Where I Teach Wednesday

I finally got in my room!!!  My husband kept saying he wanted to get things done around the house before he heads back on the road but I could not stay away another day!  We made a deal and we will work on the house all day tomorrow.  It felt good to put things back together and it's perfect timing for Where I Teach Wednesday:)  

For starters, I teach in Michigan near Detroit.  My classroom is a categorical room for students K-5 with autism.  The set up of my classroom depends a lot on what my students needs are.  This somewhat limits how I can use the space but I do my best to make it work.  Here are some pictures of what my room looked like when I left today (I still have to do all the cutesy stuff Friday and next week but just setting up the room makes me feel relieved.).

Here are two of my student's independent work areas.  My desk is in the background. My desk is in an L shape and I'm able to use the side for what we call 1:1 work in my classroom. 

Last year the round table was my kidney table and we had snack and group at the table but this year I've moved my kidney table and I think I will still prefer having snack in this area.  The bulletin boards are still up from last year and most of them will be changed out over the next week.  I've mentioned a few times that I got my job right before the start of the school year last year and I put stuff up on the walls but it was not my priority   This year I'm really looking forward to making it more pulled together.

Here is where my kidney table is now.  My students sit for group activities much better if they have are in a chair with a table in front of them.  I'm also able to easily use this area for numerous activities.  My calendar things will move to the space behind the chair and part of the reason I've moved  this area is so I can use my Smartboard more!! (It's just to the right in this picture.)  I also inherited that almost bare bookcase at the end of last year and I'm sure it will be full before Sept. 4th (the start of the school year).  Last year I kept that other bookcase covered and had all the books that were in the room when I arrived on it (my books are organized in a separate area). My students who could read independently were allowed to take use the books but because one of my other students tends to grab things and throw them on the floor the bookcase was covered.  Hopefully, I can avoid covering it this year and organize it before the start of school.

This is an area for one of my students. We are working hard to teach him not to grab every thing and throw it on the floor but at times he makes it very difficult for us to do anything other than follow him around so we put him in this area.  It's like a giant playpen, he has toys he likes in there, the couch is not a mess like it is in the picture, and the furniture is low so he can see us and we can see him.  He generally manages to get out so it's not seclusion just distraction.  It's also right next to my desk so when I'm working with other students he is right there.

Here's a picture of my room from the back of the class.  I use these barriers to separate spaces in my room or separate two center areas from each other.  On the other side of the green one is an identical set up with a table and a 3 drawer cart.  In the back corner my husband is jumping on the trampoline.  I'd really like to get some cuter fabric for the cart on the left before the start of the year.

I will post updated photos when I'm done.  Let me know if you have any questions about my set up.  Please consider following if you haven't already. Thanks for reading:)