Making Improvements

Today I am linking up with my amazing friends Ashley and Angie to bring you this month's #2getherwearebetter post all about Classroom Improvements!!

I am excited for this month's link up because this is exactly what I have been thinking about!!  I am always looking for ways to improve not only my classroom, but myself as well!  I know that I am not a perfect teacher, and I know that I have new things to learn!

I had the joy of getting to move into a new to me room this year!  I have taught at the same school since 2008, and have taught third grade since then.  I am just moving down the hall, as we switched around some classrooms.  I moved all of my stuff into a different classroom on the last day of school, but hadn't been able to get into my NEW room until TUESDAY!!  Yes, as in TWO DAYS AGO!!  Needless to say I was there on Tuesday for 8 hours just moving stuff into my new room!  I did start to get some things set up, but not too much!  One of the things that I want to work on this year is making sure that this area stays CLEAN!!  I downsized my teacher desk AGAIN this year!!  I hate my desk taking up so much room, when I hardly ever work there!  Plus, my students are allowed to use my computer as we only have one other desktop computer in the room!  I need to make sure I keep it clean so they aren't pushing things aside, or leaning over things to work.  I had to leave Tuesday, and this is not clean yet, but it is the beginning!

I was debating getting rid of this piece!  I don't know for sure what I am going to use it for yet, but our maintenance guys said they would paint it for me if I didn't get rid of it, so I agreed!  I went out and bought them the spray paint I wanted, and they said they would paint it!  We'll see how it turns out, and I'm excited to figure out how to use it!  What would you use it for?!  I'm really confused on what to do with that really big hole on the left where there are no shelves?!

My thankful board was really high last year, and students couldn't check out what they were thankful for.  I also had to take down and hang their thankful cards EVERY WEEK last year!  That took SO MUCH TIME!!  This is the only board that I did on Tuesday, because it is my favorite!  I am not done with it yet!  This year I am going to spray paint their hooks as well, so they match of course!!  Then I will put up their hooks, and my signs to go on the board as well!  I can't wait to share this board with them in August and learn what they are thankful for!!

These were SUPER high last year too!  As in so high I had to climb on top of my really high stool to be able to take things off or put things up!  I am debating where I am going to display their work this year, but I know that I want it lower so it is not as hard for me to display their work.  I think that if I had it lower then I would be more likely to change it more often!!

We have Saxon text books, but I am not a FAN.  To be honest, I really don't like it at all. Sure, it does a great job spiraling, but it gives students no time to master ANYTHING, and yes there are word problems, but there is NO DEPTH!!  I know some people are big fans of Saxon, and I respect your opinion, but I am not a fan.  I try desperately to supplement as much as possible!  I'm excited because this year I will have TWO math classes of 14 students so I know I will be able to do so much more with them!  I can't wait to start working on this to figure out how I can push these kids and make them dive deeper!!

Last year I started working on some science and social studies interactive notebooks!  I know that this is something that I want to continue to work on.  The units I did where the students had their notebooks to go with the lessons they did so much better on assessments!  They were engaged, paying attention, and writing!  They wanted to know what was going on, and they were excited.  The lessons where we didn't get to write in their notebooks I was talking to a wall!  I am also excited because from reading Teaching with Intention, Mindsets in the Classroom, and Learn Like a Pirate, I have so many more ideas on how to run science and social studies this year too!!

Finally, and the most important to me, I want to make sure that in every lesson I teach, and every thing I do that my students know that God LOVES them.  I am very blessed to work in a school where I am able to share this with my students.  I don't want to teach it in religion in the morning, and then not talk about it for the rest of the day.  I NEED to make sure that I am more intentional about bringing religion into the other subject areas, and that I encourage my students to dig deep when we pray!

You won't want to miss out on what these other amazing bloggers are sharing on how they are going to make improvements this next year!!  Thank you for taking the time to read through my post!!  I hope that you are inspired to go and think about how you can make improvements too!  Feel free to link up below, but make sure to check out our amazing hosts, Ashley and Angie!!

An InLinkz Link-up