The Room

Some have asked about the setup of my classroom.  I decided to take some time to go over the layout and features of  "my domain."

Aside from the main layout, there are areas of the room that are worth discussing I suppose.  We'll start with "command central" - it's important that I have space that is mine.  This is an area that is strictly off limits to students:

The chair is mine from home - I redid my home office and took the "old" chair to my classroom.  Comfort when sitting is a must (since I'm on my feet most of the day).

Another part of this area is where I keep all my "stuff" for conducting my classes - this area is also off limits to students.  It's just on the opposite side of my work area.  Not pictured is a book shelf (it would be behind me when I was snapping this picture) where I keep my software, DVD sets, teacher manuals, piano accompaniments, Music K-8 issues, etc.

I have my hand sign posters above the board, along with the traditional "Curwen-Kodàly Hand Sign" card set:

Want your very own hand sign set?  They are available here.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm a big fan of making magnetic cards to save me writing and re-writing things that I write over and over during the week.  Here you can see how I use them.  My word wall is completely magnetic (and color-coded by topic) and, when posting objectives for the day's lessons, I frequently just grab a word off the word wall and use the "action words" I have set up under my objective area:

And for those very rare moments that I get to sit while teaching (before the "teach on your feet" crowd gets all crazy, the moments are RARE, but when you've been doing this since the mid-80's, your feet and legs need brief breaks now and then):

Found this great "tractor seat" find on Wal-Mart's website.  The blue matches my risers!

 I found these magnetic maps (US and World) in one of those "around-the-house" kind of catalogs.  If I could remember which one, I would tell you.  They are really great for pointing out geography when discussing a folk song or a piece of world music, especially since geography (from any part of the world) seems to be a lacking subject these days.  The maps are puzzles, so when talking about Kentucky as being the area where Blue Grass music started, I can pull the state right off the wall:

When you have 24+ guitars, storage can be an issue.  I convinced my principal this would be worthwhile purchase:  24 guitar hooks.  So far, totally worth it!  I assist the students in getting them down...

You can see some of my other Orff and Joia Tube instruments below the guitars.  Here is a table in the back of my room where I keep various instruments, glockenspiels, Boomwhackers®, etc.  I wrote an article for the national Orff newsletter Reverberations a few years ago about the Boomwhacker® holder.  I made it from the box in which the two-octave set is shipped:

I keep two buckets (one wash, one rinse) on the top of my filing cabinet for my loaner recorders when students forget or for those who chose not to purchase their own.  The angle of the photograph kind of hides the rinse bucket, but it's behind the wash bucket which has a teaspoon of germicide in the water:

In front of the filing cabinet is my IWB (currently the Mimio board).  As you can see, I have an abundance of lined boards in my room and this Wenger portable music board was moved into this school when it was built - transferred from the older building.  I had the carpentry staff mount the IWB onto it (because I am expected to share my board) and it works great as an IWB, a projection screen, and when not in use, another display surface.  My classroom rules and the school "values code" are posted on it with magnetic strips stuck to the back of the posters:

Next to the IWB is my electronic keyboard storage mentioned in an earlier post.  This was built for me by a coworker completely out of leftover scrap plywood and an extra can of polyurethane he had - total cost:  $0  I gave him the specks on the shelf size I wanted for the particular model of keyboard I have, he did the building.

Here is a "distance shot" so you can see how the whole space fits together:

The open area behind the risers is for circle movement and games.  You can see in the distance I use the back of my piano as "bulletin board" space as well - I bought some large corrugated plastic sheets from an art supply website and mounted them to the back of my piano using heavy duty Velcro strips.  Currently the two posters there are the "rewards" and "consequences" posters that go with my pink "rules" poster on the IWB.

I hope you got some ideas from this one.  Until next week...