classroom set up -- day 1

It's that time of the year again. :) School has started and the children are so full of energy. It's amazing what six year olds teach me.

I've documented a bit of the initial classroom set up -- both to share and for my own reflection. I find it really helpful to reflect on why I make certain classroom set up decisions.

So, these are some pictures from my first day of classroom set up. I also plan to show the children these pictures, too.

[click on any image to resize it]

At noon, August 17th, before I'd moved anything around:



I worked on moving things for about three hours, and then...

Looking left:



And looking right:




It's nice that this is the third year I'll be teaching in this room, so I already had some ideas. I made some pretty deliberate choices about things this year. You may or may not be able to tell in the picture, but my desk is far away to the right if you look at the third picture. It's also surrounded by kid spaces: there's a waterfall bookcase, a little carpet for sitting on, and two desks pushed up against it for more private work.

I made this change (something I'd been thinking about for nearly 5 months last year) for a couple of reasons:

I've discovered that as much as I dislike having a desk in the classroom and taking space away from the children, it's helpful for me to have it. I use it to work and something about keeping the top of it neat (with only supplies & my plan book on the top) always makes me feel calmer, even if other spaces get cluttered. And, even though in the beginning of the year it's "my" space, it doesn't stay that way exclusively. Often children will sit at my desk as another private space.

The way I had things last year, though, my desk was one of the first things that you saw when you walked into the room (it was basically where you see it in the top picture). I don't want that to be the case. I want the classroom to be and feel completely focused on children. So, even though there is a teacher desk, it's surrounded by kid areas. Also the FIRST thing you see when you walk in is our Project table -- a kid area. Not my desk.

So, I'm much more pleased. ♥

I also made a few deliberate choices about the location of some furniture at the far end of the classroom -- our meeting area and where there are many learning places: books, listening center, math support, and etc... You can't really see it here, so I'll take a picture another day and then babble on about that later.

So, there you have it. Day 1. I'll spam you with more pictures from the set up later. :)

I hope you all are well. *much love*