Classroom Pictures

So I finished my classroom. Yay! It's definitely not perfect, but it's pretty good for what I've got. I started teaching last year in October, so I didn't have a lot of time to go through everything in my room that I had acquired from previous teachers. This year I got in there nice and early, and went through every single nook and cranny. I found a lot of junk, but I also found some good stuff. And I arranged it all. Woot! So here are some pictures:

This is the view from my door into the classroom. I have my teacher station up near the board where I keep my laptop, seating charts, and any other materials I need for the lesson.

Here is my recorder center that I have set up. I have all of the recorders labeled for each of the 4 classes. On the bulletin board I am going to have class lists where the kids can keep track of what belts they have earned. I hope this will make it somewhat of a competition between the students and classes to earn more belts! Also my desk is tucked behind the bookcase.

This is the majority of my instrument storage. I have all of these mismatched containers and boxes to hold my instruments, and I would love to have a beautiful matching set, but that costs money so... It's not happening!!! This looks a little hectic, but it's definitely better than it was! I also have all of my personal books, and other random stuff on here (red solo cups, scarves, parachute, etc.)

Sorry for the sideways picture! These are my rules, which I borrowed from Mrs. Dennis. I don't use the same rewards system as her, but I really like these rules and posters, so I brought them into my room.

Sideways again! Here are my magnetic hand signs which I also borrowed from Mrs. Dennis (can you tell that I'm a little bit in love?). I had a ton of fun getting to use the super fancy laminater at my school. I'm going to start laminating everything!

Here's my piano corner. The box is full of my ukuleles (I really need a better storage system for them). I'm thinking about moving my bookshelf over to the other wall closer to the door, but I was far too lazy to unload everything and drag it across the room. Maybe I'll find some inspiration to do that if I get some student helpers to move the books.

This is just on the other side of the piano. I had 4 risers set up last year, but I rarely used them, and they took up a ton of room! I decided to try it with only 2 for a while and see how it goes. If I ever get a choir going, I'll have to set some more up again, but for now this should be okay. I also have my cabinet with hand drums and my boomwhackers on top. I'm going to try and get some bins for my boomwhackers to live in, but that is a future project.

And here is the view of my room from my desk. I'm never at my desk when I'm teaching, but it's nice to have for going through emails and storing junk. I think the room is looking pretty good, and I am ready to get teaching on Tuesday. Yay!!!

I'm going to spend this weekend reviewing my lesson plans for the week, and then trying to write up a few more weeks worth. I would ideally like to have all of September planned out, but we'll see if that happens. I'm also trying to rework some things because we now have 4 combo classes, K-1, 1-2, 2-3, and 4-5, and I don't get to separate them. Last year we had a 2-3 and a 4-5, and I just taught the upper grade lesson, but I feel like it's going to be tougher with these younger combo classes. We'll see how it goes!