My Classroom

INTRODUCTION

I am currently teaching second grade in a K-3 elementary school in Charlotte, MI named Parkview Elementary. I teach all subjects to my 23 second graders. As a former Spanish teacher, I try work the language into my lessons to enrich my students' learning experiences.

CLASSROOM TOUR

Clip Chart Our clip chart helps monitor behavior. Students start each day on green (ready to learn) and move their clips up when positive choices are made and clips can be moved down when poor choices are consistently made.	Class Rules Our class rules encourage students to be positive, ready, kind, safe, and to try their best. At the beginning of the school year, students sign their names in the open space to turn our rules into a "contract". This holds them accountable to follow the rules.
Class Library Our classroom library is filled with books at every reading level. It has some fun chairs and comfortable pillows so students can relax while they read in this special reading nook.	Schedule and Learning Scale The daily schedule keeps students in the loop about what we will be doing each day. This helps me set predictable routines in my classroom. The orange learning scale helps students monitor their learning and the numbers on the scale are used to assign students a grade.
Exit Tickets I periodically check in with students to have them complete an exit ticket. They will jot down and answer a quick question based on the learning goal. Their answers are used as quick formative assessments to see how students are performing in a given lesson.	Student Work I use this hallway display to show off student work samples. To tie in the ocean theme, it says, "Catch a wave with our fin-tastic class!"
Birthdays and Class Jobs In our classroom, each student has a special job that they are expected to complete daily to ensure that everything is getting done in our classroom. These jobs rotate monthly to allow students to try out a few new jobs during the school year.	Super Star Fish Each week, I choose a student that is modeling our class rules and is standing out as a leader. That students gets to be "Super Star Fish" of the week and gets to hang up a poster and pictures to show off to the class.
Objectives Our class goals and objectives are updated weekly to help set a purpose for learning for students. The objectives board is located next to the learning scale to allow students to do quick check-ins to tell me how they think they are doing (1-4) on each objective.	Class Layout As you can see, our tables are grouped into pods with 4 students in each group. This allows students to do quick turn and talks and small group assignments. Each group can also work together to earn team points when the whole group is making a positive choice. When a group reaches 10 points, they get to eat lunch with me.

Click on the pictures below to learn more about our classroom!

PARENT COMMUNICATION

I use a variety of tools to communicate with my students' families. The main methods of communication I use are Remind, SeeSaw, and newsletters sent via e-mail. I like to keep an open line of communication by offering a variety of ways for parents to get ahold of me so they can pick the communication that works best for them.

Remind

One communication tool I use is called Remind. I can send parents text message reminders to keep them up to date about what is going on in our classroom. It sends the messages right to their phones for quick and easy communication. The app is free and it is a great way to quickly get in contact with my students' parents. Click below to see a screenshot of my Remind account.

Weekly Newsletter

Each week, I send parents a weekly newsletter to let them know important dates and reminders for upcoming events. I also use this tool to give parents a quick snapshot about what we will be working on the following week. Click the PDF below to see an example of my weekly newsletter.

SeeSaw

One of my favorite things is sharing with parents what we are working on in class. I use SeeSaw to upload photos, videos, notes, etc. to give parents a glimpse into our classroom. It is essentially a safe social media site for parents to access photos and videos of their child. Parents can only see what their child is "tagged" in. Click below to see a screenshot of my SeeSaw page.

My Classroom

INTRODUCTION

I am currently teaching second grade in a K-3 elementary school in Charlotte, MI named Parkview Elementary. I teach all subjects to my 23 second graders. As a former Spanish teacher, I try work the language into my lessons to enrich my students' learning experiences.

CLASSROOM TOUR

Clip Chart

Our clip chart helps monitor behavior. Students start each day on green (ready to learn) and move their clips up when positive choices are made and clips can be moved down when poor choices are consistently made.

Class Rules

Our class rules encourage students to be positive, ready, kind, safe, and to try their best. At the beginning of the school year, students sign their names in the open space to turn our rules into a "contract". This holds them accountable to follow the rules.

Class Library

Our classroom library is filled with books at every reading level. It has some fun chairs and comfortable pillows so students can relax while they read in this special reading nook.

Schedule and Learning Scale

The daily schedule keeps students in the loop about what we will be doing each day. This helps me set predictable routines in my classroom. The orange learning scale helps students monitor their learning and the numbers on the scale are used to assign students a grade.

Exit Tickets

I periodically check in with students to have them complete an exit ticket. They will jot down and answer a quick question based on the learning goal. Their answers are used as quick formative assessments to see how students are performing in a given lesson.

Student Work

I use this hallway display to show off student work samples. To tie in the ocean theme, it says, "Catch a wave with our fin-tastic class!"

Birthdays and Class Jobs

In our classroom, each student has a special job that they are expected to complete daily to ensure that everything is getting done in our classroom. These jobs rotate monthly to allow students to try out a few new jobs during the school year.

Super Star Fish

Each week, I choose a student that is modeling our class rules and is standing out as a leader. That students gets to be "Super Star Fish" of the week and gets to hang up a poster and pictures to show off to the class.

Objectives

Our class goals and objectives are updated weekly to help set a purpose for learning for students. The objectives board is located next to the learning scale to allow students to do quick check-ins to tell me how they think they are doing (1-4) on each objective.

Class Layout

Click on the pictures below to learn more about our classroom!

PARENT COMMUNICATION

Remind​

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Weekly Newsletter​

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SeeSaw​

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Remind

Weekly Newsletter

SeeSaw