Picture Happy!

I'm all about taking pictures this week!  My previous post has pics of my Scoreboard, my PowerPix "wall", the Rules posters, and the beginnings of my Genius Ladder.

Below are pics of my front door (I'll add students' names to the apples as I get my class list), a space for Ten Minute Writing (on the inside of the front door so they can place Post-its on their way out the door), and an updated picture of the Genius Ladder.  I velcroed 4 small dry-erase boards for the "rungs" of the ladder.  I didn't write out "blah, spicy, extender or genius"--instead I used the first letter of each word as the ladder climbs higher.

Putting the Pieces (and Pictures) Together!

I've been working on my room for about 2 weeks now.  First, I went in with the intention of making my old, non-magnetic chalkboards into magnetic, dry-erase boards.  I was partially successful.  The magnetic paint went on well enough--and worked.  Until I put the dry-erase paint over it.

Essentially, it's a Catch-22 because the magnetic paint is a very dark gray color.  The dry-erase is (obviously) white, but the more coats of paint on top of the magnetic layer makes it less effective.  And because you're painting a light color on top of a darker one--you need more coats.

Long story short, I have lovely dry erase boards that are magnetic in random spots.  Ah well!  Still not bad for $30 bucks!

Anyway, all that to say: I've got most of the WBT Classroom elements up and ready to go!  Due to my lack of wall space, I decided to use our mini-blinds for Power Pix.  I have separate sections for Math and Language Arts and plan on using clothespins to clip the pix to the "wall".  The Classroom Rules posters I created (see previous post) are different from the ones on the WBT site, but I think came out really well.  I paid $40.00 to get them blown up at Office Depot (12 x 18).  Then took them to a teacher supply store to get them laminated for $3.00 total.  Check out my pictures and tell me what you think!