The Expenses of Building a Classroom- Updated

The other day, I saw this tweet, and responded, as I'm trying to be very transparent and sharing about my classroom and pedagogical decisions this year.

But I thought too, that it'd be helpful to expand it a bit into a blog post, because there's a lot going on with all this.

But first, a real rough money and time breakdown.

• I roughed out weekly calendars when we left in May. But I spent all summer on Twitter, and reading books, thinking about and roughing out the changes I wanted to make.
• I spent two of my teacher work days setting up the new classroom.
• I had maybe, MAYBE, one smaller bookself, partly full of single books as my classroom library (half and half pulled from books English department had for SRI and my own stuff I'd bought/found/donated). This year, a main focus was expanding this for literature circles of representative texts.
• So I easily spent $300 buying books
• Another $150 this week on LGBTQ YA novels, when I realized organizing them I had none
• A friend donated a whole stack!
• Another $200 books donated from my Amazon Wishlist    
• I built and shared my list all summer, on Twitter and Facebook. Some donations came from friends. Most from people I didn't know
• I spent another $75 from First Book yesterday, payday, more YA, and Spanish versions of YA, that I'd added to cart, but had to wait to buy
• I spent another $30 on Play-Doh and squishy monsters, because my students said the Play-Doh was dried out
• Pens, glue sticks, markers, car stock, color printer for room, these types of supplies, $200.
• Not included in this the hundreds of dollars spent on books, I bought for my own PD.

I usually have my students in groups, but at the end of last year I tried station rotations, and LOVED them, so once we're through the soft start this week of getting all our routines and such set up, this will be my default.
One group will work independently, one will work with me, and the third group will have computer access.
Students leave one seat in each group empty for me, so it's easy for me to join discussions and conference.

 I moved my desk to the other side of the room, and recentered focus on the classroom library.

I color labelled all the books- just Native/Local, Literature Circles, Fiction, and Non-Fiction. I plan on asking students as we get going, if they have a better system, for now, starting simple.

I bought a small whiteboard for students to write recommendations on, and books they want me to buy.
I also supply, well, everything. Each group has a bin full of pens, markers, glue sticks, highlighters, Post-Its, stress ball, Play-Doh, but I also have more of this and paper on the shelves as well as colored paper, construction paper, copy paper.

I keep a calendar in my room that is what they get paper copies of and our Google Doc hyperlinked calendar. Next to that for each class is the essential question, learning targets for the week. I also have blank magnet strips I put literary elements on.

This first week we dove right into what we'd be studying, did a book speed dating, setting up tech, etc. The slides for my first days are here.
Here's how I did the book speed dating for the representative books:

• I set stacks of books around room. 
• They put bags/stuff in back. 
• I gave some tips- look at cover, read back, read review (I write then inside), a page to see if interested/can understand. 
• Wander around looking. 
• Once they find book, sit. 
• Lit circles!
• I had 4-5 books for each title, about 10 titles. 
• I have 29 students. 
• I scheduled 20 minutes, most were sitting and reading by end. 
• All Chican@ Ss, half male/female, some LGBTQ, handful of Native. 
• I used @ProjectLITComm book recommendations to choose the books.

I printed bookmarks on bright cardstock. Students choose one, wrote name on back on top, stuck in book (because more than one class will use).

We start every class with 20 minutes of reading.

One of the station rotations will be a mini-lesson that uses our mentor texts, that they will then apply to their book. I am focusing on this because I want to increase transfer of skills.

I redid my pre-assessments based on this article.  I'm excited to see what data I get from my English 9 and AP Lang.

This week, some things went up- a poster on how we'll use mentor texts. One about how to log into the computer. But for the most part, I leave my walls empty. Soon enough they'll be full of student work, group work, giant Post-Its of work and thoughts. This is how I like it.

I am focusing this year on my students, and the online professional learning networks of #DisruptTexts, #ClearTheAir and Project Lit have been instrumental in providing feedback, support, and ideas. I'm excited about these check ins and networks throughout the year.

I wanted to add a bit here too about time. After seventeen years of teaching, I've figured out systems for most things. A Google Doc calendar for the year, that I rough out, then add hyperlinks and resources to. A paper planner where I take the calendar and make detailed lessons. Then I make Google Slide class lessons from this. I use my prep for this (one hour on Monday, 110 minutes Tuesday/Thursday). I keep a running To-Do list on my desk, and work my way down it. If I think of something to do once I'm home, I email my school email so I feel like I've done something. But I don't check work Google Voice or email once I leave the building. If I find something cool, on Twitter or elsewhere, I'll email the note, or create something, but I try not to work on weekends. In part, because I have a project I need weekends for. But also, we all need breaks.

I get to school before 7a, and school starts at 725. My room is open for lunch three days a week. I teach Saturday school. I am consistent in being available during these times, and letting students know. But unless I have a meeting after school, every day I can, I am out the door as soon as the bell rings.

I do a lot of extra work, on my own time, breaks, summers, that I'm not paid for. And while I'm not a teacher just punching the clock, I'm also very cognizant of the fact that we are only paid for a 6.5 hour day. And yet we give our time freely. I think there's a balance between doing what needs to get done, learning how to use your time efficiently, and not sacrificing your own health and time. The balance is different for everyone. But this is mine.

After the first week, I feel really good about the focuses I've set for the year, and my first interactions with my students. I look forward to seeing how it all unfolds.