New Classroom Layout & Organization Planning | Falling in Love With Teaching Again VLOG 6

Side note - YOU LOOK JACKED Michelle! Actually such an inspiration. Awesome work 🫡🫡

I am not a teacher but I first found you when I was homeschooling my son and I cannot tell you how helpful your videos were for me! He has since graduated and I still love your videos 😊

As someone who's still only a few years into this field, it's so helpful to hear how a veteran teacher thinks through these things. Also nice to know my practical side is thinking of how would actually work over aesthetics. Enjoy your meeting!

Hi Michelle, I’m exactly where you’re at. I am teaching fifth grade. I transferred from one school to a sister school, which is closer to home. I went from 4th to 5th . I’m already organizing and trying to figure out. my classroom. I went shopping today and I got some good purchases. I was at Michael’s today and got a Rolly cart for $30 which is pretty amazing. I also got the photo container that I’m gonna use for my markers originally 4199. I got them for 1499 . I went to HomeGoods and got some cute organizers and they were all on sale too. I am getting myself ready for the new year. We start the first week in August in Florida. Just wanted to share with you what I’ve been doing,. Thank you for this video we have a lot in common. I love your ideas and your inspiration. I’ve been teaching for 15 years and you’re kind of like my go to for setting up my classroom and I also got that black and white striped box that you have your markers in for four dollars at Michaels.

Totally love the insight and brain dump! I can totally understand the anxiety of planning a new classroom! I’m planning my friend’s classroom who will be a first year teacher. She and I have more questions than answers which is fine because someone I know very well said “a classroom is never done”! You have handled your setup methodically and you have room for error which is smart

Always enjoy your thinking process. I’m not scheduled to leave or move, but it’s always good to reassess/rethink and I always get good “take aways” from your videos. Thank you for documenting your journey. I pick up something useful every time! 😊

I admire how you specifically pre-plan for and organize your room down to the closets and drawers. I just have a general thought of where I'll put things and hope for the best. 😄

I loved the trapezoid students desks, because you can configure them in so many different ways. My favorite was making a large U shape by placing the sides of the desks together with one turned in and the next out. The students knew who their elbow buddy, group of four, six, and eight were depending on the type of activity we were performing. I like flexible groups! The only drawback to this are the desks that have the students’ backs facing the teaching area in the middle. My students quickly adapted by turning their chairs to the front and using a clipboard if needed. It was so great during independent work when I could easily check everyone’s progress with a quick trip around the inside of the U.

This is so very helpful! Not many teacher creators on youtube do this kind of planning, so Thank you for sharing Michelle!

I am so glad you are posting videos about going back into teaching again. I love these types of videos from you! Thanks for sharing your journey back into the classroom with us. Excited for your weekly teaching vlogs to come back. 🎉

I’m loving this series so much…so excited that you’re headed back to the classroom!!

Eureka comes with a lot of materials (each kid will have 3 books at a time, which means 2 class sets of books) and in 2nd we had 8 modules. Just thinking of where your switch class will keep their math books. Something I had to figure out last year! You will love it! I’m so excited for your journey!!

it’s so funny how everyone attacks teaching so differently- lol this level of planning gives me sooo much anxiety. I always just went in and set up in a way that felt right. i was also a minimalist though, so it wasn’t more than a day’s worth of work.

Thanks so much for this video! I'm the elementary librarian at my school, and I just got moved to another room (we don't have a dedicated library). It's a mess right now, but like you, I'm trying to map out everything and weed things. I have to teach lessons for each grade level so it gets pretty overwhelming since I plan for teaching space and all the books in such a small area. Watching your videos provides relief in knowing it will get done some way, some how. 😊 Good luck this SY, and enjoy being back with the kiddos!! Congrats on the new position! 🫶🏼🎉

For the larger table, I usually put that in front of my teacher desk lengthwise kind of like a sofa table if that makes sense—I keep my materials to hand out there, plus sometimes a turn-in basket. It's nice to just be able to reach over and grab what I need to grade from that table without going across the room. It would also save you some room, I think, and you can push kidney table to the right. I would also put a couple of chairs at that table, even if you rarely use them bc they are nice for visitors and for separating kids who aren't getting along (I teach middle school!). Best of luck to you—I love your videos. I am twice your age and envy your energy! 🙂

Thank you for sharing this process. I am studying to become a teacher and to see an experienced teacher like yourself share your process is VERY helpful to me. So thank you! All these little details help a newbie like me.

Wow I thought I was the only one going through this. I had to move schools in classrooms. I also was able took pictures just like you of my classroom. I can’t get in till late July, and just like you figure out what I’m gonna do with a smaller space.. So many possibilities ❤❤ I am blessed by this video ❤ thank you.

I love love love your planning videos. This reminds me a lot of the video you did when you were planning out your home office! I’m thinking of converting either part of my basement or my garage into a gym (we don’t use our garages for cars where I am from!) and this video gave me a great starting point on how to go about that! I’m having so much fun watching all of your surprise videos. Thank you for continuing to work so hard for your followers!

I arranged my trapezoid desks in "theater" type seating for classroom management purposes. I was still able to have them in groups, but had all the kids facing the front this way. I had one round table in the front/middle for the kids who needed more one on one during instruction from me.

Your classrooms are always spacious and have plenty of storage. I started laying out my floor plan as well.