Quick Note

I found another benefit of teaching in a portable today; we still have heat when the boiler in the building breaks. Tell me, how are kids supposed to learn when there's no heat in the building and they're still cold, even while wearing their coats all day? Some things in education just need to be fixed and someone needs to find the funds to do so.

Still a negative of teaching in a portable, walking in the rain and jumping over puddles to anywhere we have to go. I'm figuring out the path between the puddles from my door to the building.

Update

Ok... it has been FOREVER since I have posted. I'm sorry for any of you who follow my blog. As most of you know, the start of school is crazy!! I have been trying to take pictures of things that I knew I would eventually blog about, but I'm sure I've missed a bunch of stuff.

Just before the start of school, my wonderful dad finished building my mailboxes. Aren't they beautiful?!? They look even better up close! Each slot has a number to the left and they have been amazing! They save so much time! They are near my desk so as I grade papers in the evening or when I'm given handouts from the office, I can throw them right into the student's box. 

On parent night, I did a few things that I had seen on other teachers' sites and it made the night run very smoothly. First, I had students fill out this Parent Night Kid Quiz which I found for free on Teachers Pay Teachers. The kids filled out the left side and folded the paper in half so their parents had to fill out the other side and couldn't see the answers. Then they could check their answers and write a note. The kids LOVED reading their parents' notes in the morning! 

As parents walked in the door, I had this desk set up. Parents could pick up a star if they could help to provide some of the extra supplies that we'll need this year. I forgot to take a picture before Curriculum Night so these are the stars that were left over. 

I like to offer parents handouts at curriculum night, but don't want to make a bunch of copies if parents don't end up taking them. Instead of making copies, I just provided one or a few copies. When there is only one copy, parents can sign up on the post-it and I'll send a copy home with the child the next day. Then, I only need to make copies for the parents who are truly interested. 

I've received a lot of compliments on my chart organization. I can't remember whether I saw this idea on another blog or adapted what one of my coworkers did last year (sorry!). This year, I am labeling my charts so students can go back to review them without them taking a ton of wall space. I have two spots for reading charts and two spots for writing charts. As I make new charts, I put them up right on top of the old ones and add a post-it with the topic of the chart. It makes it easy for students to flip back to the chart they're looking for and looks organized, avoiding that visual clutter that seems to take over in some classrooms. 

Since taking this picture, I have changed the post-its to start on the left side. I'm not sure why I started them in the middle at first. 

Tonight, I saw this idea on Krazy About Kiddos. Lately, my students have been urgent to talk to me while I am conferring with other students. I am going to revisit our conference norms mini-lesson soon, but I am also going to add this light to my conference table. When I reteach the mini lesson (about how to get help when I'm conferring) I will also make an anchor chart (and reprint it on smaller paper) to put right next to my conference table so I can just point to it if students try to interrupt me. 

For any new teachers or future teachers reading this, I wanted to share this graph with you. There is also an accompanying article here. I found it very accurate last year and think that it still is this year. Last year, I don't think I ever reached the rejuvenation stage and feel that even my reflection phase was shortened and replaced by a longer disillusionment phase. I'm hoping for better this year and so far I feel better than I did last year at this point in the year. 

New Ideas... Maybe

As I've walked around my classroom as I have been making decisions about how it would be most functional for me this year, I realized that some of the things that do not seem very creative to me might be more exciting to someone else.

This year, I waited until the first full week of school (the second week) to lead a discussion about classroom expectations. I wanted the kids to have experienced the routines and schedule so they could make their expectations more specific to what will actually happen in our room. I started the discussion by having students come up with rules they think we should have in the classroom. Once they got started this list became really long really quickly. The rules were all listed individually and were very specific.
Then, I had students work in groups to try to put the rules in categories. (I had categories in mind, but wanted to see what they would come up with.) With prompting, discussion, reflection from past years and some guidance, students came up with the categories Safety, Respect, and Responsibility. Then, I had each group use the original list along with new ideas to write about what each of those things looks like, sounds like, and feels like in the classroom. We reconvened as a class and made a giant list in three categories (looks/sounds/feels) for each expectation. After charting them together, I made them into smaller posters to display in the classroom all year. Here are the pictures.

