Mrs. Morin This is a kindergarten classroom.  Scissors, pencils, and gluesticks are kept in cups on the tables.  In the foreground you can see several desks pushed together in a 3 sided rectangle.   The teacher leads small groups in this area.  She finds it easier to teach when the kids have their own defined areas to sit at, and can fit more children than if she used a table. The word wall from the classroom above.  (Sorry about the paper or whatever that keeps blocking the lens!) This is the filing system this kindergarten teacher uses.  Each child has a cubby in which papers are filed.  On Fridays, the red folders you can see are filled with all the papers and are taken home.

Ms. Allen This is a center area in a 1st grade classroom.  The teacher laughed when she saw me come in with the camera and wanted to straighten up, but isn't it refreshing to see that your students aren't the only ones with a tendency to leave centers looking like this?  :-)  I didn't get the details on how it works, but I am assuming the kids carry materials from the shelves to other parts of the room.  The reading center is pictured.  You can also see the bookbins arranged by theme. These are the types of centers she uses. This is the math center. The bulletin board incorporates key vocabulary terms and I think it's very attractive and the information is accessible for the students.   The stoplight is used to indicate various noise levels in the classroom.

Mrs. Howard Another 1st grade teacher's room.  I like this set up because she has so much floor space for the kids to sit on while she teaches.  They use their desks mostly for independent work. This is the rear part of the room.  The desks are pushed together in various table arrangements and are rearranged often.