DIY classroom project #1

I wanted a place to sit at the front of my classroom and I happened to have an extra stool hanging around my home. I could have just brought it to school but it looked very grungy and old. I also wanted to put my initial on it because my school is rented. This means that my classroom is used for religious education on the weekends. I don't expect my stuff to disappear but as there will be many people walking around during the weekend I wanted to be able to easily identify my things in case it got moved to another room. I think it came out super cute!

Steps:

1. First I had my husband sand the stool.
2. Then I got him to spray paint it black.
3. Next I made a stencil out of card stock and cut out the printed part. I then laid the stencil on the stool where I wanted it.
4. After that I traced the stencil lightly with a pencil and took the stencil off.
5. Using the pencil lines as my guide I painted in my letter.

It took two days to do this because I wanted to make sure the spray paint dried completely.

Teachers Pay Teachers

My second goal for the upcoming school year was to create a Teachers Pay Teachers account. I made one today and uploaded my first file! I got the idea for the actual activity from something I saw another teacher do in their classroom.

This particular activity is a bulletin board idea. Students can sign the posters they feel apply to them. When they are finished you can put them on your bulletin board for a quick easy decorating job on the first day of school. It also helps you to learn more about your students.

You can find the whole file at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Janine-Bartsch

New Classroom

This is a picture of my new classroom. I have a lot of work of work to do! I am very lucky that the previous teacher left it in great shape for me. My only sadness is that the person I share this room with gets half the bulletin board. In other words, I can't remove all the old newspapers off the board in the back... Other than that I think it will be really nice to have a second person in the room to help me out. He won't be there all day but every little bit counts!

Welcome

Greetings! I am a first year fifth grade teacher and I thought blogging about my year may help me stay organized for future years to come and help me improve on my teaching.