Genius Hour 2013: First Semester

Each day, I'm getting closer to introducing Genius Hour to my class.  After much thought and input from coworkers, I feel like I've got a solid plan.  Obviously, things will be a little less flexible than this last summer as far as what material we need to cover (I need to demonstrate that I'm meeting standards for Spanish classes), but we have so many more opportunities to really go big with this project so I'm very excited!  Here's what I've got planned so far...

My new classroom!

Well, it's been a while since I last posted, and I have so much to write about! I'm officially one week into my teaching career.  I've been absolutely swamped between moving and getting started with my first year of teaching.  However, things are finally calming down to where I can start posting about what's going on :)

First things first - here's my new classroom!

Here's the front wall -  it has all the most important things for students to see.

• Starting on the left, we have our class rules (LISTEN) so that I can point and refer to them whenever we need to.  
• The giant white notepad next to it is for words that the class wants to use, but aren't necessarily "in bounds".  We write the words and their translations on the pad to bring them "in bounds".
• Next is our vocabulary word wall.  I use this to hold/display curriculum vocabulary.  There's plenty of room to display our current words as well as hold all the other word sets we will cover.  Each word from each of our structures is written on a color-coded card for each chapter.  we'll put these on the board with magnets (the smiley face!) when we're using them in context and combine them with other words.
• Above the whiteboard are the ACTFL proficiency standards in student-friendly language for the Novice and Intermediate levels.  There is a little green arrow for Spanish 1 and another one for Spanish 2 pointing to where I expect them to be at the end of each class. (I'm only teaching Spanish 1, but I discussed where to put the Spanish 2 arrow so students have a long-term idea of where they'll be by the end of these classes).
• Below the board is the current Spanish alphabet with vocabulary words for each letter - great for inspiring some fun words during PQA and stories since we'll see them all year!
• On the left-hand side of the board is the "CBC" board with the date (written out in Spanish with vocabulary cards for the day and month), Objectives, Agenda, Essential Question, and Homework.
• To the right of the board are the question words as well as our props!

Here's another view of the front wall where you can see a few more items:

• My desk area - I love it!
• Above my desk are cards to remind students to tell me when to STOP (red), SLOW DOWN (yellow) and REPEAT (green).

Here's the right side of my classroom:

• There are responses for students to use during PQA and Stories, etc, that are color-coded for the type of reaction they express (for example, under "Approval" is listed "¡Qué bien!")
• I have a chart with the weather where the arrow can be rotated to point to the current weather.
• I have two windows, though we keep the curtains closed in the morning to prevent glare.
• The bookcase holds our library of books, including textbooks, Interactive Notebooks, and books for free-choice reading.

There are only a few things along the back of the room, but they take up the whole wall!

• TPRS-friendly grammar posters - these have the endings that we'll most frequently use, but the important letters are colored in with black to draw attention to them (i.e. the "-mos" on all of the nosotros forms).  I also have a "subjects" poster with all of the Spanish words for "I", "you", "he", "she", etc.
• Color words are above the computers.

Finally, the left-hand side of my classroom, with lots of fun things.

• Map of the Spanish-speaking countries of the world - I love this map!  It's so cool and has a lot of interesting information.
• Map of Mexico with illustrations of different areas.
• Poster of all the country flags.
• "How to tell time" poster.
• "High Frequency Words" poster.
• Emergency exit strategy
• Bathroom/Tardy sign out/in.

Finally, you might have noticed there are labels everywhere!  All useful words to point to when I need to :)  My desks are also set up so that I can go throughout the room with ease as well as have a nice, large area in the center for acting!  I'm so excited about my room set up and my students seem to really like it.  So far so good, and I haven't had to assign seats yet!