More of my Room!

So I've been working hard in my room for about 3 days now and I decided to take the day off to go get my hair done!  I'd hate to scare any of my new kiddos when I meet them!  I do have a few more things from my room that I wanted to share with you though!

This picture shows a little bit of how I organize my reading materials.  Our reading series is Scott-Foresman Reading Street.  There are 6 units with 5 stories each.  I have organizers to hold all of the materials for each story and each drawer is labeled with a story's title (it's a little hard to see that for the glare...).  Leveled readers, words to know (vocabulary) cards, and any activity pages we use for a story are grouped together in one of the plastic drawers.  The containers themselves are numbered on top from 1 to 10 so I can keep them in order easily.  The drawer holding the first story in each unit is marked with that unit number as well.  I just started doing this last year, and I love it!  I take the one organizer I need for that week to a shelf behind my desk and leave the rest on top of the cubbies and out of the way!  Everything I need is at my fingertips!

Coming into my room I have a big storage cabinet on the left right by the door.  Last year I sat it with its back to the wall.  This year I decided to turn it with the side facing the wall and the back toward the door.  This picture shows what I did with all of the space on the back of the cabinet!

I have a stick on dry erase class calendar at the top along with 4 class jobs.  This year I chose to assign only 4 class jobs for a couple of reasons.  First off, my behavior management system that I'm trying out this year (I'll tell you about it in a couple of minutes) will be used for some class jobs, and secondly, because my 6 or 8 jobs last year were just more trouble than they were worth.  I made my monster themed job cards and then attached them to two library pockets.  The pocket on the left will hold popsicle sticks with the names of students who haven't had that job yet.  When I draw a stick out, that person has that job for the week and I will attach his stick to the velcro dot above the card.  At the end of the week I will move his stick into the pocket on the right and draw again on Monday morning!  I will probably have 5 sticks in each set of pockets at a time and then rotate them clockwise after 5 weeks so I don't have to be wasteful and make 5 sets.

In the middle of the cabinet I have my hall pass, office pass, nurse pass, and "It's My Birthday!" cupcake necklaces on the schoolhouse holder.  I bought these from Debbie Spence at Teacher's Edition before school started last year and I love them!  The kids love to wear them too, especially the cupcake necklace - even the boys!  Debbie sales handcrafted wooden classroom materials of all sorts, and they can be personalized!  I know I love a good monogram!

And I saved the worst of that picture for last....my pitiful little bookshelf.  That is a portion of our classroom books.  They are obviously not organized.  There is no question about it...I NEED HELP!

Now this next picture is maybe my favorite thing I've done so far!  I LOVE IT!  I even brought it all the way back home to show my husband...he wasn't quite as excited as me for some reason....

This is the box I am using to keep and organize my tokens for the behavior management system I'm trying out this year.  I want to focus on positive behavior and reward those that are doing right and remind and encourage those that aren't quite on track.  I read about "the world's easiest token system" on Angela Watson's website the cornerstone for teachers (which by the way I love) a year or two ago and decided to give it a try this year.  She has a lot of information about using this system here at her website.

I used a tackle box to organize my tokens.  Here is a peek at the inside.

I added the explanation page so a sub can fairly easily continue using the system if I am out of school.  The longer slot on the right side will be where I store my bag that holds the tokens.  Each set of tokens is numbered and each slot in the container is numbered on the bottom.  I will pull tokens form the bag to determine some class helpers (such as messenger, paper handler, etc.) or to give small rewards occassionally (a new pencil or eraser, eating lunch with the teacher, choose your seat for the day, etc.).  Once a token is pulled it goes back in its slot - not back in the bag.  I plan to empty the bag of tokens every Friday and we will start fresh on Monday.
Has anyone else used the token system before?  How did it work with your class?  Any pointers?

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