I hung these on our heater since wall space is becoming limited and they are not something that students need to be able to see at all times. They just need to know where they are for a reminder now and then. Just a note, our heater (as far as I know) does not seem to get hot, so it shouldn't be a safety concern. 

I know the idea of generating examples about what rules/expectations look, sound, and feel like came from my amazing mentor teacher in college! I don't remember whether she did it for class norms though ( I think she did). 

This is my daily attendance/lunch count system. Students come in the door (just to the left of this picture) pick up their card, check the lunch menu, and put their card in their lunch choice (cold, hot lunch 1, or hot lunch 2). Any name left in a pocket is a student who is absent and the lunch count is done for me. I usually have a student count how many students selected each lunch and report to me while I'm recording the attendance on the computer. (This idea is also one I've been using since learning it from my college mentor teacher.)

I bought a large, shallow Rubbermaid container for each student's desk. This is where they keep all their loose supplies. Most supplies in our classroom are community supplies, but this works for the daily stuff and the supplies that it doesn't make as much sense to share. It acts as a drawer in their desk and doesn't take up much space. Also, it limits the amount of junk they can collect. I plan on checking these every once in a while to make sure that students are only keeping the essential supplies in them. I stole this idea from my partner teacher this year although my containers are smaller than the ones she uses. I couldn't find hers but this size works fine! 

Good finds at Target

I went to Target tonight to find that all their school supplies and teacher stuff was on the end caps on clearance.
I found a whole bunch of space themed die cuts, window clings, and a solar system poster for half price! They were each $1.25. There was a bunch of stuff for other themes too including safari, ocean, sky/planes, baking/cookies, bugs/garden, etc.
The end caps of aisles are where it's at during this time of year! Their leftover school supplies were also reduced by at least 50%.

Since my job chart is still not done and I haven't made any more progress on it since before school started, I'm abandoning the idea to make the space shuttle with kids' pictures in the windows. Instead I'm going to use some of my new rocket die cuts for the job labels and laminate them so I can use Vis-a-Vis pens to write students' names on them. The board will still be space themed, but will be much easier to put together.

5th Day of School

The kids and I are finally getting settled into the classroom. Workers are still coming in and out periodically to redo wiring and connect the other portables, so it certainly isn't done yet. I started working on my classroom library yesterday, since my book bins were finally delivered from The Container Store. I bought 3 cases. I was anxiously waiting for them to arrive and was at school until 7:30 last night trying to finish it (which I didn't). I have way more books than I realized!

Portable Life

The portable has been working out nicely. It is a little tight on space, but I changed the seating arrangement today which freed up a lot more space. I'll try to remember to take a picture soon. I'm hoping to do a lot of lessons and practice on working in groups so students learn to work effectively in the new arrangement. 

Bathrooms and water have been my biggest pet peeve so far this year. Students often do not want to use their recess time to do these things (I don't really blame them since the bathroom and water fountain are so far away and take a lot of time to get to). However, I'm not willing to compromise learning time for students to go all the way into the building. 

For water, I have encouraged students every day so far to bring water bottles. Those students who have still not brought one have very little sympathy in my book. 

My solution was to let each student go to the restroom or get a drink in the building once a week during class time. It's Tuesday and 4 students have used their weekly pass, not too shabby. Teachers, have you ever noticed the phenomenon where if one student asks to go to the bathroom/get a drink, five other kids shout out that they have to go too? Maybe this just happens in my class, but as soon as I remind them that it would be their only pass for the week, most kids say "never-mind." 

Since we're away from the building, I make students go to the building with partner for safety. The phenomenon mentioned previously helps me to find a partner because often there is someone else willing to use their weekly pass. I try not to send friends and always gender match the partners. If there isn't someone else who wants to use their pass, I just assign someone to go with the other person and don't count it against them. 

