Welcome to my world…

Each school year since 2001-2002, I’ve added a classroom tour in photographs to my website. It’s a fun tradition that seems to occur later every year, but hey, April is better than never. I’ve posted a few of my favorite photos from this year’s tour below (you can view the rest here on my site).

I got rid of the desks this year and switched to tables (but you knew that–remember my blog post Tables vs. Desks?). I do keep desks for those darlings who can’t behave appropriately when in close proximity to others. The desks are situated near the tables: if a child has issues, he simply moves the desk back a few feet and gets himself together, then rejoins the team later.

Here’s the view from the back of my classroom; it’s what students look at during instruction. Since I’ve switched from desks to tables this year, students keep nearly everything in the cubbies in the front of the room.

This is the small group reading area. Each group (red, yellow, and blue) has its own color-coded crate of materials on the shelf. Students read the white board on top of the crates so they know what materials to grab and how to prepare for the group.

Look familiar? There’s a photo similar to this on the cover of my book! I haven’t changed things much in this area of the room: all of my papers and instructional materials are stored in the area shown here. I love having everything in ONE place near my desk so that I can spin around in my roll-y chair and not have to get up when doing paperwork. I didn’t straighten up this area (or any area, for that matter) before taking these pictures: you totally caught me eating Ritz-Bits. Oh, well. That’s real.

But wait! There’s more! See the other 7 photos here…

And if you’re really into it, visit the Classroom Tours page of my website, where you can see photos from each of my classrooms since 2002, view tours of my colleague’s rooms, and look at classroom pics that site visitors submitted.