Jennuine Teaching

With all of these teacher toolboxes floating around on Pinterest, it's hard to really know who started it all. If any of you know who the original creator of the teacher toolbox is, please let me know so I can give proper credit. With that said, I've seen the teacher toolbox floating around the internet and decided it was time to make one. I am constantly searching around my classroom, looking for little odds-and-ends that are no where to be found. I love the fact that now, they will all be in one place.  This year I am trying to create a theme for my classroom. It started with a rug that I have in my room and then it branched out into a color scheme. I was pretty sure that I was just going to stick to colors and not a full out theme, but I kind of started leaning toward a forest/woodland theme. I have always wanted a nature theme in my room, so I guess this theme was just perfect for me. If you would like a copy of your own, please visit my TPT store HERE . **I have two diffe...

 Last year I bought these composition books with the intentions of using them. I knew that I wanted to use them for reading, science, and social studies, but I never knew how to put all three subjects in one notebook. Last year my teaching buddy and BFF added tabs to her notebooks and I thought it was a great idea. She was able to use the notebooks all year. I meant to do it last year, but the time got away from me. I was determined to make time for it this summer. I love the composition books because they are more sturdy than to spiral notebooks. Spiral notebooks get destroyed and eventually pages are torn and lost. Not to mention the wire starts to get messed up and pokes a student!! To create the tabs I just used a SU! label punch. You can get a newer addition HERE . I am extremely excited to start using these notebooks in my class this year and I already have so many ideas!!!

Many people that walk into my classroom think that it is such a clean and organized room. Clean... yes. Organized... NO WAY!! Here is what everyone sees my classroom as... I love my room and I spent a lot of time rearranging it to make it fit my needs as well as my students' needs. It is a very functional classroom, aside from the organizational piece that is missing. Today I am going to share with you my "secrets". Are you ready for them? I must say that they aren't pretty. Be warned, you are about to see my BEFORE photos.   This area looks fairly organized, except for the fact that I don't use ANY of it. I ocassionally lift up the fabric to get the students' reading books and a binder here and there, but other than that, these shelves are taking up prime real estate.   One of my few cabinets that lock is filled with supplies that don't need to be locked up.  Math centers that have never been used because I still have no clue how I want to organize them. ...

Take a tour of my classroom. Pictures in a later post.

I have been having a difficult time with supplies over the past few years that I have been teaching. I have tables in my room and even though some people may love tables, me not so much. I love the fact that you save space with tables, but when the students don't have a place for their things, it becomes a problem, especially in 2nd grade. I have tried many things. My first year I tried a single bucket of supplies and by the end of the year it was a total mess. Then I switched to individual boxes. That got expensive for me, even when they were on sale. Then I had the students start to buy them. The only problem was that when a student ran out of a certain material, they wouldn't buy a new one and the other students were hesitant to share. This year I wanted to have a sense of community and that we take care of our things and share. I am going to try out the community supplies again. I will have the students buy their supplies at the beginning of the year, but as time goes on I ...