Classroom Set-Up!

Pin It I haven't abandoned you - pinky promise, I was just starting the school year! I had a pretty great response from some of my education-related posts and wanted to share a few more of my classroom ideas with you. Remember, I teach high school ESL, but a lot of this would work for different grade levels too. And, as the the saying goes, all good teachers steal... I definitely ripped off all some of this from Pinterest so feel free to steal from me too! :)

First up, plural bulletin board:

We decided to use some academic words and more basic words to include all the levels that we serve. Also note the fan... three early outs to start the year because of heat!

 Just some more examples of how the plural board works!

Next up, our preposition/position board. I love this because it is sooo simple but so so helpful! This is something I know my kids struggle with!

Now showing the contraction flip chart! This is what our second level kids started with this year and I thought this would be a nice thing to stare at/play with.

Another steal - a great way to keep kids organized and focused while answering test questions.

I think its pretty important to include the students in the rule/expectation creation. This year I did it like this!

I just projected onto my wall/whiteboard and let my kids sticky note their answers (because they're still nervous to talk a lot at the beginning). We went over them, they chose the way they wanted to answer it as a class and created posters, pictures to come... maybe! It worked really well.. minus a couple of less-than-sticky-sticky-notes.

I hope this gives you some ideas for your classroom! Have a happy school year - I know mine is off to an awesome start :)

Brain Breaks!

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I teach my students two periods in a row everyday for the same class. I love that I get that much time with them everyday - we get to really delve into the material and have plenty of time for practice and review. However, when you're 15-20 years old sometimes an hour and a half of studying English can seem like a never-ending eternity long time.

CC: http://www.flickr.com/photos/baileysjunk/

To mix it up, I like to incorporate brain breaks. You never know when your class will need them and sometimes it can be hard to come up with a fun, but academically appropriate game off the top of your head. So I created this matrix based off of a cute elementary idea on Pinterest.

I can imagine that we might have a brain break a couple times a week, which means that by the end of the semester we've done each activity only a few times (if the die is fair!). Many of the activities involve some sort of physical movement too - which may feel hokey to some of your students, but it all depends on how you present it! The activities (except for "Deep, Dark Box") require little to no prep work, just basic classroom supplies. Each activity is fully described in the pages following the matrix.

You're welcome to use/modify this for your classroom. Here is a link to the Microsoft Word version (just click File:Download), and here is a link to a PDF version. You may need to edit and adjust some ideas if you don't teach the same clientele ("Where in the World?" may not be as challenging or fun if you don't have a classroom full of students who are new to the US and from all over the world). Enjoy and good luck!