Exceptional Teachers Allow Imperfection....in Themselves

Sometimes, I can be a bit of a perfectionist.  I want things to be aesthetically pleasing, neat, error-free, etc.  But I also struggle to have a life outside of my job, as many teachers, especially elementary teachers, do.  So, I look for models of exceptional teachers who instead of taking painstaking hours to create class books or classroom displays, hammer out the many projects that I dream of doing.  Why don't I find the time for all the projects I want to do in my classroom?  Probably, I waste my time striving for perfection on just a few projects.  

Today I looked at photos from classrooms were teachers focus on good instruction and not perfect displays like the word wall below -no laminating, cutting or gluing necessary.  Using index cards for the word wall makes it easy to just make it anew each year adding the words your current learners need, not what's in a book or what last year's learners needed (or the learners from 8 years ago!) and their is no need to organize it for the next year, if you create it anew, just purge and recycle, something teachers often struggle with doing and the hoarding then only leads to a messy space to full for learners.  Seriously, how many times have you spent way too much time organizing a game or visual or teaching material only to never use it again?  I have more than I like to admit.  Then every 6 months or so, I find the need to get rid of the stuff I haven't been using; there's another afternoon or two lost.

Currently, I want to integrate the CAFE book into my reading instruction.  Therefore, my wish list includes making a big chart to contain learning goals and space where learners' can mark what strategies they did to be a better reader.  I've been researching beautiful charts online and used many of my learning goals, but I haven't gotten the CAFE into action yet.  Looking in another teacher's classroom, I found a simple version that would be ready in a jiffy (and reusable, or not :-)  

Hopefully, I'll be posting MY photos soon.  It is almost Thanksgiving.... break time is project time!!