For Tonia

I recently received an email from Tonia who teaches special ed. This post is in response to some of her questions.

Organizing the classroom:
The classroom should be divided into zones. Depending on your grade level, there should be a reading zone with some shelves of books and comfortable seating, an art zone that is very cleanable with different supplies and a large work surface, a teaching zone in view from the students' desks with a blackboard/whiteboard/easel for group teaching.

In addition you can have subject zones so all of the math manipulatives are together, all of the maps for geography are together, extra texts should be kept near the tools for each subject... If you are pressed for space, these subject zones can just be bins to be pulled out as needed.

There should be a medium sized table (that maybe is shared with the art zone) for one-on-one and small group teaching.

Tonia, for scheduling your time, I suggest you refer to my previous post: Prep your prep! It should help you, or at least give you some ideas. Please let me know if this helps or if you want some clarification. And, of course, feel free to ask more questions.

Please comment or send your questions to me at organizingteacher@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :)
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