I hope you have enjoyed my classroom reveal blog series over the past week! If you have just discovered this blog post, I have the other six posts linked below. This will give you a quick overview of my classroom and highlight some of the important areas.
As I talked about on Monday, this is my Morning Meeting area. The Class Rules pack from Especially Education, the Classroom Jobs pack from Learning with Visuals and the Schedule Pack from Autism Adventures serve as functional decor. I have a couple of IKEA purchases to help me stay organized and I love how colorful it looks when you walk by. Head to my Morning Meeting blog to see more about this area.
I had one large table in my classroom already and I snagged 2 more from storage. I took this idea from Autism Adventures after seeing how she had tables in her classroom reveal series a couple years ago. I love this so much more than desks. I have 8 students, so I sit 2 students at each table around the outside. I have my last 2 students sitting on the inside. My students who need more direct support — the ones who are more likely to leave the workspace — sit on the inside. This allows me to access them quickly while leading a whole group lesson and helps give them more defined boundaries.
This is my Class Expectations area. I have Especially Education’s Whole Body Listening here. I have 2 more IKEA purchases pretty much dedicated to the Adapted Work Binders from Mrs. D’s Corner. Head to my Class Expectations blog post to read more.
This is my recess/break area. I never had a strongly defined recess/break area before. I used to have a safe calm down corner, but none of my students require that level of support this year. I opted to reduce that section and put this section in instead. It has been a wonderful addition to my classroom. Read more about my recess area here.
This is my Independent/Group Work Center. I could go ON and ON and ON about this center. I love it. It’s jam packed with centers from The Autism Helper, Binder Tasks from Autism Adventures and Exceptional Learners and Task Boxes from Especially Education. I also have an amazing set of tasks from Sailing the Spectrum, The Autism Helper, and Simply Special Ed in the cabinet. Head to the Independent/ Group Work blog to read more.
I mentioned this earlier this week, but we have the Core Vocabulary word wall from Mrs. D’s Corner up on a back wall. I just used Astrobrights paper to make the letters as it helps tie the word wall right into the rainbow theme in my classroom.
Before we go on, I’ll admit I am a table hoarder. In fact, it used to drive one of my old assistants nuts. She always wanted me to give up my tables and I never would. I am so glad I didn’t! This classroom looks TOTALLY different than any of my other classrooms. I move classrooms every year, and each classroom has a different set-up/layout. When I moved into this classroom, I searched blogs and Pinterest to get layout ideas. I ended up being so glad I had the tables and opted to get rid of all of my desks (with the exception of 4 that I will talk about below). So yes, I have 5 full-sized tables in my classroom and I love them. Read more about what we do at these tables in the Independent/Group Work blog.
This is my classroom base area. It holds my IEP goal board, the Anchor Charts from The Autism Helper year long curriculums, and book reviews. Below is a lot of storage. Read more about this section in the Classroom Base blog.
I raved about the Easy Art pack from Teaching Special Thinkers earlier this week. You can read all about it on this post, but I wanted to share the photo again to give more encouragement to grab this pack for your classroom!
These are the only 4 desks in my classroom. I paired them with Sterilite 3-drawer bins and fabric cubes to create independent work stations. The visuals come from Especially Education. I also never set up a center like this until this year, and I am so glad I did. It has helped my students increase their independence and maintain a schedule in my classroom on chaotic days. You can read more in my, you guessed it, Independent and Group Work blog.
This is my teacher desk and teacher time area. There really was not enough to talk about to make this its own blog post. There are certain elements that would make good blog posts. I will go back and talk about some specific areas in the next coming month, so keep checking back. I store my assessment books and IEP binders on the bookshelf. The green bins in the white cabinet are filled with books. I promise I’ll do blog posts on assessments, IEP binders, and adapted books soon.
I don’t use this area as often as other areas. I’m pretty much always in the front of my room or in the group work area. We do use Reading Mastery in my classroom, so I run those groups here. I also run a writing center using my Graphic Organizer journals back here. I also complete small group testing and assessments here. Otherwise, I’m out and about in my room.
I just did a post yesterday about my Monthly Storage system. The system is stored on the shelves of my coat rack. This is the first classroom I’ve been in that has a coat rack. If I move classrooms and don’t have a coat rack, I’m not sure where I would store this. Honestly, I might keep it at home and just have the current months in the classroom. Either way, I think this is a super important storage option for Special Education teachers. Read more here.
The classroom I am in this year is bigger than any other classroom I have had. There is no bathroom in this classroom (Yes, that is really hard!) but it opened space I didn’t know what to do with. A lot of teachers opted to get rid of these big cabinets this past year, so I grabbed 3 to make this island. I just use the actual cabinets as storage. I used color-coded duct tape to create rectangles for each student. Each student comes in, takes their binder out and puts it in their square.
I used to be that teacher that completely forgot to send flyers home. Now, when I bring flyers from the mailbox, I can quickly stick one in each binder. I also send more student work home now using this system. It seems like I am super organized, but my classroom is actually filled with hacks that help me. This is one of them.
I used the Kindness Kit from Especially Education to decorate my classroom. I have two new assistants this year and I had a training on their first day of work. My dad came in the weekend before and covered my door in black paper for me and help me cut out the letters and confetti pieces. While I was in training, my assistants created this door for me. It was so cute and a great way for them to get to know each other!
This is it. My classroom. My little slice of heaven. Please know, it took me 5 years to get here. I cringe at what my classroom used to look like. If you are just getting started, choose one area to make over. Make it the area you use the most, or the area that gives you the most trouble. Feel free to ask for help, ideas or recommendations. I’m always here for unorganized people trying to get more organized!