How I Prep at the End of the Year for Next Year

We are in our last 2 weeks of school, and the final full days! The last official assignments are being turned in, desperation extra credit and make-work are being emailed at all hours, and my thoughts turn to next year.

My big goals for the next couple of weeks will be to get my room cleaned and organized, as well as setting up my procedures around the room.

In my first year or in new rooms, I do not throw anything out- you never know what you might need! Especially when there is not curriculum or guidance, anything and everything might be useful. Now that we are at the end of the year and I have a plan and direction for next year, I am willing to part with/toss out all the junk I have been hanging on to, or pass it along to another teacher. 

Cleaning out cabinets and organizing is a great activity for the students to help with. As much as they profess to be excited to have "nothing" to do, a full 8 hours of nothing gets pretty old, so I make a list of tasks and chores that I can hand out to students to complete. 

My list usually includes: 

• clear out cabinets and wipe them down 
• check expiration dates on chemicals and materials
• sorting and organizing small parts (ahem, all my stem stuff!)
• printing out new labels and attaching them to the boxes
• dusting and wiping down the entire room
• updating worksheets with my notes
• cleaning out old papers and student work
• finishing little projects and models for next year
• even sharpening colored pencils and checking for dead markers!

My big task for myself is to organize my paperwork! Although we are a 1:1, I like to keep it old school, and print copies of everything we do, and of projects I find, or inspirational labs and activities! As we go through the activities, I write notes to myself, and I keep everything in a big pile a file to refer to later. I am now tackling the huge job of sorting the papers into which class, which unit and which project. 

Original Pile With My Notes 

After I sort them, I read through each of the mini-piles, taking a look at my notes and additional materials I may have attached. I then take a clean sheet and summarize what I want to do with the materials and any new ideas I have, and put it into a file with a post-it tab.

Different Project Ideas Filed

Finally, I create a schedule of when to work on develop the materials for each class, unit and project, so that everything is prepared for the beginning of next year. I usually start with my introduction units, since they will be needed first. Looking at my planner, I write each topic into a week, so that I know what to pull out to work on, and just go from there! It takes a lot off of my mind, knowing that I can just pop open my planner, see what is scheduled and get to work- I get too stressed out and paralyzed with too many choices otherwise! 

How does your end of the year go? Do you have a plan to use your end of year helpers and prep for next year? Share your methods below! 

Welcome to My Classroom! A tour around the Aquaponics Lab

I post a lot of pictures around my classroom- fish, plants, lumber, student projects. I thought it would be fun to give you a quick video tour of my whole classroom, so you can see how I get so much stuff squeezed into a room (spoiler alert- my room is HUGE!)

Comment below about your rooms- what do you love about your teaching space??

Lesson Planning: Back to School-Teaching Rules and Procedures

Well, teacher friends-it is just about back to school time! We start school on September 5th this year, and I am in full new-year mode! I have ransacked the Target, Walmart and Staples for supplies and I have been working on completely planning the first semester.

I try to have at least the first month mapped out completely. This helps calm my over-anxious teacher-brain, but is not so planned that I feel I can't change it after the month is over. I usually find that the first month is a sort of settling in period for me. I get to know the students, and they get to know me. I get a hands-on practice of how my systems and structure will work and what will and what won't need to be adjusted.

During the first week, I usually do a mini-unit on rules, procedures and expectations in my class, followed by my Introduction to Science Unit. These are both nice easy topics to learn and keeps the students (and me, tbh) from freaking out too soon. (I like to ease them into the freaking out part, lol!)

My mini-unit on rules, procedures and expectations usually takes about a 3 to 4 days of 50 minute classes.

Here is my schedule:
Day 1- Personal introduction and begin Back to School Stations
Day 2- Complete Back to School Stations
Day 3- Fun lab
Day 4- Mini Research/Poster Project

My Back to School Station activity is usually about 5-6 stations of different activities that I pull together, including:

• a Syllabus Scavenger Hunt, where they have to read the syllabus and find the answer to questions
• Getting to Know Your Group Dice Game, a school friendly version of "never have I ever"
• an Around the Room Scavenger Hunt for locations of different materials and bits of information
• a couple of group challenges (usually working as a group to stack cups or write with a single marker) 
• setting up notebooks
• and a station for logic puzzles 

These Station Activities can take anywhere from one class period to two. Sometimes, I will save the group challenges for the second day entirely and talk about how they will need to work together in groups. For that, I will try to have a couple more activities on hand, in case they really work fast! 

