No Time Like the Present to Reflect and Plan! Freebie!

I have this feeling every year. You know, the feeling there is something you should be doing, then it hits you! You already did it! Yay you! The “hamster wheel” has slowed to a crawl, so you climb off and settle into an easy chair to reflect. (unlike these two little guys who can’t seem to FIND the easy chair–roflol!!!)

As you sip your tea, you think about what you did last summer that truly helped things flow better during your school days, your thoughts turn to the coming year, wondering…

For me, this has been an annual ritual. I crave this time to think about how my actions in planning helped student focus, because FOCUS is the main trait we want to see in our students. It relates to every aspect of our day. Great focus leads to great things! Students with focus learn to respect their peers and work cooperatively. After 20 years in a kindergarten classroom, I can say without a doubt, my most successful years were the years where students were able to stay focused. So, every decision I make has to do with maintaining or improving how students may better attend to a task.

With this main goal, to help students focus, I begin to look for inspiration. Some of the past projects that made a huge difference in daily focus are procedural, or helped to shorten transition time that eats away at instructional time. The simple act of locating all student supplies away from
our tables made all the difference in focus during math activities
where crayons were all we needed! Some of the planning was helped along by searching Pinterest, but some just came to me as I sat thinking about the needs of my kids.

From the crayon organizers (2012 summer project found on Pinterest),

To the bucket seats (2013 summer project),

To the word wall stands made from binders (2014 summer project),
ALL have had a huge impact on focus!

The crayon organizers did many things for my students. They learned to sort colors and keep them organized which made using specific colors during math a breeze! No more waiting for students to locate the correct crayon from their own art supplies.

Those wonderful bucket seats saved my sanity during small group time. Students were suddenly able to sit up high enough to read and work with words without standing on their knees. I placed big buttons around the edges of the kidney table for assigned seating during small groups too. A life saver! Again, better focus!

Last summer, I decided to make portable binder word walls for each table. These included alphabet, numbers with ten frames, and sight words for the entire year. I smiled again and again as I watched my students use the resources that took no more than a couple of hours to design and assemble.

What will I be making this year? You’ll have to stay tuned to find out!

Now, a little about room design. I am big on planning! I want to see it before it before it becomes part of my “roomscape”. For years I have used Power Point to design my classroom layout, simply from using the shapes tool in the program. Here is a rendering of my current plan (not saying it won’t change).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwugBzJawFTaZHRNOWtZXy1ZZXc/view?usp=sharing

My thinking flows along these lines:

1. Do I have the noisier center activities located in an area

that students can move about without interrupting small

groups, library center or writing center areas?

As you can see, there is a long area of floor space for

students to take the center tubs to, or they can move them

to the tables while I work with a group.

2. Can students move about the room with few obstructions?

3. Are supplies convenient for the intended use?

4. What system will I use when students need to speak to me

during small groups? (I use sign language for restroom–

sign the letter r, sign letter t for talk to teacher)

5. Are there charts in the room that I can reference to help

students remember these cues?

The above are only five of the considerations in room design. They are my top five.

I highly recommend playing with the layout of the room, considering where you store materials and how readily available they are for their intended use. It is the biggest time-saver/life-saver!

If you are not comfortable using Power Point to design your room,

here are links to three workable design apps. They are very basic, but functional.

http://classroom.4teachers.org /

http://teacher.scholastic.com/tools/class_setup /

http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/classroom_designer/cd_launch.jsp

If you would like to use the slide I am using for my “experimental design”, click on the pic of my room layout and download the power point slide.

Instructional design is a huge task, too huge to put in this current post. I will leave you with this freebie, though. It is how I think about what I loved this past year, and what I want to change. It is purposely designed to first look at the big picture–a broad look at what worked/didn’t work. After I think about these general impressions, I begin to jot down ideas for each subject area, do a little research for more resources, pick and choose among the ones that make students think more, then begin the process or prep. Maybe it will help to guide your thought processes as you plan too. (click on the top graphic to download your freebie).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwugBzJawFTadkFyNk9LMXBDd1U/view?usp=sharing

I have to grab an iced tea refill and do some more thinking. 😉 Remember to enjoy the time you have off, and try to stay off the hamster wheel as long as possible! 🙂

Thank you for reading this post! Love my followers 🙂

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