Classroom Reveal 2016-2017

I love seeing pictures of other teachers classrooms! They always inspire me to try something new in my own and it just fills my teacher heart to see kids learning in such happy places! I'm a little late to the party (I like to keep expectations low) but I'm going to share a few pictures of my classroom! Try not to be jealous of the blush and maroon splatter paint walls and mystery stains. Not everybody can have such nice things.

I'm starting with a silent video tour and pictures will follow. You'll see differences between the pictures and video because I've changed it up a bit to make things more manageable. I hope you enjoy peeking inside of my classroom!

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CHAMPS Behavior Management

Pat Benatar could have written another song called "Your Classroom is a Battlefield". I'm no singer/songwriter but that would have hit big with the teacher demographic struggling to manage behaviors.

During my first year teaching I was shipped off to a CHAMPS professional development along with the rest of my school. We were given the knowledge, book, and posters to help us take a run at behavior management using a positive, proactive, instructional approach. It worked like a charm! Students thrive when they have clear expectations set for them and they understand what to do and expect. Which makes sense because, don't we all?!?!

As you can see I don't use the "S" in my display. It is available in the file for the large acronyms.

CHAMPS is a positive behavior management system created by Dr. Randy Sprick of Safe and Civil Schools. It was designed to improve classroom behaviors, reduce misbehaviors, and motivate students by establishing clear behavior expectations with logical and fair responses and consequences for misbehavior. Teachers spend less time on discipline and more time with actively engaged students who feel empowered and happy in class. Sounds like a dream, right? It is!

For eight years I used the uniform set of posters that my school provided. Two years ago I transferred to a new county and was ready for an upgrade. I designed two sets of posters. Acronyms with behavior expectations that make up a large display visible for all students no matter where they are in the classroom. In the photo above, you can see my whiteboard next to the CHAMPS display, this should give you an idea of the scale of the large display. All large posters for each acronym are pictured below.

I also designed a set of posters that are applicable to the I DO, WE DO, THEY DO, YOU DO instructional model. Some people call it the Gradual Release of Responsibility, others call it the Collaborative Framework, and who knows what teachers call it in their own classroom when the doors are closed! These posters have all behavior expectations on one 8x11 sized sheet of copy paper.

For those of you who may be new to CHAMPS, each acronym communicates to students what they are expected to do to behave successfully during specific activities or times of the school day. The CHAMPS acronym stands for:

                    Conversation
                    Help
                    Activity
                    Movement
                    Participation
                    Success

There are a lot of sets of comprehensive CHAMPS posters. This is a simplified, easy to implement version. If you have ideas for additional prompts please comment below and I will be happy to add them. My favorite thing about these posters is that they are no prep. Just print, laminate, and manage behavior like a BOSS! Check them out here!

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Math Tools

Click the picture to download this FREEBIE!

As an educator, I'm always looking to develop best practices in my classroom to benefit my students. Our Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice (MP5) require students to use appropriate tools strategically.  "Mathematically proficient students consider the available tools when solving a mathematical problem. Proficient students are sufficiently familiar with tools appropriate for their grade or course to make sound decisions about when each of these tools might be helpful, recognizing both the insight to be gained and their limitations. They are able to use tools to explore and deepen their understanding of concepts."

Basically, students should be familiar with a variety of math tools and be able to choose one to effectively and efficiently solve a mathematical problem. 

*Interactive Journal pages to introduce math tools. 

*Ten frames are incredibly useful tools to help students develop 

their number sense within to context of ten.

With this in mind I decided to develop a printable set of my favorite first grade math tools. It made sense to share this as a FREEBIE to compliment my Growing Bundle of Math Supplements a plethora of interactive journal pages, math games, activities, and assessments to cover all first grade math concepts and skills. 

Check out all of my Math Supplements here!

*Hundred and 120 charts assist students in counting, skip counting, adding, subtracting, 

rounding, place value and they begin to notice patterns within our number system.

*Place Value charts help students understand the value of each digit within a multi-digit number.

*Part-Part-Whole Mats help students add, subtract, and find number combinations.

This FREEBIE includes interactive journal pages to introduce math tools as well as a multitude of basic tools to help students begin constructing cognitive models for math concepts and processes. Math tools engage students and increase both interest and enjoyment of mathematics. Students who are presented with the opportunity to use math tools are more interested in math and that interest translates to increased mathematical ability!

Printable manipulatives help engage students and 

encourages them to persevere in problem solving.

For many of the tools there are large mats for teacher modeling and math centers. There are also mini-tools perfect for individual student math tool bags! To manage materials, I print mini-sets of tools on a variety of colored copy paper so one student in a group has green, another has yellow, blue, and so on.  I also print and laminate these math tools for durability and repeated use.

You may also want to add connecting cubes, base ten blocks, counters or two colored chips, dry erase markers or additional manupulatives to use with these tools.

What math tools do you use in your classroom?!?

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