Even on Friday, and school was OVER, we had a massive fight to just cap off the year. I was in the office as the aftermath of the fight came rolling in and it was not pretty.
My assignment change and classroom move are official. I'll post the pictures of my new room - it's a M.E.S.S.... That's a whole post on it's own.
On the happier side - I'll be back to 7th grade Language Arts next year. My heart, while sad with leaving my computer lab, is very happy to be back in a Language Arts setting.
Here's my list:
1. Interactive Student Notebooks
Miss OCD, our non-blogger friend and I have been discussing how to do these for next year. We're all pretty excited about them. If you follow me on Pinterest, you'll see that I've been pinning a lot of Interactive Student Notebook ideas. It will probably be another post I'll make over the summer - I've got a lot of ideas. I love foldables and I've been making my students take notes (with COLOR) for awhile, so it seems like a good road to travel down.
2. Read Class Novels
I've always wanted to teach Language Arts with more novels. My students hardly ever read full novels with our textbook series, I think it will be a great challenge for me (and my students!) I have one project posted over at Donors Choose and I'm hoping for some success there. I want my students to read the Hunger Games this year because it's such a good novel to foster classroom discussions.
3. Create a Clean, Engaging Classroom Environment
My new room is a total mess. It probably hasn't been cleaned since 2000. (I'm not joking.) Apparently, the old teacher never even put bulletin board paper up. Yes. I'll wait for you to gasp in horror of the thought of a completely white, dull, classroom.
4. Updated the Bulletin Boards
So, along that vein... That room needs bulletin boards with fun anchor charts. I love all the anchor charts up on Pinterest, so I'll be taking some ideas and working with that.
I think I'll be busy making a lot of different Language Arts items all summer preparing for my next year, I'm really excited about it.
Hi Lauren,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you about the anchor charts. It is a current obsession of mine to find anchor charts on Pinterest and has inspired me to keep a ton of anchor charts in my room this year. It's so awesome for students to be able to reference what we've learned from earlier in the year through an anchor chart. I'm loving your blog-being a middle school teacher myself, it's always fun to find other middle school teachers' blogs! :)
For some reason, Anchor Charts have never been "big" at our school. So I never really thought too much about them. I wanted to do them last year and I think this the year I'll put them together! :)
DeleteThanks for stopping by! Us middle-schoolers need to stick together!
I too definitely agree about the bulletin boards and anchor charts! I'm glad I found your blog too! I teach year six in New Zealand so am always very excited to find blogs by teachers of the slightly older kids !
ReplyDeletex Serena x
Magic Mistakes & Mayhem
Thanks for stopping by Serena! I know how you feel about older kid blogs. It seems like 90% of all blogs for teachers are Primary grades. I like seeing all the older kid blogs too! :)
DeleteMoving can be nerve-wracking.... I am excited that you are going to be teaching LA. I always love finding a kindred spirit to bounce ideas off of. If you have not found Erin at I'm Lovin' Lit, you need to!!! She is FABULOUS and has a million jillion great ideas for accomplishing your goals. We just got the email about what they are expecting out of our rooms to allow them to clean this year---- this includes boxing up LOTS and LOTS of everything for me.... YUCK
ReplyDeleteOff I go in search of boxes. Have a great start to the summer--- cannot wait to see the pics of your new room! You will make it your own, it will be fabulous!
Amanda
Teaching Texas Teens
Oh great! I love finding other Middle School Language Arts teachers! :) I will definitely go and check out I'm Lovin' Lit.
DeleteGood luck on boxing... Our rooms don't really get cleaned - unless we do them!
I love The Hunger Games-such a great book that will lead to fantastic discussions. I'm also working on interactive notebooks this summer too. I found your blog through the linky party. I'm a new follower.
ReplyDeleteHunter's Tales from Teaching
Thanks for stopping by! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for getting my project funded!
DeleteI'm a new follower over at your blog too! :)
Hi Lauren,
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your move to Language Arts! Sorry it comes with such a messy room as a price. I'm a Language Arts teacher of 6th & 7th grade in NJ.
I have always taught using anchor charts, but thanks to Pinterest, have truly jazzed them up this year. Also looking into interactive notebooks. You can check out my findings here on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/lvc6/.
Please keep us updated on your interactive notebook ideas. I'll be following and posting too! http://creative-in-middle-school.blogspot.com/
Hi LIMS/Lauren:
ReplyDeleteI'm so tickled that you joined my very first Linky Party!
And I'm glad you're glad about teaching language arts... and I'm sorry that the room will need a major overhaul before you get a chance to work your magic on next year's bunch.
Still, I know you will be sharing wonderful things next year that I hope to borrow from you!
:)
Happy summer...
Kim
Finding JOY in 6th Grade