This Week OFF From School

Well, it's around this time that if I hadn't already I would be starting to think about my class for this school year but with nothing coming up quite yet I'm still free to continue to laze around this summer.

What did I do exactly this week?

I made some homemade doughnuts... 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Doughnuts

this was something new for me.  I must admit they turned out pretty good for my first ever attempt at making doughnuts but I thought the filling was a bit much.  If you want to make your own doughnuts I used this recipe

I also made some Rice Krispie roll ups... 

I guess I was really into the chocolate and peanut butter this week.  I used this recipe .

I had a massage booked for Tuesday so I obviously took full advantage of that.

Then I guess I was a little too relaxed afterwards because when I went grocery shopping I promptly left the paper towel I purchased on the bottom of the cart (this isn't the first time I've done this either... last time I think it was cereal and I wasn't even sure if I had paid for it that time).

I started to develop some back pain this week so I booked and went to my first ever chiropractor visit.  Thankfully by yesterday it was feeling a lot better even though I hadn't actually had any adjustments done.

I FINALLY got around to updating my resume and coverletter because I know jobs are going to start getting posted soon so now I'll at least be ready for it!

The flooring saga continues... I brought home 4 samples (2 of vinyl - one glue down and one click and 2 of waterproof laminate) and we still aren't sure what type of flooring we want or what colour... yesterday I ended up returning these samples and picking up a few more slightly darker options.

I put them in one of the upstairs bedrooms because the wall colour is the colour that we plan on painting the living room... the white paper is against the wall on the right because we plan on changing out all the trim and baseboards to white and the 6 smaller pieces of wood leaning up against the wall are cupboard options.

We came from the long weekend with a lot of zucchini and cucumbers to pick

It's hard to tell the size of them by the picture but a couple of those zucchinis are about as long as my arm up to the elbow with a much larger circumference.

And we spent the long weekend at the lake.  It was a bit of a chilly weekend so we finally put all our "fire clothes" to good use.

Flexible Seating

This is a slightly newer concept... letting your students to pick where they will sit.  

To be honest, I'm not sure I could do it... I like my students being in the same spot every day (unless it's a time for a new seating plan) and sometimes it just makes sense because they have desks with supplies in it.  But here are some examples of classrooms with flexible seating options

In this classroom there were 2 students that sat on the ground on cushions at those little short tables in the front and 4 more went around the short circular table a little further back.  2 students could sit in those grey chairs and use the side table as their work space.  There's a table that's kind of hidden that has those wobble chairs at it (I think they are called hoki chairs?), and one of the tables at the back has one giant ball "chair" for a student.  At the very back of the room there is also some room for students to stand and do their work.  I think it worked in this classroom because there were SO many options.  You might not care for all of the spots but there are definitely a couple that you would be happy with.

A couple of years ago I was in a classroom where the teacher had set up different "rooms" in her classroom.  One area she called the kitchen (it's just to the left in the above picture) and she had a kitchen table with chairs around it.  There was a living room with a couch and a couple of side tables or a coffee table and then she just had a bunch of regular tables and desks for everyone else.  No one really fought over a spot (it was middle school and they were fairly well behaved though) but they did rush in to get the spot they wanted.

Here are some other options for flexible seating I've seen in various classrooms

Crates with a cushion on top are great options!

Not 100% on this one... but it looked like a standing desk option

In last weeks post I mentioned some things I would do in my ideal classroom for flexible seating.. things like a couch, a comfy chair or 2, and a taller counter space to use with stools would be ideal for me.

What kind of flexible seating do you use in your classroom?

Psst... last week I shared some pictures and wrote about what my ideal classroom would look like.

This Week OFF From School

I haven't had a lot to do this week... I'll even admit it... I got a little lazy this week.

Monday was too hot for a run.  Tuesday it looked like it was going to rain any second (all day).  Wednesday it was actually quite cold outside.  Excuses, excuses, excuses.  Anyways, I finally went on Thursday for my 32 minute run.  Huzzah!

What I did manage to get done was to buy the proper folders for my filing cabinet that we moved upstairs from the shed eons ago.  AND, I even started filing some things away.