I have also had them spend a class period getting notebooks in order, depending on how I use them. If they are using regular binders, then the station will just be coloring a cover page and labeling their tabs for the binder. If I am doing full-on interactive notebooks, then I will spend an entire class period going over how to set them up, and pasting in rules and expectations, showing them examples of good and bad work.  

I like to do a mini-lab on the third day, just to get a quick assessment of how they work in groups. Everybody is still fresh, so no one has fallen into their "role" in class yet. This will usually be the marshmallow/spaghetti stack, or the saving Sam activity. (This is also a great introduction of how to complete classwork and turn it in, whether I am using a binder or INB.)

A mini-lab setup with the rolling lab tables

 **Just make sure that if you do this, you check with other teachers to make sure you are not repeating each other (that was awkward-Mrs!- we just did this in miss-so-and-so's class!)**

And finally, depending on how bored I am with introduction stuff or icebreakers, I will either have them complete a mini-research project to make a poster for my bulletin board or I will dive into my "what is science?" lesson and get started!

This year, I am looking into finding some new activities that are not quite so played out.

I have listed a few things on my wish list below! 

All About Me Back to School Ice Breakers by Getting Nerdy  -this looks like a great icebreaker and INB practice activity in one! Plus, I love their stuff!

Four Brains are Better Than One by Tangstar Science - I already own this one! It is quick and a lot of fun. I have used it and many of her articles as substitute work!

Back to School Science Activities for Middle School by That Rocks Math Science and ELA - This looks like a great collection of 12 activities that focus on different science skills. Geared toward middle school, and looks to be not your typical activities.

Back to School Beginning of the Year Activities: Science Edition by Martina Cahill, The Hungry Teacher - this looks promising. It includes different activities, along with getting to know you and questionnaires. Suitable for lower middle grades (think 5-6, maybe 7)

Take Notes the Cornell Way by Mister Science- I am still thinking about how I want students to take notes. I have done modified Cornell before and this looks like an interesting lesson to teach it more effectively.

So there you have it- my general back to school method! What do you guys do for back to school? do you have any special ways to introduce you rules and procedures? Anything new you are trying this year? Leave a comment below and share!

Our New Classroom Pet!

My first year teaching, I bought my own 10 gallon fish tank and set it up in the room. It actually was a wonderful thing- the students loved it and we had some really great conversations about fish, and life/death and caring for another thing. I took it down when I went on maternity leave and put it in my daughter's room. In the years since, I have not set up another fish tank in a classroom-mostly just too expensive, or I knew I wouldn't be staying too long.
This year, however, I was donated a large fish tank and decided to set up another fish tank!

My initial thought was that I would get a turtle frogs or lizards, but my classroom is a trailer outside of the main building, and they usually turn the heat off at night. Plus, I needed a class pet that could handle being left alone for several days at a time over long weekends/holidays. I finally settled on fish-tough enough, can be left alone for several days (or at least you can leave food for them) and nice to look at.

Here are the different steps to setting up the tank:
1- empty tank- cycling- only has water, filter, substrate- and heater
2- plants- they sat for about a week without  fish
3- fish! we got to vote on what would go into the tank, and final tally was gouramis, tetras and mollys. (I would like to add an algae eaters once the tank is a little more established)
4- final set up

Drawbacks- wrong size EVERYTHING! oops! I got the hood replaced, but the stand will just have to do! The decoration did not sink.. womp-womp!

I also set up Fish Central- where the students can look at the different levels of pH, ammonia, nitrates and nitrites and tell if we need to adjust. I am also going to create a log of what is going on in the tank-births, deaths, etc.

They have really loved getting into the project-especially voting for fish! The final verdict was mollies, tetras and gouramis.

Even though it has only been a week or so, having this fish tank has been really great as a way to communicate and connect with my students. It is always amazing what you find out about them- hobbies and interests and just their life in general. I find that, especially with my older students and short semesters, I tend to focus on them as students and forget that they have an outside life. In the few (school) days I have had it, I have had some very real conversations with them, and it has been really nice.

I have a second empty tank and have been trying to decide what to do with it- maybe hermit crabs?
Do you have classroom pets, or have you been considering one? Any good suggestions for a hardy pet? Tell me about it in the comments!

