Setup of the Classroom

So, it's been a while since I've written... and I guess I just need to catch everyone up on how things have been going.  When I went into the room two weeks ago to go through things, it was as if a Magic Fairy had just swooped in and *bling* set up the classroom for me.

 As I was going through orientation on Monday, Miss Patrice had come in and set the shelves up where she thought they should be.  NOT that there wasn't still a LOT to do!  But we went through all the shelves together and she went step by step, showing me each work and where it was, and WHY it was where it was.  I'm adding some pictures to help everyone understand it.

Kitchen.  you can see the cabinets & tables, sinks, etc.

Kitchen from the other direction.  In the back are two kid-sized bathrooms.

Drawers for student's journals, pencils, etc.  Each long draw is divided into 3 smaller sections.  Each section for 1 student.

Our Class Library.  

Tower of Words...  just to the left of the library

Craft supplies.  Includes construction paper, sewing items, origami, yarn, scissors, etc.

Storage area, sitting behind the math area  On the backside of the math area are the bead chains...

Community workspace, from behind the math area 

View from the doorway, directly in the center is the cage for the guinea pigs, and behind it is the geometry section..

Starting at the left hand side of the windows we have botany, zoology, then language and cultural studies

Also, just outside, I have a garden that needs some TLC (hopefully starting tomorrow), and 4 picnic tables for lunch.  The campus is wonderful, including a lot of land with trails in it as well as a very nice playground and some awesomely old trees that make me want to drop everything and go climb in them.  *smile*

After looking at this, I realize that I really haven't gotten personal with any of the shelves in these pictures, but that's because we had a lot of organizing to do at the time, so nothing was permanent.  I will take some more pics so that you guys can see it all up close.

Also, for my practicum I have to take a video of the classroom.  I plan on doing that soon and maybe I will post that here so that the understanding of the classroom flows a bit better.

In any case, things are going so well.  I'm getting a lot of information at once, so some of it seems to go in one ear and out the other, but I've just let everyone know that I'll probably be asking about it again later, and to be patient.  Everyone is wonderful.  I'm so lucky to have the support I need.

As far as lessons go, Miss Patrice and I have talked and I'm pretty much going to take the reigns on the 1st graders (I'm going to be teaching the Notion of Time, Living/Nonliving, Golden Beads, Plant Care, etc within the next week).  With the 2nd and 3rd graders, I will be shadowing Miss Patrice until I have a clear understanding of where each person is with everything.

So far, I love my job, my mentor, my assistant, and my principal.  AND I LOVE MY KIDS.  It doesn't get much better than that, does it?