I haven't been in my room since June. I haven't really thought much about my room since June. We are lucky to have a couple of days to work in our room guaranteed by our contract. But who am I kidding, I teach Kindergarten, I always need more.
I walked into a pretty organized room. The custodians put things back approximately where they were originally. Yeah, I don't have to move the rug or housekeeping center, it is very heavy. We are also allowed to leave things on the walls. That means less chair climbing up the ladder for me.
My room is a large rectangle with built-ins on every wall. This is my third year in the room and I haven't found a set up I love yet. I am finally happy with the housekeeping center. It is just inside the door, see the 'microwave' in the photo above. I need the custodians to turn it around, but it won't move. My tables and bookshelves are another story.
As you see, I have trapezoid tables for my students. Above they are in the butterfly arrangement. I like this because it gives the students more surface area to work. In this room, that takes up too much space. I use the hexagon set-up, but haven't been happy with it.
One reason I go in early is that I CANNOT do anything until I have the set-up done. And set-up means I stand around and mentally move things in my head. Then I imagine 18 little bodies, with back packs moving around the space. I imagine the table being too close to the water fountain or another table for the kids to walk around. I imagine myself walking around and keeping on eye on everyone. It takes a long time.
One thing I need this year is a bookshelf near each table group for the students to use. I have a 1:1 computer program in my room and most of those are laptops. They are in a cart overnight, but need to be accessible during the day. Last year I had them all on the same bookshelf. It worked fine. This year I wanted them spread out a little more. Hey, the fewer kids needing in the same space at the same time, the better.
I moved the bookshelves, I put them on a towel so I could slide them across the room. I didn't like them with the hexagon tables. I stared at the tables for a very long time and came up with an idea. What if I didn't do 'tables' but 'rows'? I moved the tables and bookshelves again until I came up with the arrangement below. I made a "V" type shape with the tables and put the bookshelf in the center. Each grouping will comfortably seat 6 kids, perfect.
I have plenty of room to get around the groups. There are no tables close to the carpet anymore, bonus there! I feel like I have more floor space than any year prior. I need to fix up my teaching area, move my easel and big book cart, but that won't take long. Next week is the teacher area and bulletin boards.
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