Classroom Organization: You Lost My Paper!

Classroom organization is something that has taken me a while (read: years!) to get a handle on. I have tried so many different systems- collect and hand back, mailboxes, collect and file, student notebooks, binders, you name it, I have probably tried it!

This is the first year the I think I have finally aced the paper trail in my classroom. It has been an absolute life-saver! In the past 6 years of teaching, I have never had students papers so organized, grading has never been easier and I have not "lost" a single thing!

 The set-up is this- All students have their own folder (2 pocket paper folder with brads) and hanging file folder (labeled with their name). All of these folders are arranged by class period.

Every student has a hanging file and folder with their name.

As they come in the door, the grab their folder, the worksheet for the day and a pencil.
(The worksheet for the day has the Do-Now, lesson or work for the day, and the Exit ticket). This should be immediately hole-punched and put into the back of the folder.
After they have collected their materials, they get started with the day!

This is the table by the door. Everything they need for the day is here!

At the end of class, they simply return their folder to it's hanging file, the pencil to the bucket and we are done and ready for another day!

Everything we do is kept in their folder- from daily work, to quizzes, tests, labs, everything! I will collect quizzes and tests, and have occasionally collected lab work, but I file it into the hanging file folder after it is graded. The next day, they collect it, hole punch and put it into their folder!
Grading has never been easier- I use stamp markers to mark their work sections as I go along. I grade each folder every Friday- just check for the stamps and done! If the work is not hole-punched and placed in the brads, it does not get graded. I explain it like a job-if I don't file my paperwork, I don"t get paid!

Ignore the scribbles- she has never lost anything!

If a student wants to have me grade work that they missed, or anything from previous weeks, they have to fill out a form letting me know what they have completed. I am willing to accept work at anytime, but you could easily have a cutoff point as well.

On the left is my Wall 'O Work. The picture on the right is for the extra copies.

As far as extra copies, and copies for students who miss. I make enough copies for every student, plus 8 (I have no idea why 8, just habit!). At the end of the day, all extra copies are filed into the "Missing Work" bin, in number order. On the wall, I keep track of the work we do each day (numbered in order, with day of the week and date listed). Students don't even ask anymore- they just take a look at the wall and check to see what they are missing. They go collect it, complete it, and write a note letting me know it is done!

This is directly next to the entrance table-everything else they might need!

This took a little bit of trial and error this year, but it has become such a great system! I have even had my admin asking me to share it with others! I have known for a while that I wanted to use a student journal type system, but last year was a mess! Order was terrible, there was no real way to add in printed pages, the students were THE. WORST. at numbering and labeling pages. They almost never went back and made up missing work.

The biggest changes I have done since the beginning of this year is go from having the student's folders numbered (which was really difficult because we have a very transient population) to filed alphabetically and adding in the extra copies bin.

Originally, my extra copies were in folders on the wall, but then what do you do with them after that week? Where do they go? How do the students know what they missed? Thus was born the Lesson Wall and Missing Work bucket.

So there you are-my genius classroom papers organization ideas! I hope that some of it might be useful for your classroom. If you have a genius idea, please list it in the comments section-I love to hear how other teachers organize the tidal wave of papers!

As an added bonus, here is a link to my FREE science-themed classroom labels! Happy organizing!

BTS Blog Hop! Classroom Organization Tips and Tricks

Hi everybody!

It's my first Blog Hop and I am teaming up with 50 great teacherprenuers to bring you tried and true classroom management and organizational strategies that work in our classrooms. Please make sure that you hop to each participating blog! We are also hosting a giveaway. Enter to win one of two great prizes. We are giving away the chance to win a $50 TpT Gift Card and classroom resources from over 30 teacher authors. Good luck! 

Check out each blog for great tips on classroom management and organization and enter to win all the great prizes!

Featured Friday!- High School Science Classroom Decoration

**Featured Friday is a monthly blog post featuring a great product from my store on sale! In August, I am thinking of classroom decoration and organization so my Science Themed Table Labels and Science Material labels are on sale for 20% for the next four days!**

I am getting ready to move to a new school, which means I get to reorganize and decorate my room! I haven't even seen my new room yet, but I am already decorating it in my head! I have (of, course) been perusing Pinterest for inspiration. There are gorgeous pictures of amazing classrooms, like:

Core Inspiration