Setting Up My Classrooms

That's right folks.....Classrooms.....plural.....with an 'S'.  This year I'm teaching at three different Elementary Schools in the Grandville district.  Grand View, East, and West Elementary are where I call home.  This means that all of my usual beginning-of-the-year set-up will be x3!

I put in the most work at Grand View since this classroom will not only be my 'home base' (I teach there two full days during the week) but it's also the school where I get my very own Art Classroom! (So excited about this!!) At East Elementary I will be sharing my room with the Science Lab teacher (shout-out to the wonderful Ms. Priest!) and at West Elementary I share my room with Science Lab (Mr. Staggs) and Music (hi Ms. Bernat!). 

After a whole lot of cleaning, organizing, and rearranging.....my room at Grand View was finally looking decent!

Grand View Classroom

Hanging above each of the seven table groups is a poster with a well-known artist's name and images of their artwork.  Paul Klee, Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O'Keeffe, Wassily Kandinsky, Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian, and Pablo Picasso.  These are the names of each group.  So during class when I need certain groups to get supplies or line up, I simply call them by their group name.  Not only does this help in classroom organization and management.....but it also gets the students familiar with these artist's names!

Here's a close-up of the Art Room Rules poster that I made which you can see in the far corner.  (I had to take the picture at an angle to cut down on glare.)

Art Room Rules Poster

Thanks goes out to Ashley Perry Photography for the great idea for this poster!

Here's a look at the classroom from the other side.

Grand View Classroom

 Here's a close-up of the "Meet Miss O'Donnell" bulletin board by the door.  The first day of class included a quick stop over to this area so that I could introduce myself to all of my new students and give them a little glimpse into my life!

Meet Miss O'Donnell bulletin board

On it I included pictures of my family, my cat Phoebe (pretty much my child), a map of my trip from Arizona to Michigan, me at the Grand Canyon, and a few of my paintings.

Well, that's a quick over-view of some of the things I have added to my Grand view classroom!  It's far from complete, but it's getting there!  I plan on filling it with posters, bulletin boards, and tons of Art visuals as the year progresses.  I just have to keep reminding myself that Rome wasn't built in a day.....and the same goes for my 3 Art Classrooms!