week back to work--and wow--I am tired! 

So glad Kristi picked up the slack and blogged EVERY day. 

Can you believe it?

I'm going to chime in here (and link up with Blog Hoppin') with what may be picture overload, but hey...I know I love picture-filled posts so here goes...

This is me and hubby--attempting to take a selfie. We need a little work, I think. :-)

We've been married almost 18 years! We were "high-school sweethearts" except we didn't go to the same high school. We met at church. We have lived in the same small-town area all of our lives--except when we went to Phoenix, AZ for hubby to go to school at UTI. Talk about culture shock! Still miss the weather there though--loved it!

Here's our kids on the first day of school:

Last year, I started teaching at the elementary school I attended for K-6. One of the things I love about it is how close I am to work...

Now for a peek in my classroom...

Now remember I said this is where I went to elementary school...SMALL classrooms. When I went here, we had combo classes (1st/2nd, 3rd/4th, and 5th/6th) and there were only 6-8 kids in a classroom! Now the two towns that make up our district combine for K-2 here in my town and 3-12 in the other town.

I only have 16 students this year! Hooray!

Last year with 23 it was so crowded!

Here's just a couple close ups because I really didn't change a whole lot this year. You may have seen these birthday cupcakes that took Pinterest by storm last year...

These are the same ones! All I did was swap out the candles. If you want directions on how I made them, see this post from last year. Weird Side Note--my class has no summer birthdays (the one in July is mine) and I have two different sets of two students with the same birthdays.

As far as decorations go, this is really it. I added "Seuss Club" which is really Mastery Club. I found the editable documents in the pack were not very user-friendly--but here is what I came up with...

I will put stars on their name tags as they complete a challenge. When they get 16 stars, we will move their name tag below the Hall of Fame words and add their picture. I love the idea of this, and I really think my kids are going to enjoy it. 

For the why of my post, glance back up at the pictures with my desk groups. Each group is a color team. You will notice the blue team has blue book boxes, but down below they also have a team tub of supplies and a math tub. I started this last year and it works so much better for me. There is less waiting to get out supplies. This year, I also added dots to my desks inspired by this pin (click the pick to go to Owl-ways Be Inspired and read about them):

I love these dots! In two days of school, I have already used them several times. For example, I might say, "Green dots get your team's supply bucket out," or "Yellow dots please come help me pass these out." LOVE IT!!!!

Also loving that I got rid of my job chart, but I'll post more about that later.

Now here's a peek at my schedule:

All I can say is that I can't wait to actually be using this schedule! The first two days were...well, you know. Basically a list of things I hoped to accomplish! 

Finally, what I love to teach...I don't even know how to pick just one thing! I absolutely love teaching--and I love my new class! Thursday was by far my easiest first day--ever. :-)

Classroom Tour

Here is a tour of my classroom this year:

 

The first set of pictures shows the whole room.  UGGHHHHH on the colors of my blinds .......Crystal did them (I am now in her room this year) and I love them except she used KU colors (they should have been purple)!!!  I am a KSTATE fan!  :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the baskets that I have in the middle of their desks.  They have pencils, erasers, germ-x, white boards and markers with pom-poms on them as erasers.  I found the pom-poms idea at Fifth Grade Frenzy and they work great!

 

 

These are my frog theme birthday straws.

 

My frog behavior chart

This is my chart where students pick a prize after having 10 good days.  They just put their clothespin on what they want.

 

Our cool book boxes this year.  Last year we had cardboard book boxes and this year we have plastic ones.  Notice they are purple!!!  :-)  YAY!!

Our Daily 5 Board (not much on it yet), we are still in training to do it.

 

My reading group area with my cat litter container seats that I made this summer

 

Calendar Area

Math Manipulative area

 

Mountain Language area with worksheets in the baskets

 

Lunch and Milk Count area.  Students move his/her stick to take lunch and milk count.

 

Our Morning Routine Freebie on tpt that I use every morning.

 

Job Chart

 

Also my mystery walker sign that I found at What Happens in First Grade

 

My Secret Student sign that I got at What Happens in First Grade

 

Rules and points that I give the students throughout the day for doing good things

 

My whole brain teaching posters

 

 

Area where students turn in their work.  They highlight their name before they turn it in.  The one on the right is where they turn in their homework.  They find their clothespin and put it on their paper.  This makes it easy for me to quickly see who did and didn't get homework done.

 

 

Work Folder-this is where the students put any work that isn't done or needs corrected.  My co-teacher's mom sewed them for us and did a fantastic job.  I love them!

 

 

 

My gym shoe and water bottle holder.  I had seen baskets put under chairs at Kindertrips and loved the idea.  So, when looking at our student chairs, I decided to use containers I already had and bungee cord them under the chairs.  This has given the students a great place to keep their shoes for gym class.  I also decided that I didn't like having water bottles on the desks because they take up too much room.  So I found holders and attached them with zip ties. 

 

Hope you have a great and restful 3 day weekend!