Back to School: Syllabus & Classroom Sneak Peak

I've been working hard the past couple of weeks to prepare to school.  Although I don't want summer to end, I can't help but feel a little giddy, especially with all of the back-to-school supplies front and center in many stores.  I know the thought of going back to school and seeing all those bright school-bus-yellow signs advertising pencils for $0.50 makes many people a bit queasy, but I love it.  I have always loved back-to-school shopping.

When I was younger, Mom would take us across the mountain to shop for supplies in Virginia on the tax-free weekend in Staples and Walmart.  Mandy always insisted on buying the $3.00 Five-Star notebooks while I eagerly searched through the $0.10 notebook bin for one of every color.  We would buy all of our supplies, and I would go home and sort it.  I opened little plastic pencil bags and placed everything neatly in my bookbag and waited for the next 3-4 weeks to go by before school would start.  Nearly every other day or so, I could hardly stand the anticipation of a new school year, and I'd go to my bookbag and take everything out.  I loved the smell of it all--new and clean just like the school year I was about to take on.  I would imagine what I was going to learn that year and what I was going to fill the notebooks up with.  I even wished that I already knew the material or had a textbook at home so I could start taking notes and using my school supplies.  After a little while, I'd pack everything neatly back into the bookbag and begin the whole cycle over again.

I'm still that way.  I love back-to-school shopping and getting my classroom ready.  Derek thinks I'm nuts, but even now I can hardly wait to get back into my room and back into the swing of things using my new dry-erase markers.  Don't get me wrong, I love summer and really hate to see it coming to an end.  And although I love my job, there are many days when I do. not. want to even think about creating lesson plans or begin tackling the 2' tall pile of papers that need graded.  And even now, I'm so sad to see my students go because we had a great year and grew close, but I'm very excited to meet this new group of students.

I have my room pretty much finished at this point.  I need to put on some final touches, but everything is in place to meet my students tomorrow evening for orientation.

My classroom library this year.  Books are sorted based on Lexile and author's last name, and they're recorded online through the classroom.booksource.com website.  If you're a teacher, check it out!  It's an incredible tool!

I added a motivational quotes wall this year. I plan on having students add to it throughout the year.

I've also been working on my syllabus for the year.  I took an online class in the Spring where I discovered infographics.  If you are unfamiliar with infographics, they're basically just a poster with information presented in an easy-to-read visual manner.  Here are a few I discovered from a quick Google search:

I have wanted to incorporate infographics into my classroom for a while, but I wasn't sure where to start.  One day, it just hit me.  Why not begin in the beginning of the year with an infographic as a syllabus?

I wasn't really sure where to start, but I figured I needed a template of some type.  I have a little experience with Microsoft Publisher, so I decided to start there.  I worked until I had all of the information included that I wanted and then began formatting.

While I'm not sure that it truly counts as an infographic (because it's three pages instead of one and largely text-based), it's much more visually appealing than what I used the previous two years.  Take a look below.

Do you use infographics in your classroom?  How do you set up your classroom syllabus?  Share your thoughts below.