CLASSROOM TOUR 2020 | 5th Grade Classroom Reveal

Summary

Join Tress, a 5th-grade teacher in Alberta, Canada, as she takes you on a tour of her classroom setup for the 2020 school year. Throughout the video, Tress shares insights into her organizational strategies, the layout and functionality of the classroom spaces, and the innovative systems she employs to enhance learning and efficiency among her students. From a cleverly designed desk area to engaging learning stations and reading corners, Tress's classroom tour is both informative and inspiring for fellow educators and parents alike.

Highlights

• Tress has set up her desk area with customized cork boards to pin important items and maintain organization. 📝
• The classroom setup includes 22 desks, arranged to ensure space while adapting to new norms. 📏
• A unique pencil sharpening station involves students in classroom responsibilities, reducing disruptions. ✂️
• Maps and schedules provide visual aids to facilitate student learning and engagement. 🗓️
• Special consideration is given to reading, with a range of accessible books encouraging diverse literary exploration. 📖

Key Takeaways

• Tress emphasizes the importance of organization and has implemented systems to prevent clutter, especially around her desk area. 🗂️
• The classroom features a pencil station managed by a student, which helps keep the learning environment quiet and focused. ✏️
• Educational displays, like maps and schedules, are strategically placed to enrich the learning experience. 🗺️
• Books and reading materials are easily accessible, encouraging students to immerse themselves in a variety of genres. 📚
• The classroom includes a dedicated prayer area to incorporate spiritual practices into daily routines. 🙏

Overview

Stepping into Tressa's vibrant 5th-grade classroom, viewers are greeted with a charming mix of functionality and creativity. Tress opens up about her mission to stay organized this school year, highlighting the use of customized cork boards and strategic storage solutions around her desk. This year, her primary focus is on maintaining a tidy and efficient workspace to enhance both her teaching and the students' learning experiences.

One of the standout features of the classroom tour is the pencil sharpening system, run by a 'pencil manager'—a rotating student role that minimizes classroom interruptions and keeps pencils ready to go. Maps are cleverly integrated, not only aligning with the curriculum but also sparking curiosity and exploration among students. Tress's passion for reading is evident as she introduces a well-stocked bookshelf filled with both picture books and novels, ensuring that her students have access to multiple reading levels and genres.

The classroom isn't just an academic hub; it also nurtures spiritual growth with a designated prayer area complete with symbolic items like a Bible and a cross. As she wraps up the tour, Tress shares her excitement for the coming year and the adaptability her flexible arrangements will allow, fostering a dynamic environment where education and personal growth go hand in hand.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction and Desk Area The chapter 'Introduction and Desk Area' begins with a warm welcome to the classroom and the channel by Tressa, a fifth-year, fifth-grade teacher from Alberta, Canada. She introduces herself and acknowledges her prior classroom setup videos, inviting new viewers to watch those if they haven't already, establishing a friendly and informative tone for the content of the chapter.
• 01:30 - 03:00: Organization and Storage Solutions The chapter details the process of setting up and organizing a classroom by the narrator. They mention having shared their setup process earlier but have not given a final tour until now. They intend to showcase the classroom's organization and discuss how some elements are still unfinished and change throughout the school year. The narrator begins the tour with their desk area, emphasizing their efforts to maintain organization.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Classroom Layout and Pencil Sharpening Station The chapter discusses a teacher's experience with organizing their classroom space, particularly focusing on desk management and paper organization. The teacher tends to accumulate piles of papers but is forced to keep them organized due to the custodians' sanitizer spray, which damages unprotected papers. This necessity has helped the teacher develop better organizational habits, such as putting papers into drawers and baskets. The teacher also personalized their desk space by adding a bulletin board.
• 05:00 - 07:00: Maps, Schedule, and Student Work System The chapter titled 'Maps, Schedule, and Student Work System' describes the organization and setup of a classroom environment. The instructor has arranged cork boards on the wall for displaying things, including cards from students. A paper protector is used to hold a monthly calendar, which the teacher creates starting in October. The classroom is equipped with ample storage, which the teacher is excited about. A system has been established that works well, providing access to plain and lined paper for students at any time, along with a selection of colored construction paper.
• 07:00 - 10:00: Bookshelves and Reading Programs The chapter discusses organizational strategies in an educational setting, focusing on how a teacher manages materials. It describes a system with different drawers for art paper, ongoing marking, and copies for classroom activities. This helps maintain order and ensure accessibility of resources for teaching throughout the day.
• 10:00 - 12:00: Prayer Table and Small Group Area The chapter describes the arrangement of desks and spaces within a classroom setting for a new school year. The teacher has 23 desks arranged as far apart as possible, catering to the pandemic's guidelines, and recently learned that one student will no longer be attending, decreasing the total to 22 desks. The teacher prefers grouping desks but adapts to the necessary changes. The section concludes with a mention of a favored area in the classroom: the pencil sharpening station.
• 12:00 - 15:00: Write with Me Bulletin Board and Create Board The chapter discusses a classroom management system involving a designated 'pencil manager' who is responsible for sharpening pencils. Students replace their blunt pencils with sharpened ones to avoid disruption during class. The chapter also mentions a sanitization protocol for students before and after using shared resources.
• 15:00 - 18:00: Smart Board and Classroom Systems The chapter titled 'Smart Board and Classroom Systems' discusses the use of visual aids in the classroom, particularly maps. The teacher emphasizes the dual role of maps in both supporting the social studies curriculum and serving as an interactive tool that engages students' curiosity and desire to explore. The teacher has maps of Canada and the world prominently displayed in the classroom, which are integral to learning about Canadian regions, provinces, and territories throughout the year. Additionally, the teacher mentions using a downloadable schedule from an educational resource platform, which is updated every morning to inform the class of the day's activities.
• 18:00 - 20:00: Conclusion and Call to Action The chapter discusses organizational strategies for managing a classroom, including scheduling daily activities and planning breaks for students. Additionally, it highlights a method for collecting student work using designated baskets, ensuring that work is collected efficiently and handled according to protocol - specifically that teachers should not immediately mark the work, allowing for a mandatory waiting period before assessment. This system involves using specific locations within the classroom for collection and management of student submissions.

