Teaching with Intention Chapter 3 Book Study

I am once again joining in on the book study, Teaching With Intentions put together by Kindergarten Smorgasboard.  You can find Chapter 1 here and Chapter 2 here if you missed them.  This week host's are Sassy, Savvy, Simple Teaching, Surfing Through Second, and The Learning Chambers.

This chapter talked about Classroom Environment.  One of the key points that Debbie Miller made was that classrooms can always be changed throughout the school year.  I am constantly changing up my classroom in little ways throughout the year.  I generally keep the set up the same as far as furniture from year to year.  This past year I did rearrange some shelfs to make more space for the blocks center and to provide a bigger shelf for students to store their materials on.  I also created signs for centers that hung on ribbon.  This helped me to organize materials more precisely and also helped students know where to go for specific centers.

I like her idea of "clearing the decks" and getting rid of things that we do not need.  I moved schools 3 years ago and still feel that I am throwing random stuff away each year that I discover the previous teacher left.  I am also going through my own teaching materials and getting rid of items that I have not used in a while.  This past year I shifted to using centers more than anything else.  I plan on creating a system to organize them all this summer.  My ideal organization system would have the centers categorized by standards so I can easily meet standards that are presented within our units.

I love the way Debbie Miller closes this chapter "Classroom environments are organic-they grow as we do.  The best of them reflect the hearts and souls of those who inhabit them.  They're never really finished.  They're never really "done".  How could they be, when every day students and teachers learn something new?"  I love this idea of having the environment grow throughout the year to accompany my own needs as well as the students needs.

Check out what other teacher's thought about this chapter by clicking here.  Have a great Wednesday!