Lookin' Good

I am sure that every special educator can relate to this. You're going about your business at work and then out of nowhere you have a handful of administrators doing a campus tour and they decide to pop into your room to check it out. In my experience they have never come in at a good time. It doesn't help that no two days are alike for me. This is the nature of a special education classroom. You could have a beautiful schedule printed out in front of you and magnifecent lessons planned but it all could change on a dime when; A) your student won't come down from the top of the play structure, B) your students' gen-ed class has a last minute rehearsal you didn't know about, C) your student has fallen asleep, D) your student is having a melt-down in the media center, D) one of your instructional aides has callen in sick at the last minute without a sub. These are just a few of the fun things that change courses of our days. It's these things happening that make us constantly feel like we are barely keeping our heads above water. These are the reasons why I dread the walk-throughs. I would love for them to come in and see all my students engaged and working together, able to answer questions and tell anyone who asks what CCSS we are working on today. It just never happens that way. Half the time they come into my room I'm by myself working on paperwork. I'm always so frustrated when this happens because I wish that they could see those moments when the lightbulbs are actively engaged and the lightbulbs are going off.  My solution to this is to pack my room with multiple displays from every subject area.  I want someone to be able to walk into my room and say to themselves, "I think they are in fact doing some work in here!"

The other benefit of doing this is that my students take great pride in their work.  They love seeing their work and projects beautifully displayed for all to see.  Anything that I can do to build their pride and self-esteem is a no-brainer in my book!

Another fun thing about my job is that I teach 4 grade levels on any given day...yes that's right, 4!  It's tough for me to keep accurate postings of what standards are being worked on at each moment because one moment I could be working on letter recognition with one student and the next I'm working on fractions with another.  

I'm all about working smarter not harder and I am quick to find a solution to most of my problems.  With that said...I give you my Common Core State Standards posters.  I find that having a set of these on handy for each grade level helps for a swift and sophisticated display of student work.  These days administrators really REALLY want to see that you're working in the Common Core so I am always quick to slap one of these babies up alongside my student work.  

That being said, I should mention that I am a young, dare I say "hip" gal.  Yes, I am a teacher, and yes, that means I fulfill many teacher stereotypes.  But one way I break free of the stereotypes is that I try to stay away from the cutesy cutesy stuff as much as possible.  Perhaps it's because my mother is a teacher and anytime I see something with apples or rulers in my room I feel as though I'm turning into my mother...not that that's a bad thing.  I love her more than anything.  BUT, I am an individual and if I'm going to spend 40+ hours a week in a tiny room I want it to reflect my taste.  I typically lean towards a tribal/bohemian feel so perhaps that doesn't float everyone's boat.  For those that are into it, I'm working on uploading my collections of K-4th Common Core State Standards "I can..." posters to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  As a side note; since I am in California my collections include the additional California caveats. I'll be starting with math and working my way towards the other standards.  

Here's a little preview of a fourth grade and a kindergarten poster.  Enjoy!