Classroom Library Facelift... or Full On Surgery!

Alright. All teachers have pet peeves. I have a couple, or a few, or maybe a lot! Haha. But each year I pick and choose one or two things to tweak to see if my peeves can become more of a perk.

One of those pet peeves was my library area.  Problems included how to organize (leveled?, genre?, none at all?), and (the big one) how kids put my organization back in order! Throughout the years, I've tried a variety of methods, but here is a picture of the latest method before the major library facelift (combo of baskets with major themes and then other books on shelves by genre/theme).

BEFORE picture

Last year, I even made a sign letting kids know how to use the book markers in the library and how I've pulled out my hair every year. It doesn't work.  

Let's start the FACELIFT!!!

I felt after this last year, I needed to change up my environment to feel fresh & new again. So what better time than now to just fix this library up. I knew it would be a tedious process, but I guess that's what summers are partially for! Teachers on a break completely??? Pishh!

Basically, I researched different organizational styles and decided to follow these directions: 

• Daily 5/CAFE article on Classroom Library Makeover - 7 Steps  
• or video explaining the process

10 Things I Learned From Having THAT Class

Ever have that class?? The one that drains you and makes you work harder than taking care of a one year old? The one that makes you think about going back to waiting tables where you don't bring your work home? The one that makes you feel like a bad person because you feel the way you do? The one that... you get it. No??? Me neither... until this last year.

This is probably part of the reason why I took a hiatus from blogging for over half a year! I was stressed out enough figuring out how to balance being a new mom, school, and home life at the beginning of the year that September and October were overwhelming. However, I felt like I just got the hang of it and then, BOOM, the honeymoon period with my class was over. I won't go into all the griping details, but I was so, very tired.

Just the year before, I felt like I was climbing this teaching career mountain and never wanted to reach my peak because the only place to go from there was down. Instead, I feel like I fell off somewhere on the other side and I don't know what happened. Anyway, here are 10 things this last year's class taught me that also helped me get back on my feet:

End-of-Year Portfolio

When creative/proud student art or writing gets sent home during the year, the chances of it being kept are slim because what can you really do with awesome pieces here and there throughout the year, every year the child is in school???  Unless the parents/students have some organizational tool, those memories fade faster. What to do?

Well, when I taught kindergarten, we saved at least 1-2 items each month (it was much more season/holiday themed in kindergarten) and bound them all together into a book the students can take home at the end of the year. So, I decided to do this in 5th.

I decided I would keep all those poems, get to know you activities, random photos, and work that would probably be trashed or misplaced if simply sent home. Anything that was two pages or on larger paper was folded so it was more of an interactive feel. Here's how it turned out (just cock your head sideways to the left... I didn't want to resave them all the proper way!):