Begin.... at the beginning

It rained last Thursday. Which isn't really news-worthy unless you are a teacher with just a few weeks left of summer break.A rainy day is usually the impetus for me to start readying my classroom for the first day of school.  This year I am a bit more behind the eight ball than usual as I physically moved spaces. So lots of my stuff is not where I might have put it last spring.Here's what I walked in to:

_DSC0001Which, of course, isn't bad. Just not how I envisioned our classroom workspace.

Even in the new classroom, I will have a ceiling mounted projector, and therefore, the need to have the projector, Mobi teacher unit and document camera connected to wall drops just to the left out of the frame. Having several classroom work areas - a rug for large group gathering, desks for individual, and for technology viewing, places where smaller groups can work ... all are considerations.  As I don't sit at my desk during the school day, that item can be pushed out of the way. We have a somewhat large classroom library and many math manipulative materials that need to be accessed regularly.  It's a lot to consider when setting up space that feels uncluttered and open.

So with all of that in mind, I've sketched out the plan for our classroom space.

2013-08-11 18-31-16