My students attend a school and live in a neighborhood where they are constantly required to go with "less-than" or completely without. Our district and school budget don't allow for the niceties of more affluent schools. Simple necessities like pencils are often scarce. Many of our supplies are second hand, not fully functional, or completely broken.
When we have the things that we need to make the classroom environment and the learning centers more effective, we use our time more wisely and are able to maximize learning potential. We just completed our beginning of year testing and our academic abilities range from kindergarten to fourth grade level. With such a wide range of learning going on in my classroom, teaching that is done as a whole group needs to be minimal and teaching to smaller, individualized groups is imperative. In order to have a classroom that runs effectively with this style of learning, we have to be incredibly organized. Our center work will be laminated for multiple uses, students will use expo markers to answer questions, erase mistakes, and try again. They will be able to use student friendly pencil sharpeners without needing to interrupt my small group teaching or their own learning, set timers to self-monitor work times, and most importantly, everything will be labeled and organized in a way that will make the classroom and center work run smoothly so that every student may select their individualized work plans at each center. With the supplies we need, our centers will be organized, diverse, differentiated, hands on, and kinesthetic!
About my class
My students attend a school and live in a neighborhood where they are constantly required to go with "less-than" or completely without. Our district and school budget don't allow for the niceties of more affluent schools. Simple necessities like pencils are often scarce. Many of our supplies are second hand, not fully functional, or completely broken.
When we have the things that we need to make the classroom environment and the learning centers more effective, we use our time more wisely and are able to maximize learning potential. We just completed our beginning of year testing and our academic abilities range from kindergarten to fourth grade level. With such a wide range of learning going on in my classroom, teaching that is done as a whole group needs to be minimal and teaching to smaller, individualized groups is imperative. In order to have a classroom that runs effectively with this style of learning, we have to be incredibly organized. Our center work will be laminated for multiple uses, students will use expo markers to answer questions, erase mistakes, and try again. They will be able to use student friendly pencil sharpeners without needing to interrupt my small group teaching or their own learning, set timers to self-monitor work times, and most importantly, everything will be labeled and organized in a way that will make the classroom and center work run smoothly so that every student may select their individualized work plans at each center. With the supplies we need, our centers will be organized, diverse, differentiated, hands on, and kinesthetic!
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