One Teacher's Adventures

Spring is finally here! The days are getting longer, and we’re in the home stretch of the school year. I'm back to school tomorrow after a 2-week Spring Break. This is the perfect time to refresh your classroom and shake up your teaching routine to keep things feeling fresh for both you and your students. A little bit of spring cleaning can go a long way in making the last few months of the year smoother, more organized, and more enjoyable. Here’s how you can declutter, refresh, and reset to finish strong. 1. Declutter and Organize Your Classroom A clean, organized space makes a big difference—for you and your students! Here’s where to start: Clear out the clutter. Go through those piles of papers, broken supplies, and unused materials. If you haven’t used something all year, chances are you won’t need it next year either—toss it, recycle it, or donate it. Reorganize your materials. Group things together in a way that makes sense for how you use them. Label bins and drawers so yo...

This is my third year at my current school, and my third different classroom!  I feel cautiously optimistic that this will be my last move, so I'm making the room my own. This is my Grade 7 classroom: I asked for tables instead of desks to encourage collaboration and team work . Since my students don't have desks, they each have a drawer in the drawer carts to hold their supplies. Drawers in use. The pages next to my homework board are cover sheets that list all assignments and due dates for the term. If students are absent, they can check the cover sheets to see what they missed.   Extra assignments are kept by subject folder in the crate. The red baskets are my hand-in baskets. Students are not allowed to hand in assignments to me directly, it all has to go into the bin. Extra assignments crate.     My classroom library is organized by genre. Each different genre has a different coloured sticker on the spine so the kids ...

I don't know about your students, but mine don't especially love taking down notes!  I don't love notes, either, but they can be a great tool for studying and review if they are set up in a user-friendly way.   For French vocabulary review, I like to set up the notes as a French-English dictionary.  The students use a notebook and dedicate one page for each letter of the alphabet.  I like Hilroy 32-page exercise books because I can pick them up at Walmart the week before school starts for only $0.05 each!  To jazz up the booklets, you can glue on a simple cover. I spend the first class setting up the book with my students.  I use three columns:  ENGLISH WORD   I set the alphabet by English word, as it makes it easier for the students to find what they are looking for. FRENCH WORD I have my students include an article for all nouns to help them remember the gender of the noun. WORD TYPE  I ask my students...