CLASSROOM TOUR 2020 | 5th Grade Classroom Reveal Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 welcome to my classroom hey guys welcome back to my channel if this is your first time here my name is tressa and i am a fifth year fifth grade teacher in alberta canada so some of you may have watched my classroom set up videos if you haven't you can go
• 00:30 - 01:00 check those out however i shared my whole process of setting up my classroom on there but i haven't given a final classroom reveal classroom tour so i am going to take you on that today there are obviously some items of my classroom that are still unfinished but those kind of change throughout the school year so i'll show you what i have so far and let's get right into it okay so we're starting right over here as soon as i enter my classroom this is my desk area i am trying to stay more organized this
• 01:00 - 01:30 year than normally i'm definitely one of those teachers that ends up with just piles of papers on my desk but one thing we are finding this year is that the sanitizer spray that the custodians use at the end of the day curls up our papers and so i need to actually put papers away so that that doesn't happen so it's helping me to form habits of putting them into drawers and putting them into baskets anyway this is my desk space i didn't have a bulletin board so i added my own
• 01:30 - 02:00 kind of cork boards up on the wall so i could hang things up i've already gotten a few little cards from students which i love this um paper protector here is where i will put our monthly calendar every month that i created i always start that in october and yes lots of storage this year i'm really excited this is a system that's working really well already so i have plain paper and lined paper and this is totally available for students to use whenever they want i have a little selection of colored construction
• 02:00 - 02:30 paper for art or again for my students to use throughout the day my drawers up here are where i put marking and things that i still need to correct or look at before i return them to students and my drawers down here are where i put all of my copying so as soon as i copy some math sheets for us to work on or things like that they go in here and that way i have a confined space for all of those
• 02:30 - 03:00 papers to end up and i have 23 desks out right now i actually found out today that i'm losing one student so i'm going to have 22. they are spaced as far apart as i could fit them and it's definitely a bit of a different year in setting them up like this i'm definitely more of a groups teacher but we are obviously going to make it work so coming up to one of my favorite parts of my classroom up here i have my pencil sharpening station
• 03:00 - 03:30 so i explained this whole system in one of my past videos but the way that it works is one of the jobs in my classroom is pencil manager and that person is in charge of always sharpening the pencils that are in the dull cup and adding them to the sharp cup and that way kids are not sharpening pencils throughout the day they if they need one they grab it from the sharp cup and they head on their way i also have a bottle of sanitizer here because this is an area that the students always have to sanitize before they get here and as they are leaving i put maps up on
• 03:30 - 04:00 the board i am a huge believer in having maps up in my classroom partly because it fits with our social studies curriculum but also partly because the kids love to come over and like explore the maps and find new places so i have canada up top because we talk about regions of canada and the provinces and territories throughout the school year and then i also have the world on the bottom up here i have my schedule this is something that i downloaded from teachers paid teachers but i every morning just put up what our
• 04:00 - 04:30 plan is for the day and i do find that this really helps kids with breaks figuring out what time everything's happening and knowing the order that we're going to do things for the day so over here i have chosen to put black baskets on the top of my cubbies and that is where students are handing in work because i'm technically not supposed to mark their work right away you have to let it sit for a period of time so i have their la baskets social
• 04:30 - 05:00 math religion science and health so their cubbies is where all of their extra supplies is kept because their desks are relatively small on the inside so this is a system that works really well for me i always struggle to put these cubbies together every year but the bins are fantastic the kids can then keep all of their extra supplies in there easy to access throughout the day if they need anything and it's just another space for them to have some things so that their desk isn't overloaded or their locker or their hook
• 05:00 - 05:30 area so up here above my whiteboard are our tribes agreements which in my classroom kind of like the rules in the classroom or the expectations then over here i have a place where i write the homework assignments that they have if we have any and daily announcements i'm going to be probably giving a little bit less homework this year because i want to kind of minimize the back and forth of papers and things and we're also
• 05:30 - 06:00 going to have less announcements because most of this is usually if there's tryouts for a sports team or a club is meeting throughout the day the kids love that kind of stuff and it's their first opportunity in grade 5 to participate in those things so kind of sad for my kids but anyway i left a spot up there in case something does come up this bookshelf over here is limits to the kids this is where i'm keeping the picture books that i'm going to read throughout the month and one of the things that i'm really trying to be purposeful about this year
