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Articles

organized classroom totes

Classroom Organization: Assess How It’s Going

Below are some areas that can help create the conditions for students to feel comfortable and ready to start their work of learning and building a positive classroom community.  Assessing your classroom organization will help create the optimal learning environment, where all students feel invited to challenge themselves academically and…
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Sep 23 2019
Organized classroom

Creating a Place for Learning

We all can think of stores that felt inviting and organized, places that created the optimal shopping experience. Classrooms, like stores, can be places where we frequently want to spend our time, or they can be places that are unpleasant. We want our classrooms to communicate to students: “This room…
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Sep 17 2019
Clearing the Way for New Growth

Clearing the Way for New Growth

Recently I was in a school conducting observations, and I noticed that all of the classrooms were picture-perfect. The decorations on the walls looked like an advertisement for a teacher store, and would make some avid pinners jealous! As I watched the students in the class work, gather supplies, and…
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Mar 07 2019
This Room Was Made for You and Me

This Room Was Made for You and Me

Children need a classroom environment they can understand and trust. They need to understand the routines and to know where to find things, they need uncluttered spaces to do their work, and they need clear, safe pathways for moving about. It’s essential that classrooms be well organized, predictable, and orderly,…
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Jun 20 2018

Is Your Classroom Organized for Learning?

School’s over! As you clean tabletops, take down anchor charts, and sort supplies, pause and take a look around your classroom. Will you be leaving a space that worked well for most of the year’s learning activities, a space you happily anticipate returning to in the fall? Or did the…
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Jun 15 2016
Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Our Classroom Walls

During the school day we spend most of our time in our classroom and so do twenty to thirty students (give or take a few!). Many of us feel that our classroom is not complete until it is covered with colorful displays brightly shouting what our classroom hopes to be:…
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Nov 03 2015
Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Our Classroom Library: Reflections

I'm definitely doing this each year from now on! As the end of the first quarter of the school year rolled around, I reflected on the benefits I'd seen from involving students in building our classroom library and fully realized how amazing (and fun!) this project has been. I gave…
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Nov 15 2013
Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Building Our Classroom Library

When my new third grade students saw our classroom library for the first time this year, all of the book baskets on the shelves were empty, and although the baskets were labeled "F" and "NF," I'd torn off all the other labels I'd made to categorize the books. I put…
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Oct 16 2013
Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Whose Classroom Is It?

One way the Responsive Classroom approach has changed my teaching is that I have learned to think of the classroom as a space that belongs to all of us, rather than as "my" space. In practice, what that means is that while I am still in charge (I am, after…
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Oct 08 2013

Ask Yourself Why

What's your vision for your classroom community this year? How do you want the room to look, sound, and feel once the first weeks of school are over? In my last post, I shared a scene that captures some elements of my vision for my own classroom. If you haven't…
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Aug 06 2013
Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Envisioning Your Classroom

I started setting up my classroom a few days ago, and of course I was thinking about the first days of school, but what really guided my decisions was a vision of what my classroom would be like about ten weeks from now. By then I expect the room will…
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Aug 05 2013

Classroom Display Ideas

Last spring, I encouraged you to take a good, hard look at your classroom displays and think about how, in the future, you might increase the emphasis on displaying student work and showcasing learning. Now, for those of you who are just getting started with a new class, it's time…
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Aug 29 2012

Time to Change the Routine?

Which parts of your school day just don't seem to work as well as you'd like? Now's a great time to do some problem-solving, imagine new possibilities, and plan to make changes when school starts again. It's also a great time to brush up on Interactive Modeling, a key Responsive…
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Jul 26 2012

If Classroom Walls Could Talk

Take a look at your classroom walls and displays. What do they say about you, your relationship with your class, and your view of teaching? Are your students guests in your room, or does the classroom feel like a space you share with them? Do the walls and displays show…
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May 24 2012

Asking the Right Questions

Three years ago, I noticed my first grade class having real difficulty putting away the materials for one of our workstations. Although these students usually followed the cleanup routines we'd developed and practiced for other stations, they would often leave words strewn about the poetry workstation. To set up this…
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Jan 24 2012

Decluttering Starts Now!

How much of the stuff that’s cluttering your classroom could be gone before school starts up again? Teachers keep all kinds of stuff we never use. Why do we keep these things? Lots of reasons: Scarcity of resources can turn us into hoarders. Or we engage in “someday” thinking, as…
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Jun 15 2011

Displaying Student Work

In any classroom, displays should consist primarily of the children’s work, rather than teacher-made or store-bought pieces, no matter how beautiful those pieces might be. Displaying student work sends several important messages: As teachers, we value what students do. This is their classroom as much as ours. And in this…
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Aug 18 2010

Classroom Connections

In my first couple of years teaching fourth grade, I was surprised by how much my students argued about who owned which supplies. "Nicole, can I borrow your black marker?" Carradine would ask. "No. My mom bought these for me." Carradine would push, "But you’re letting Rachel use your markers."…
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Aug 01 2010

Furniture for the Classroom

Furniture takes up lots of room, so if you’re lucky enough to have some choice about how you furnish your classroom, you’ll want to choose carefully. Look for pieces that will be truly useful, give you as much space as possible for flexible instruction, and allow the children to move…
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Jul 12 2010

Community Supplies

Just like adults, children of all ages need sufficient quantities of good-quality supplies if they're going to do their best work. At the start of the year, teachers (or schools) often give out lists of supplies for each family to purchase for their child. Many parents enjoy getting materials for…
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Jul 06 2010

Solving the Space Crunch

What's something you've done to make better use of space in your classroom? A: I let go of my teacher desk. It was hard to do. Even though I rarely sat there, that piece of furniture signified that I was The Teacher. However, the desk took up a ton of space,…
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Aug 01 2008

Opening Soon!

An exciting way to introduce classroom materials and learning areas slowly, safely, and with a sense of ownership and fun As eager kindergarten students enter the classroom on the first day of school, they see chairs and tables, a paper towel machine, a row of hooks for backpacks, and shelves…
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Jul 31 2004

Displaying Student Work

A classroom filled with the work of children is a delight to be in and sends a message to students that their work and their learning are important. Although early in the school year, the teacher might do much of the display planning and caretaking, as the year progresses, students…
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Nov 01 2002

Classroom Spaces That Work

Imagine spending every day in a physical space designed for people much bigger than you. To wash your hands or get a drink of water, you’d have to drag a chair over to the sink or ask a friend for a boost. Your feet would dangle in mid-air when you…
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Apr 01 2001

Getting the Most Value Out of Displays

Effective classroom displays are one of the most powerful—and overlooked—tools for teaching. They can generate excitement about the curriculum, increase children’s investment in learning, help children appreciate their own work and the work of others, and foster a powerful sense of individual and group ownership of the classroom. Granted, in…
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Aug 31 2000

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