My Geography Themed Classroom

It's been way too long. Sorry.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm a 5th grade English teacher at a bilingual school in Zacatecas, Mexico. This is our 2nd week in the 2012-2013 school year. So far, I've been applying lots of super neat ideas that I've seen on Pinterest in my lessons and work routines. The best part is; they're actually working! My life is a thousand times easier. My job is less of a job now. The students are learning more, quicker. I'm excited. I'm motivated. I'm a new woman. Seriously. So, to whoever invented Pinterest. Thank you. And to my sister Victoria who told me about the website in the first place. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you sooner! Thank you!

I thought I would begin blogging again and try "pinning" what I blog. This post will be my first contribution to the Pinterest community. I chose a Geography/Travel/United Nations topic for my classroom this go-round. In 5th grade, in the English curriculum that our school uses, it talks a lot about culture, so I thought I'd try to keep things relevant. So, here's what I did...

1. Each desk is a different flag. My 5th graders love the flag-desk idea. It's super helpful too. Each student is assigned to a country, and they know exactly where to go to every morning. I don't have to put name tags on the desks or anything. It's also easy to switch students if I need to. For example: "______, you're going to sit at the China desk today. _______, you're going to sit in at the Canada desk instead." All in all, it's really simple to do too; a lot like wrapping presents. If you have a lot of practice wrapping gifts you should be an expert covering desks in colored butcher paper. Just remember to cover it all in laminate (to keep it looking nice all year long). And don't rush it. Similar to wrapping presents, half-ass work shows through and looks sloppy. Slow and steady wins the race. Here are some of my favorites. They're so pretty! My daughter Esperanza helped me make Brazil.

India

Brazil

Seychelles

Australia

Germany

South Korea

2. Before you speak: THINK. I saw this on Pinterest and had to make one. If you take a second look at this picture, you can see the borders that I used for the bulletin boards and chalkboard. It's just green ribbon with flags from around the world cut out and hot glued to it. Simple yet sophisticated.

3. Here is the layout of my room. I like to have the desks in groups because I enjoy having the students work in teams. They do too. Although, I do switch it up from time to time. As you can see in the background, my bookshelf is organized with labels. I'm all about labels.

  

4. The Texas desk. Yes, I made one. Because I'm from Texas. And Texas is awesome. That's why.

 5. My Welcome to the World of 5th Grade bulletin board. Not the greatest bulletin board in the world, but not too bad for something I came up with in a half-an-hour.

6. Decorations: I wanted to take it that extra mile by adding all sorts of decorations; this includes post cards, maps, visas, passports, plane tickets, pictures of famous landmarks, plants, and inspirational quotes. It really makes the classroom pop.

7. Classroom rules. The students came up with these on the first day of school. Super cute, so I thought I'd share it as well. I believe the only rule that’s missing is no electronics (iPods/cell phones). If you click on the photo (any of the photos actually), it'll enlarge enough to where you can actually read it.

8. Anchor Charts. Thanks to Pinterest, I'm an Anchor Chart fanatic now. Here's where I got the idea for this one.

 9. Here's my desk area. My office. It's nothing too complicated. It'll get more elaborate as time passes, but for now...what you see is what you get.

I hope this gives you some ideas on what you can do to decorate your classroom or work station, if you're leaning toward a Geography theme this year. Feel free to leave comments or questions about whatever. Have a great school year!