For many years I have seen Glow Day posts from teachers on Instagram showing off what they did during their day under the cover of black lights.  To be honest, I never thought this type of thing was for me.  But this year, in lieu of Halloween activities, I thought we could do a fun Glow Day to keep things festive, yet not focused on the holiday.   Logistics When I was researching how to do this all, I had LOTS of logistics questions, so I am going to start this post by answering them.   Here are all of the materials I bought (or borrowed) to pull this day off. Black Lights - this was the biggest stressor for me.  How many would I need?  What kind would work?  I found these LED strip lights (that are popular on TikTok with the teens) and figured they would work just fine.  And they did.  I bought 4 sets of 2 strips for my room.  My classroom is fairly large, but has low drop ceilings so I was able to reach them to adhere the strips. ......

I have two doors in my classroom that are "growing" as we march through the year.  I thought I would share their progress with you as this first semester ended. My front door is a year long record of our classroom learning.  I call it the "Graffiti Door" and at the end of the day, I ask the students to share something they learned over the course of that school time.  After listening to a few, I choose one of those students to add what they said to the door. This serves two purposes.  One, it gives all of the students a chance to remember what we learned that day, so when they go home, they can actually share something with their parents who ask.  Two, it allows the students to contribute towards are growing set of learning.  They LOVE being the one to write on the door (with our fancy markers that write on black paper), so they are very eager to share an idea.  Even the typically shy kids will get in on this action. You can see how this has ......

Nothing mindblowing today but I just wanted to share with you my end-of-the-day clean-up routine.  I know that sometimes this time of day can be completely chaotic, but I have tried my best to cut down on that and have us end with calm.  Here is what I do. I start about 25 minutes before the dismissal bell rings.  I begin by announcing that I am "looking for people who are ready to go home."  This is students' cue to sit down, clear off their desk space, and look at me.  Then, we have our 60-second clean up (I wrote in detail about that here ), our 15-second box clean and our 15-second furniture straighten. This is an old picture.  They also have POTW! Then, I ask the kids to take out their planner and we go over the homework.  I have the assignment written on the board, and used to just have them copy it down, but I have found that if I *also* say it aloud, the kids have a higher rate of writing it in their planner and not missing any homework......

 I am going to bring you four ideas that I am using in my classroom for changing ordinary spaces into extraordinary ones.  Ok...maybe they won't go that far, but these things are working for me.  :) If you follow me on Instagram , you have likely seen these images before.  But, it doesn't hurt to see them again...right? ;) 1.  Bookcase = Teacher Desk Teacher Desk on a bookcase I have no teacher desk in my room.  Instead, I put all of my teachery stuff on a very slim bookcase and, viola, an easy to access place for my teaching essentials without taking up the space of a huge, bulky desk! 2.  Anchor Charts on the Windows Use Command Hooks and a chart pointer to create an anchor chart display area anywhere in the room. To use the dead space on my windows, I took some Command Hooks and an extra pointer (because, seriously, I have a million of them) and created an anchor chart holder there.  (I will be honest and say I saw a version of ......

On the first day of school, I like to have all of the students' supplies (ie: pencils, pens, erasers, etc...) ready for them so that I know they have the tools they need to function on the first day of school.  So, since I was getting things prepped for the first day of school anyway, I thought I would share this very simple Bright Idea with you! Such a simple way to distribute school supplies to the students AND to make sure they stay organized. Starting day one, each student entering my room is assigned a number (based on alphabetical order of last names.)  This helps with organizing everything from where they stand in line to knowing which papers have been turned in.  Another thing it helps with is knowing which supplies belong to which student.  Now I don't know about you, but due to budgets, I know that many of my students won't come to school on the first day (or any day after that) with the supplies they need to be an active and productive student in ......

Every time I show a picture of my classroom as a whole, I get questions about the little boxes I have on the students' desks.  So I thought it was about time that I wrote about them. :) Can you see the black boxes on the desks??  That is what this post is about :) They truly are something very, very simple to make.   All you will need is: cardboard pencil boxes (flattened into the net) contact paper scissors brads I will have to say upfront that these cardboard boxes are given to me by my district.  They have been provided by every school I have worked at and went to (I went to school in the same district I teach for ;) )  But you can get them at any school supply place that sells things in bulk.  However, oddly enough the Velveeta box (you know, the cheese??) is the exact same shape.  You can ask your students to bring in those boxes at the beginning of the year and do the same thing with it! Anyway, once you have the bo......

I hate when my classroom is messy.   It drives me crazy when there is paper or other things strewn all over the floor.  I mean, why does there have to be a junky mess everywhere?   It makes sense to me that if a mess is made, it should be picked up.  So from day one of class, I teach my students how to clean up and show them the that I expect that their workspace will be spotless. (seriously, I don't allow trash on my floor.  Ever.  I just can't take it.) One thing I implement in my room is the "60 second clean up".  It is the easiest, fastest way I know to get the room spic and span.  Here is how it goes. I count down aloud from 60 to 0.  During that time, the students are moving around the room, some with brooms, some without,  picking up any mess that they made.  Pencil shavings are swept.  Pieces of paper are picked up.  Anything that has been dropped is removed from the floor. By the time I get to 10, the studen......