Organizing Your Classroom Library

I absolutely love having a classroom library! I've had one during all of my years of teaching, although my first classroom library consisted of books that just so happened to be in the room left by the previous teacher. They weren't organized and I was too busy trying to survive that I didn't pay much attention to it and the area just wasn't maintained.

Fast forward to me now going into my seventh year (crazy how time flies!) and I am moving to a new city along with my five IKEA plastic bins of books, four bookshelves, and countless dollar store bins. Is it a lot to haul them around? Yes, yes, and yes. But to me, having students excited about reading these books makes it all worth it!

So exactly HOW do I organize these books? I've researched soooo many ways and read many articles and have come to the conclusion that the way I organize my class library now works best for me and more importantly, my students who will be reading these books.

Many teachers organize their class library by reading levels, whether that be AR, Lexile, Reading A-Z, etc. There are a million programs that help teachers choose books for students based on their instructional level. That's exactly what those programs are designed for: to help teachers for instructional purposes, not really for students when choosing a book to read independently. Of course, as the teacher, I do choose books for my students for whole group lessons and differentiated small group lessons by their current reading level, but not when it comes to the classroom library. That's their time to choose a book to read based on their interest level and their own ability to realize whether or not a book is a "good fit" for them. When I introduce my classroom library  expectations to students, I also go over how to choose a "good fit" book for themselves using the I-PICK strategy from the Daily 5 program that many teachers follow. This is also when I introduce various GENRES,which is how I organize my classroom library!

I use these emoji labels I purchased from TPT HERE. I printed, laminated, and hot glued them to dollar store bins. From there, I simply placed my books in the bin that went along with the label. I found it also helps to separate the picture books from the chapter books just to keep things looking a bit neater! I also bought genre posters here for students to refer back to when choosing a book HERE and posted them up on the wall in the library for easy access. When a student asks me what a certain genre is, I simply point to the wall so they get used to referring to the posters instead of me lol. The emoji labels comes with the following 16 genres if you want to purchase, or create your own:

• Fiction
• Nonfiction
• Sports Fiction
• Autobiography, Biography, and Memoir (one label)
• Realistic Fiction
• Historical Fiction
• Mystery
• Science Fiction
• Fantasy
• Animal Fiction
• Poetry
• Greek Mythology
• Graphic Novels
• Adventure Fiction
• Traditional Literature
• Informational

Happy Library Organization!

My Favorite Year in Teaching (Also a Difficult One)....and How It Can Be Yours TOO!

I had been four years in the teaching game when I was approached by my good teacher friend to join her team for the 2017-2018 school year. I loved her and my principal at the time who encouraged me to do it, as well, but I was SCARED. Why, you ask? Because I was going from my sweet, sweet little third-graders (well most of the time sweet lol) to HUGE and MATURE fifth graders. Now a two year jump doesn't seem like a big difference in adult years, but boy is it different in little people years lol. It also seemed much scarier in my head because I had never taught any grade level above third, so I was a bit intimidated, but I did it anyway. Lesson for those reading, challenge yourself to go into the unknown because it will make you stronger and you will be better for it! 

Now that year started out rocky because during pre-week, we found out A LOT of our teachers were being placed at other schools due to reasons I still don't understand. It was a district decision based on prior state test scores and the teachers who were moving were notified during pre-week.  They also would not be replaced. So BOOM, our team was down two teachers in a matter of days, which caused everyone a lot stress. 

That year also brought on many behavior challenges, a new curriculum to follow, and a whole new set of standards to teach that I had never taught before. But with those challenges and through the tears, as a team, we decided to have FUN. We brought hype music into our classrooms, implemented a house system across the grade level, which brought about pep rallies at lunch and standing on tables (the Ron Clark Academy inspired us...that's another blog post because of all of its amazing-ness), and super engaging lesson plans! We also made it a point to support each other, knowing none of us were experts, but willing to learn new strategies. For new and veteran teachers, the best teachers are not the ones who have been in the game the longest, have the best TPT resources all over their room, or the cutest classroom. The best teachers, regardless of whether you have all the things mentioned, are the ones who never stop learning and unconditionally treat others as professionals. Our profession is forever changing (a bit too much at times) and being stagnant is not going to help. We can all learn something new to try to implement in our classrooms. 

So to make it the best year of your life, do the following:

1) Find YOUR SUPPORT! It's impossible to do this job alone because teaching is hard. I could not have accomplished anything without mine! 

2) Be open to suggestions, and not just from administration. Suggestions to try something new can come from anyone!

3) Have FUN with your team and in your classroom! Dress up for spirit week together, plan a fun lesson to do together outside of the classroom, play Kids Bop in your class, dance down the hallway with your teacher friend just because. It'll give you something to look forward to and make the day go by a little easier.

4) Ask questions if you don't understand something and do your research. No one is expecting you to be perfect, but they are expecting you to learn in hopes of later becoming an expert. So if you don't know the answer, be honest, and ask for clarification. Then make sure to look up standards, resources, strategies, etc. Please bring something to the table because your voice DOES matter, my dears. 

5) Plan and organize to save your sanity and time. Of course, we plan as teachers. That's our job, but if you can make your life  a little easier to get something ready ahead of time, DO IT! Put those centers in bins the day before and have the STUDENTS place it back neatly. Set up the science experiment ahead of time so it runs smoothly and you're not stressed. Pre-organize the math manipulatives so you're not passing it out in the middle of the lesson. It's the little things the make the BIGGEST difference, it really is! 

HAPPY TEACHING!!

New Beginnings with a Fresh New Look!

Summer vacation for teachers always brings out the creative side in all of us, doesn't it? We think about fun side hobbies/businesses to start while we're sipping our morning coffee, water, or whatever you choose to consume in the morning (or afternoon for some of us reveling in not having to wake up early!) Either way, maybe we decide to create a teacher-gram, lifestyle blog, You-tube channel to vlog our lives, or work on all of those cute TPT resources. 

It's insane how we are never truly "turned off" over the break. It's just the teacher in us, I suppose. I started this blog a year ago, along with a teacher Instagram by the same name (feel free to follow me ❤). If I were being honest, I haven't kept up with either accounts and I'd like to change that because writing has been a passion of mine since I was young and teaching has been a passion I "fell into" six years ago. It has been quite a journey and I'd like to share it with anyone who just might be able to learn a thing or two or maybe just laugh at the mistakes I've made. I'd also love to learn from others because teaching (and really, life) is never something you master, but learn to improve along the way from many different avenues. 

I listened to a podcast today (Kayln Nicholson's Coffee Talk. She's pretty awesome, so check her out) and it mentioned how no one likes being a beginner in anything, forgetting that every successful TPT-er, teacher-instagrammer, teacher vlogger/blogger had to start somewhere. So I'm starting on my beginner status in this blogger world to discuss this crazy, fun, ever changing profession we call education, fashion, food, whatever lol.

Check These Out Below:

https://www.instagram.com/fabulouslyin5th/?hl=en - Instagram

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kalyns-coffee-talk/id1372126575 - Kayln's Coffee Talk Podcast