Prepping the Classroom

We’ve been allowed back in the building, so I’ve been working on prepping the classroom for students. One of the first items I had to work on was putting together the computer. Fortunately, last year I put numbers on all of the wires and took pictures before unplugging all of the connections and storing it away. It made putting it all back together so much easier. Last year was a guessing game (and it took a few guesses to get it right).

Last year I had made the classroom bulletin board the AP Biology FRQ word wall,  but decided that this year, the word wall would create a boarder above the windows.  I needed to add a few more words, and fortunately Cheryl Ann Hollinger had posted FRQ key words with definitions for the AP Biology community. I chose several words that we didn’t already have, put them into the same format as the existing words, printed and laminated them. I put them up with sticky stuff--and so far all the words have stayed up. I realized today that it’s hard to take a picture of a wall with windows on a sunny day!

Another of my projects was curtains for the door windows. During lock-down drills we have to cover those long, skinny windows. What we had been using was a line of construction paper tapped together. This summer one of my colleagues pinned a cute classroom door window curtain idea. That was the inspiration. I bought a pack of fabric strips at Walmart and started sewing. In the pinned blog, the person had used a dowel and drawer pulls for the curtain rod. Since we use this room for science and math I decided it would be easier and more subject specific to use a ruler for the curtain rod and binder clips to hold it in place. I’d like to be able to pull the curtains further away from the window, so I’m planning to buy command hooks with metal hooks as tie-backs.

The last thing I tried wasn’t actually a room prep, but experimenting with pens that will write on our lab tables. When we work on review games and other modeling activities, I want students to be able to use their tables as their canvas. I’ve seen pictures of classrooms where teachers were using them and thought it would be a fun addition to the classroom. I ordered Expo neon window dry erase markers as well as Versachalk chalk markers. Both types worked well. In the picture at the top of this post, “Welcome to” was written with the expo marker and the rest was made with the chalk markers. I decided to leave the writing on the desk for a couple of days to see how difficult it would be to get the writing off of the table. I had to resort to a magic eraser for the chalk, but when I only left it on for two hours, it washed right off. We’ll just be sure to wipe the desks down by the end of class. I love the vibrancy of both and can't wait to use these markers in class.