Summer Projects

Summers are great for relaxing and family time, but it is also great for working on BIG projects for next school year. Right now, I am spending my time reflecting on last school year and figuring out what I want to change for next year. I spend a lot of time on Pinterest, visiting other teacher's blogs, reading twitter (YES, twitter has many ideas for education) and reading education books. I now have a list of big projects for this school year (I am sure that you do too!) I believe that this is important whether you have been teaching one year, 5 years, or 20 years. We can ALWAYS improve.

Some of my big projects right now are:

• Classroom Library- Organizing my library so students can easily access books from my library. I have tried a few approaches, but still searching for an effective one. Recently, I read about a teacher who uses paint sticks to help students. Each student has a paint stick with the Secret Agent Number on it. Whenever they take a book, they place the paint stick in the bin that they took the book from. I am thinking about trying this next year. So, I am visiting places like Home Depot and other stores to see if I can get a class set. I think that this may solve my problem. Oh and did I tell you about the Literacy leveler application that levels books for you! I downloaded that app for free and it gives you an idea of the levels for books. I hope to figure out a system for leveling books as well so students know when books are a good fit or not! There's a lot to do in my little library, but I think I may have some solutions to my problems.
• Getting rid of all the EXTRA stuff- Our principal recently went to a conference about making classrooms and office spaces clutter free. LESS CLUTTER is good for students. It is my hope to create less clutter this school year. I am beginning by going from a four drawer filing cabinet to a two door filing cabinet. That's my project for next week. I hope to get rid of EVERYTHING that I did not touch last year. Besides, I have mostly electronic copies now anyways. 
• Little Classroom Projects- As you may know, I have a beach theme in my classroom. My students really have embraced that theme the past two years so I hope to continue the theme next year. In fact, many people at our school LOVES Farrington Bay so it's here to stay! I want to continue to make the classroom more and more like a beach/Island, so I am searching the Dollar Store, Target and others for chairs and other things to add to my theme! Did I tell you that the Dollar Store is my favorite store? Yes, it is! I make frequent visits. You should too! I will put pictures up soon for you to see my classroom. Ask me about anything that you like because chances are I probably made it myself and I can share it with you! 
• Open House- I am getting ready for Open House right now. Yes, I know it seems early, but this is one thing that you DO NOT want to worry about during teacher workshop week. I have all my files pulled and created some new ones too. I am going to get copies ready and begin organizing folders for students. This will allow more time for me to prepare for the arrival of my awesome students or should I say, surfers! 

This is all that I am working on right now. I will try to provide pictures as I get ready for the school year so that you can get some ideas as well. I hope this is helpful for you as you begin your preparations for school too!

Hope that you are enjoying your summer!  Don't worry, I am not only working, I am having a great summer filled with LOTS of trips. Watch for a next blog post soon!

Have a great weekend!