Pinterest School Projects - Part 1

This is summer I wanted to tackle some organization issues that I have in my classroom.  I'm going to be teaching 3 different classes (one new class that I'm in charge of writing curriculum for), plus I'm going to be gone on maternity leave for 6 weeks, plus I'm coaching basketball....yes, I'm a little stressed.  But, after fighting Molly for a nap today (she did finally go to sleep in my bed), I decided I would complete a couple of easy projects that were on my list. 

TA-DA!!

My students have an AWFUL time remembering to put their names on their homework papers...even tests.  So, this white bucket will be home to the solution....highlighters.  The buckets will sit on top of the turn-in drawers.  The students will be required to highlight their names.  If they don't, the papers get trashed.  For the past five years, I've kept a "no name" board...pain in my booty. 

Bucket: target Dollar Bin (99 cents actually)

Printable: Pinterest Blog (Yes, I understand it's a kindergarten thing but their is ZERO reason that freshman can't use the idea too)

I'm not really sure how this will work but I'm hoping to alleviate problems with pencil sharpening during class but using this system.  It's pretty self-explainitory.  Sharpened pencils goes in the red container, blue pencils goes in the blue container.  Containers are also from Target's summer collection and used to hold straws.  (the straws are now living in a kitchen drawer so Molly can play with them) :)

Printables: Pinterest blog

In all reality, I see myself making the blue container a Pen holder instead....I don't get the loaned writing utensils back a lot of the time.

Also on my list of things to do this summer:

1.

I'm always losing my remotes ( I have 4 to keep track of) and markers for my white board. I think I'll probably end up doing about 3 of these.  I haven't been able to find containers yet. 

2.

I love this idea. 

3.

Objective board..I'm envisioning something like this but obviously not this exact thing. 

4.

Teacher Binder - b/c I'm teaching three classes and I want to reorganize my classroom a little bit this year...(Hey, after five years, I think I should step back and evaluate), I'm going to try this and see how it works.  For the past five years, I've bought my own grade book/planner from the local teaching store.  This year, I'm going to try and crete my own.  We'll see.....it's going to require me to print a lot of things off, hole punch and then organize. 

5.

Turn in drawers....currently I have trays, which are really fine but I like the look of the drawer better.  I'm going to buy two three-drawer containers.  One stack will be for my A day classes, and the other for my B day students (we are on block scheduling) Each class (I have 6 all together) will have their own drawer.  It will keep me on the ball of grading homework and keep everything a little bit more organized. 

6.

A high school version of a "word wall"...we are going to key term quizzes and tests throughout the year in our freshman history classes.  You know, words that kids should understand, but that aren't taught a lot of the times in the lower grades...Ex: suffrage: definition is NOT "the act of making people suffer." but instead is "the right to vote"...think about that first definition when I say that the women's suffrage movement unit is something funny in my classroom a lot of times. So, I'm going to create a word wall and cover it with key terms and definitions. 

Add to this list, write a new class curriculum, review the other two classes, write 3 classes worth of sub plans, convert all my power points to Slide Rocket (so they can be on the "cloud),  re-do my class's website, etc, etc. etc.  Yea, once we get back from Disney World (we leave a week from tomorrow), my summer is OVER!

Oh well...but hey...teachers get three months off right? 

God Bless!

Sara