• 06:00 - 06:30 is reading picture books to my students i am very consistent at reading novels and doing novel studies with my students but sometimes i forget to grab a picture book and how enjoyable that can be to read so i'm putting them out on the shelf so that they're visible to the students and me and i know what we're supposed to get through throughout the month and i get to expose them to picture books as well over here is our prayer table and i always like to have my prayer table in a space where there is some room for gathering around
• 06:30 - 07:00 so i have my bible on top our cross and rosary some prayers that the students can say if we're doing prayer at the beginning of the day or before lunch or at the end of the day and a candle and i always put the our father on the outside of my prayer table because it is a prayer that we say often in school and i try to help my students to memorize it so then over here is our bookshelf this is where we keep all of our novels and graphic novels and chapter books and my librarian my classroom librarian
• 07:00 - 07:30 which is a job in my classroom is in charge of keeping this area organized and they can sort the books however they choose so i actually do not sort the books in my classroom i leave that up to my students and then on top of it i am trying these book bins this year and i just bought these magazine files off of amazon and my students are keeping their books for the week inside their bin right now they have one they're gonna pick their second book tomorrow and then we're going to switch every two weeks that's something that i'm just kind of on a trial basis with right now
• 07:30 - 08:00 because i've never really done that before i always am pretty flexible with letting my students change their books but because i have to limit the touching of books this year and i believe books also have to sit for three days before another student can read them i am trying to just let my students pick a couple and hold on to them for two weeks and then we'll switch them out so this is my leveled reading books cart i got this card at michaels and i love it for this function so on the cart i just have the different
• 08:00 - 08:30 reading levels of the books that are inside these reading levels are all below grade five so these are the books that i sent home for students who are still working on their reading and this is where i keep all the books for the home reading program back here i'm so happy i found a space for this in my room this is a small group table i had to give up my kidney table because it didn't fit here but this table is perfect and i love that there is a whiteboard so that if either me or a student aide is working with students
• 08:30 - 09:00 they can use the whiteboard and then i also cut out these circles i know you can buy them as circles but i didn't have them so i cut them out and so when my students are working back here they have these little mini white boards on their table and then i just have ikea stools at this table as well so that they can be tucked away and not take up as much space as chairs would then over here i have my cart of extra supplies this is perfect for me if i'm working with a group at the back table
• 09:00 - 09:30 or for my student aid it just has everything that we could possibly need so that i'm not making trips back and forth from my desk and trying to maximize the time that i have with students to work back here in small groups so that is that this right with me bulletin board i believe after today i'm definitely going to need to use this for some commonly misspelled words or some writing prompts because i'm finding that some of my students are just having a hard time getting started
• 09:30 - 10:00 with their writing so i feel like that would be a really good use of this space is giving them some prompts and some story starters so that that isn't what is holding us back from writing then i have another whiteboard here i don't have chromebooks yet but i believe this is where i will keep my chromebook cart so this whiteboard will just be used for whatever it's needed for likely if french or music teachers need a whiteboard because often i have a bunch of stuff on the whiteboards at the front so they'll be able to use this and then
• 10:00 - 10:30 i love love love this one this is my create board so this is where kids can hang up their art projects or things that they create throughout the year and all i did was put some jute string with some clothes pins up and if there's an empty clothespin a student can hang up whatever they would like of their work then up here i of course have my smart board and my smart board is actually fully functional in my last classroom it did not recognize touch at all so it's kind of fun to be experimenting with a smart
• 10:30 - 11:00 board that actually works anyway down below the smart board is where i keep all of my duotangs so these are color-coded and i prefer to do it that way so that when i say get your science do it hang out if somebody can't remember what color their science duotang is we all have the same color so i can say it's your green one everyone finds their green do a tang so that is a system that i love and will definitely never go away from at least not when i'm teaching grade
• 11:00 - 11:30 five anyway that is it that is my completed classroom i will probably film an updated tour in a few months if i'm finding that i'm changing things as the year goes on which i do i'm definitely somebody who likes to switch up my classroom switch up the theme switch up the way kids are sitting everything like that because i think it's really fun but i do love the way it turned out and the way that it looks right now there's still a few things that i want to do to organize it and make sure it is kind of the most efficient setup for my
• 11:30 - 12:00 kids but that comes with time anyway if you liked today's video and you like the way i set up my classroom this year please give it a thumbs up because it really supports my channel comment below what you think your favorite part of my classroom is this year i would love your opinion and i will see you in my next one
• 12:00 - 12:30 [Music] you