I also FINALLY managed to wash all the floors in this house and vacuum that basement.  I even washed the shower curtain (and then ran it through the washing machine where it promptly broke so I should have just thrown it out to begin with).

I made some chocolate, coconut, craisin, chocolate chip cookies... adapted from a chocolate chocolate chip cookie recipe because I couldn't find an actual recipe that I liked.

I dealt with this mess that has been in my cupboard for a while... surely I'm not the only one that keeps every container that is sort of resealable?  I likely managed to get rid of about a third of them and boy does it look a lot neater in that cabinet!

Hung out with friends

And went for walks.

My Ideal Classroom

Maybe I'm the only one that does this... but sometimes on a prep or during the lunch hour I like to look around the classroom that I'm teaching in and plan out how I would arrange the furniture and layout of the room.

Here is what my ideal classroom would look like (of course there is a lot that I wouldn't have any control of in my classroom (like how many windows I have or where they are located, where my door is, whether my students have desks or tables, etc) but there are a few things that are important to me.

view from the front of the room (where the white board would be... hopefully!)

So I wasn't sure at all how large a classroom actually is and went with 30'x25'. Maybe they are bigger but hopefully they aren't much smaller. I made this plan on Ikea's website which wasn't exactly ideal because they don't have things that you would typically find in a classroom (like student/teacher desks or tables)... so I picked a desk that was bigger than the one that I currently have at home and we're going to pretend those lines of desks are actually long tables and so where it looks like a student is sitting at 2 desks it's actually just one long table.

1) I would arrange the desks in a horseshoe shape around the perimeter of the room. I'm not sure if I prefer desks or tables but I know that I would not be happy with circular tables. In my plan there is space for 25 students (hopefully that would be enough). IF it's tables and not desks I would also need somewhere for students to put their individual supplies (unless we had classroom supplies instead - which is actually quite common now I've just never taught in a class where this was the case)

2) Some teachers don't have a desk at school which I think is crazy. I need a space to make my own mess and lay stuff out, and, well, just know that it's my space and not for my students to get into. To go along with a desk I would also want a bookshelf and either a cupboard of some kind or a couple of filing cabinets (well, one filing cabinet for sure) and perhaps some kind of small bulletin board for me to post a calendar and other important papers on.

3) I need lots of bulletin boards! 2 smaller ones for Science/TUSC and Classroom Economy Jobs and at least 3 larger ones for Math, ELA, Art, and MOLA. If I had another one to post art on that would also be nice but I've also never found it hard to find an empty bulletin boards in a hallway to post stuff on. Ikea doesn't sell bulletin boards so I didn't actually put any in the classroom but in this set up it would be ideal if there was a small one by the door and then some running along the left and right sides of the diagram.

4) A Classroom library space is a necessity. I would love to have a couch and a couple of different/comfy chairs to put in my classroom library as well. Along with a coffee table and maybe a side table or 2 (with maybe a lamp on it) would be perfect. Oh, and of course a couple of bookshelves for all the books. Ideally, I would want my library by a window.

5) I like to have a table at the front of the room so I can put supplies out for my students to come up and grab or use it as a space for small groups.

6) This year, I have been in a bunch of classrooms that have nearly a whole wall of windows which is wonderful! If I had that I would want some kind of ledge under the windows (or a long tall table) running along the wall where I would put a bunch of stools to use as a flexible seating option (that I'll be talking about in a later post)

7) Some schools still have desktop computers in the classroom so I added a spot in my plan to put a couple of computers if needed.

Other: Plants - I would want plants in my classroom. Preferably real but maybe I would start off with one or two and decide how well we do at keeping them alive. I'm also not sure if I have preference when it comes to desks or tables. Desks students can store their own supplies and books in (but get messy and things get lost in them) and tables I would need to have a spot in the room for students to store some things in (which would still get messy and things would still go missing). I have experience with both.

As for colours I've always liked turquoise, grey, black, and white.  I think it's a fairly neutral colour pallet.

Grade 5/6 Classroom

Grades 4-6 Basic French Classroom

What does your ideal classroom look like?

Psst... in case you missed it last week I discussed 5 Things I Would Try in my Future Classroom and I think you should take a look at it.