My name is Tiffany Johnson and I teach 1st grade. I teach in an inner city school in Oklahoma City, OK. This is my second year and I love it. My goals are to ensure success for all students, to nourish students’ self-esteem, to set a climate of mutual respect in the classroom, to have high expectations for all students, to believe in the ability of every student to learn, and to provide a well-rounded education for every student.

Establishing a climate of mutual respect will create a caring environment in the classroom. Students have the right to learn in an environment that is safe; from verbal and/or physical confrontations and an environment that is conducive for the students to be “risk-takers” – able to be comfortable enough to take a risk at asking or answering a question, participating in class discussions and free to learn at their own level.

I teach my students that behaviors and actions are controlled by themselves; therefore, they choose the consequences through those actions. These are natural or logical. For example, if a child chooses not to complete center work in the allotted time, then they are choosing to work through other times in the classroom. Behavior is no exception. Students are expected to follow the expectations and procedures that have been established so that all students can be successful. If a child chooses not to follow the expectations, the consequences may be natural, logical and already established for those behaviors. Students will always be reminded of the expectations (everyone forgets sometimes and we learn best from our mistakes!)

Although all my ideas are not original I hope to give credit to those who have helped me. I also hope to learn everything that I can so that I can help others that way that they have helped me. 

 

This is the side of my classroom. On the cabinets are my birthday penguins with the months underneath them. I took the photo before the children's birthdays were put underneath to insure privacy. Their individual birthdays are written on cupcakes that are underneath the penguins. Above the cabinets are shapes posters that I found at one of the dollar stores. I have chevron numbers hanging from the ceiling which are to label my desk groups. On top of the counters I have new student bags in a laundry basket, missing crayon buckets, homework folders in small laundry basket, mail box, and "Caught you being good!" bowl. 

This is part of the front of my classroom. I have a Boggle board that is made of flannel and my Great 8 Expectations are posted on the pages with the penguins. This is all behind my "U" shaped table where I do reading groups. I prefer to be where I can always see the students. So my whole class is open and everything is visible. 

The inside of all my cabinet pretty much look like this. I have labeled everything and put them in tubs. All of my labels are polka dotted and each cabinet is full of one subject area. I also have all the cabinets and drawers labeled on the outside so that everything is easy to find. 

I like to display student work in the classroom and this is the place where it will go. The sign on it says "Work yet to come". On the board are cloths pins to hang their work from. This makes it easy to change it out regularly. 

I made these off an idea I saw on pinterest. These are signs that show how the kids get home and if they have school lunch or a lunch box. I put their names on clothes pins and place them on the ribbon that applies. It gives a great, fast visual. 

This is what my hallway display looks like. The pennant flag spell out Mrs. Johnson's Class. One the wall there are cloths pins to hold their items.  

One of the things that I did not do a good job of last year was getting sub plans together every time that I had a sub or thought I was going to I would spend hours and hours writing everything down and making sure everything was in order. I would have been in BIG trouble had I not have know I was going to be gone! So to resolve this issue for this year I made a Substitute Binder! The only thing that I have to keep up with in there is inserting weekly lesson plans. This is much easier for me. I just print and go. I decided when I was making mine that maybe I was not the only person that had that issue so I made a template for everyone else that might a little bit behind. :) 

This is the set of chevron table numbers that I use. I have the picture linked to a FREE download of them. I really like them I hope that some of you can also benefit from them. Let me know if there is anything that you see in my classroom photo's that you would like to use for your classroom!

These are the number posters that I use in my room. They are from another amazing 1st grade teacher that blogs. I haven't found anything better than these. I love them! They really pop on my wall and they have all the information that I wanted on them. I like that it is simply not just the numeral but the tallies, coins, and place values cubes. Anyways if you like them too I linked the picture to the blog that I found them at. All you have to do is scroll down to where you see them and then there is directions on how to download them FREE. This is where I would like to say again....I love them! 

I send how weekly newsletters to the parents to keep up communication. I want to make sure that even if the parents are not willing to talk to me yet I have the line of communication open. This is one of the two forms I use. It comes in a few different colors and they are all completely editable. 

Here is the other form. Just like the chevron ones these are editable and they come in different color combinations. 

This is a FREE download! It actually looks better as a download than the thumbnail version looks. It was sort of difficult to get this one to turn into a JPEG file but you get the general idea. I actually use this exact cover for my binder. 

This is a set of read and high light pages. The students are to look at the pictures and find the word that matches. When they see the word that matches they are to highlight it. I like to go over what the pictures are as a whole group on the first day of the week and then place these in one of the centers. The words that are on these lists are the spelling words from first grade Treasures unit one. I don’t include the high frequency words in this list because I have a separate activity for those. The answer keys are in the document after the student sheets. I hope that you like them.

This is read and highlight unit two. 

These are the words from the Fry’s High Frequency word list 100-150. Every ten are a different color so that they are easier to sort. I work on only ten words at a time in my classroom so color coding is how I make it easier on myself. I use these during centers for word work activities. 
The boarders are from 3amteacher. Be sure to check her out if you like them.

Color code key: Striped Black and White 100-110

                        Pink 111-120

                        Green 121-130

                        Orange 131-140

                        Blue 141-150

This is the play doh mat set for the Fry's High Frequency word list words 151-200. There are done like the previous set where every ten have a different boarder so that they are easier to sort and use. Let me know if you are interested in any more play doh mat sets! 

Color code key:      Hearts 151-160

                             Blue Dots 161-170

                             Grey Dots 171-180

                             Sketch Pattern 181-190

                             Pink and Green 191-200

These are what my word wall pieces look like. I use the Fry High Frequency list in my classroom so these are the Fry words 100-200. 

These are "Caught you being good!" notes. What I do in my classroom is write out the note and then give it to them. They are then to fold it and place it in the caught you being good bowl. Every Friday I have a drawing from the bowl for a chance to get something out of the treasure box. They really love it and it is a good way to gain control in the room. Some times I just walk around with my "Caught you being good!" notes and start writing. They get the hint quickly. What I did to save money and to help make them super cute and handy was I ordered the notes in note pads on www.vistaprint.com. They came in pretty fast and they were only 6ish dollars a piece. 

I did not make these. However, I use them all the time. These were made by Jennifer Metcalf and the picture is linked to her teacherspayteachers page. These are positive behavior reinforcement notes. I use these when the students have been particularly wonderful. These are the notes that would go home for the parents to view. I also order these in notepads the same way I do for the "Caught you being good!" notes. 

Okay these are awesome! I again have to say these are an amazing creation of Jennifer Metcalf's and that I use them all the time. They are detailed and all I have to do is check which items apply. These are the notes that go home if the students have a not so great day. The best feature is that when you fill these out correctly you must have a small conference with the student where they have to take responsibility of their actions. The bottom has a place for you to sign, the student to sign, and the parent to sign. I tell the students that if I don't get them back signed the following day that I will have to make a phone call instead. Usually I get them back no problem. If not I just make the phone call and go over exactly what was on the "Oops!" note. They work great!  

I will make and link more items soon. I hope you enjoy them and share info with your friends!