Trading My Favorite Classroom Spaces

Trading Our Favorite Spaces: 1 of 2

Originally uploaded by teachergal

Mary Lee & Franki are hosting something of a blog carnival over at A Year of Reading. It’s called Trading (Our Favorite) Spaces. Click here to learn more about it &/or to submit photos of your favorite space by September 1st.

I’m posting just two of my favorite spaces in my redesigned classroom.

1. Pictured above and on the right — my conference table where I meet with students
I like this space because it combines business (i.e., the important work I do during strategy lessons) with pleasure (picture frames, university banners, etc. so that my students can get to know who I am/what I’m about). This table is new to my classroom since I swapped my large green and gray one with the reading specialist who had this blue one, which matched my classroom beautifully. She needed a bigger table for guided reading and I wanted a smaller one since most of my strategy lessons groups are no larger than four kids. I also like this space since it’s by a window, which will give me plenty of natural light while working with my students.

2. Pictured below — the teaching/techy part of the meeting area
I moved all of my tech stuff to the opposite side of the meeting area this year for a change of pace. I also repositioned the rug and the easel’s placement in the room so that it was located near all of the technology so that I don’t have to switch from one side of the rug to the other, this year, when I’m teaching. I can teach with charts, my easel’s white board, or with the document camera all from the same spot in the room, which means less body movement/shifting on the rug for my students. (The only time they’ll have to shift their bottoms is when I teach from the big white board, which is located where I was standing when I took the photo you see below.)