Classroom Layouts

What I like about Laurier's program is that we, the student teachers, stay at the same school all year. I have found this a great way to really get to know the school culture, and watch the school and students progress throughout the year.

Right now I have 10 weeks to observe in various classroom, and after March Break I will doing my final, 6-week practicum. What I have been looking for are the various ways that teachers organize their classroom. I have been taking pictures of neat ideas I have found, in hopes to incorporate them in my own classroom one day. I will continue updating this list as I move along. Below are some examples:

This is an example of how to display various math problem-solving strategies. If you are interested in these posters, I posted a file with all of them under the math section in the "Subject Resources" page. (Gr. 3 class)

This teacher used the space on her blackboard very efficiently (it is located at the front of the room - for a picture of the full board, see image below). I like how she has her student's birthdays, the calendar, the weather, positive messages, classroom helpers, and a daily graph of the temperature all in one place, without making it look cluttered. I liked her idea of having students get into a daily routine of measuring the temperature outside, right from the first day of school. (Gr. 3 class)

Image of full board at the front of the room. To the left she has a display of sentences the students have created with their word wall words. In the center she always has the tasks written out and bell work available for when students come in. (Gr. 3 class)

This is a Gr. 1 French Immersion class. What I found really neat was that part of the daily morning routine was not just doing the calendar, but also counting how many days the students had been at school. The interesting part about this, is that the teacher had the students keep track of it with a tally chart (see below) and also using "ten's'" and "ones" sticks (see the red folder hanging beside the calendar?) What a great way to incorporate Math in a daily routine! (Gr. 1 FI)

This was the classroom I was in for my 6-week practicum. What I really liked about how the teacher organized this, is that he had the seasons and the months of the year close to where the students put up the date. He would also collect little items that students would bring in to represent the certain season (you can see the cut out leaves and real leaves to represent the fall). I had added in the schedule, which the students really enjoyed! Also notice the folder with "Je n'étais pas içi." - a student was appointed to collect forms and handouts for students that were missing that day.