Tools of the Classroom

I think it's only fitting then to have my 2nd blog based on another favorite of mine, which is organization.  I know I'm a better teacher when I'm organized.  Organization helps my day to day activities run smoothly and it's much easier to teach my kids to be organized when I'm organized as well.  I love to sort, color code and label pretty much anything.  I could single handedly keep Avery labels in business.  So far, I've tried many different ways of setting up areas for supplies in my classroom.  I think this time I nailed it and I have a feeling this will be sticking around for awhile.  I don't know how exactly I came up with the idea, but I'm sure it stemmed from my obsession with buying $1 buckets from Target.  Ultimately, I think that I needed a way of using them all so that I could justify buying so many.  I like my organization to be functional in the classroom and I came up with the idea of using a peg board to hang the buckets on the wall.  So, off to Home Depot I went, armed with a very clear picture of how I wanted this to turn out.  I bought a 4x8 peg board and had them cut it to fit the space I would be using.  I got one piece 3x3 to be used as the main supply board.  I then had them cut another 1.5x3 to have a second supply board.  Trying to find the correct hardware to hang the buckets turned out to be a chore and I had much better luck at Ace Hardware.  I bought about 30 hooks and went home to begin my project.  I spray painted the peg board silver so that the colored buckets would really pop.  I labeled each bucket (color coded of course) with the name of the supply it would be holding.  Once the peg board was mounted on the wall, I hung up my buckets, filled them with supplies and was ready to go!  I have to give credit to the occupational therapist that I share a room with for casually saying how it reminded her of tools in a garage.  A lightbulb went off and I came up with the title, "Tools of the Classroom".  If you look closely, you can tell that the letters are actually made of paint samples that I laminated and then die-cutted.  I got this idea from a teacher that my friend follows on pinterest.com.  They make the cutest letters!  That is, if you don't mind raiding the paint department at Home Depot :)  I love that I have one main section of my classroom that houses supplies and that it doesn't take up any desk or table space at all!  I have multiple things of markers, crayons and any other supplies that might be used by multiple students at once.  This is also great because my students usually keep their school supplies in their general education classroom so now I have extras for them to borrow.  I hope you enjoy the finished product!

Have You Filled A Bucket Today?

Well, I figured my first blog could be about my favorite book, Have You Filled A Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud.  It's a great story to teach elementary age children about how we affect each other in our daily decisions.  I use the book as part of my classroom management to keep my kiddos 'filling buckets' each day.  Students are encouraged to write their peers and teachers 'bucket notes' with a thank you, compliment or encouraging message.  I dedicated a huge bulletin board in my room to bucket filling because I think character education should be a big part of any classroom.  Each student has their own tin bucket (thank you Target $1 section, I am obsessed with buying buckets) that they label with their name and decorate.  The buckets in my picture are turned around to protect student names.  I can't encourage teachers enough to go buy this book.  It is fabulous!  They also have a great website full of resources:

http://bucketfillers101.com/