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In the fall, there will be a few teachers who will be entering the classroom for the first time in their careers and have already asked me to help them setup and organize their classroom. As I was thinking back on how I used to prepare my own classroom, I remembered a great book I used called Classroom in Photographs. It was a great help to me (since I am a visual learner) to be able to see ways that classrooms could be set up.

In my search, I found a new book published by one of my favorite authors, Debbie Diller. Her book, called Spaces & Places: Designing Classrooms for Literacy, shows teachers how to design their classrooms by using photos and diagrams. Now this is my kind of book! The book has just been released and I ordered my copy. This is a great resource for both new and veteran teachers! Go here to read a sample chapter of this new book!

New pages!

The following pages have been added to BTC:

Coming Soon!
  • Units of Study for Reading and Writing Workshop
  • Writing Workshop Page

Summer Reading

I don't know about you, but I'm am thrilled to finally be on summer vacation!! It has been a hectic year for me working, graduating, and trying to keep the site updated and running.



One of the things I really look forward to is catching up on my reading. A stack of books await me these next few weeks.



For those of you who are interested in doing some summer reading yourself, I've added some recommended books (see side panel). These are books I am currently reading or have read and found enjoyable or helpful. Some are about literacy or education whereas others are for pure enjoyment.



Hope you find something worth reading!

Penpal Exchange

Many have asked about the penpal exchange!

Well, it's now back in a new platform! The Penpal Exchange is available as a forum for a few reasons:

  1. I was unable to keep up with the sheer number of submissions in the old Penpal Exchange. Now, individual teachers can place their own submissions in grade appropriate forums.
  2. Others can reply to teachers via the forum without having to give out their email addresses. This protects users from exposing their email to junk mail and other unsolicited emails.
  3. Teachers can update their information once they have found a class to correspond with, helping keep the Penpal Exchange up to date.
You can find the Penpal Exchange at http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/resources.htm.

June Updates:

The following pages have been updated:

Class Site of the Month
Educational Site of the Month

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