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As you know, I've been using my weekends to arrange and rearrange my classroom since it began four weeks ago. Classes are going well, the kids are into their routines, and I'm not getting lost in the corridors anymore. I know many of the teachers names, and all of my students... I had a very good week.
A few weeks ago, I was thinking about making a reading/ listening center in one corner. This is what that corner looked like at the time.
There is a shelf unit on the floor behind me, built last year by my husband to sit on last year's desk. This year's desk is way too small for the shelf unit, so I began thinking of another way to use the shelf. As you browse through this progression of photos, keep an eye on the blue bulletin board as a landmark.
Steve came in one day to help me move the big stuff two weeks ago. We placed the heavy shelf unit on top of two desks against the back wall, and that seemed sturdy enough. I could live with that!
Then I pushed the light colored bookshelf into the area to create an enclosed space. The bookshelf on the left is a visual barrier, and separates the listening center from the small teaching group area at the white board to the left. It worked well enough. Books still in boxes because I was told the white bookshelf might be removed from my room.
Then one day last week, I walked into my classroom and there was a brand new bookshelf sitting in the middle of the classroom floor! I was so happy.... : - )
I walked it across the room and put it in the place where the light colored shelves were, then moved the light colored shelves into another position to create a second reading area. This is what the space looked like until yesterday afternoon. As you can see, the books are still in the cubes. I didn't want to shelf them until I was certain this was the best location for the bookshelves.
It seemed so dark in that corner.
This morning, as I pondered the arrangement, I decided to move the larger brown bookshelves against a wall for safety reasons, and replaced the student desks with a long, low work table. To maintain a visual barrier, I added the shorter white shelf unit to the left, facing the whiteboard, and added a flip chart to extend the separation. Now it's not so dark, the area is more open, yet separated from the rest of the class.
There are two tape players/recorders for listening to books on tape, writing materials, a basket of books on tape, a basket of head phones, a few books, and a cd player/radio/tape player. I like this arrangement.
Here is where the new brown book case ended up this morning(the one to the right of the window) and the off-white one to the far left (it was originally in the listening center, see 3rd photo down).
I am pleased to say that all my books are now on the bookshelves for the students to browse. I even categorized them so they can find the ones they like easily. I may let them decide which shelves they want their favorites just to give them some input into the arrangement, and maybe they will be more likely to put the books back where they found them so I won't have to at end of day.
Finally, a shot from the front of the room, looking back at the listening center by way of the small group math area to the right. You can see my brand new overhead projector. It's one of my favorite teaching tools.
To help you orient, my teacher desk is off camera to the right of the file cabinets. The other reading area I created is against that back wall (blue bulletin board), all the way to the left.
Well, thank you for visiting me in my classroom today! It was so nice of you to stop by. Bea
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Looks like you have a great little space created there. Thx for sharing. hugs, ~ Lori
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Very cool! You did a great job! Glad you got that new shelf too. GBU, Shelly
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Very nice! You really care about your students. Thank you. Tammy http://journals.aol.com/memes
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10/2/06 7:47 AM
Lori
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