9/11

It was kind of strange to teach students who were just days old or not born yet about what happened 11 years ago. To most of them, it seemed like history. Some students had stories about what their siblings or parents were doing on that day. One of my student's parents had to postpone their wedding because of all of the airport closures. Other students asked what 9/11 was and acted as though they had never heard of it. 

Last year, I saved the September 2010 issue of Scholastic News and used the cover story "I was 11 on September 11th, 2001." Then, I found a video on BrainPop and invited the two other 5th grade classes to join us in watching it (since they don't have computers for their presentation stations yet). It was a tight squeeze for about 80 5th graders in one portable, but we made it work with standing room only and the new desk arrangement. 

After the other classes left, I read September 12th: We Knew Everything Would Be All Right to wrap up. 

Last Day of Prep and First Day of School!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday! I was at school until 8:00 last night getting ready! That's right a full 12 hour day! I didn't even come out of my portable for the Back to School BBQ! I felt so antisocial!

Anyway, I started my day with what else other than more furniture deliveries! That was quite the trend leading up to school. I think I ended up with new furniture every time I went to my room! I thought I had my classroom all set up (as far as furniture goes) and then they brought me new bookshelves and a whole set of cubbies. The carpenters delivered them and found space for a few of them which made my whole perimeter full of furniture and plopped the others in the middle of the floor (since there wasn't room for them) and then bolted all my other furniture to the walls.

This one is right in the middle of the front of my room and is where my Smartboard is supposed to go, so I moved it to the library area along with two others and got rid of the splintery bookshelves that were there. 

This one I left in the same place since it was kind of dead space anyway with the closet next to it. It is still empty though! 

The ones there wasn't room for left in the middle of the floor (and the mess). 

Student cubbies. 

I wish they would have stopped to think before bolting it all down. So.. in order to replace my bookshelves with the new ones, I had to track down a drill. I learned we don't have one at the school so the principal asked a PTA member to bring one from home. As soon as I had all the bookshelves unbolted, the carpenters were back and wanted to bolt more stuff down. They also said they could've unbolted it all for me.. if only I knew they were coming!! I sent them away to another room while I figured out how to rearrange furniture, which bookshelves to get rid of, and transferred all my books from the old bookshelves to the new ones. This was NOT what I was planning on doing yesterday!

New bookshelves in use (obviously not done)! I'm waiting for plastic shoe boxes to be delivered from The Container Store to use as book bins to organize my classroom library by level and genre.

I got the rest of my room cleaned up (for the most part). However, the closets and my desk still aren't as organized as I would like them to be. I sat down to plan the first day with my partner teacher and made copies of everything we'll need. Right now, we're taking it a day at a time. Once we get through the craziness of the first days, we'll probably sit down again to plan more long term (probably this weekend).

This is what my room looked like from the door shortly before I left last night. Before I left, I cleared the top of the bookshelves off by the green bulletin board, erased the whiteboard, put the box on the floor away, and some other tidying.

First Day!

Today was the first day with kids! I have to say that it went really well! Of course, everything I had planned took much longer than anticipated and we have a bunch of leftover stuff to finish tomorrow. The kids were chatty and excited to see each other. I can already tell that I'll have to stay on this class about talking at appropriate times and raising their hand to ask and answer questions. One of my students withdrew sometime between yesterday and today, so I am down to 24 students! That's a 20% reduction from last year! I have lots of boy energy in the room though, I think I have 15 boys and 9 girls. 

Here was our schedule for the first day. We will be finishing a lot of this tomorrow. 

Start of Curriculum Planning

As I mentioned before, I went to two weeks of professional development this summer. A week for readers' workshop and a week for writers' workshop. My team teacher was there too, so we had the opportunity to talk and figure out how we were going to implement our new learning in our classes. My district has signed on to using Lucy Calkins' readers' and writers' workshop curricular calendars. This means that we have a series of units we can follow throughout the year. The units help guide our instruction. Although the lessons we teach and the specifics that we decide to focus on within each unit are up to us based on what our students need, the framework is created for us. I'm feeling good and ready for literacy instruction this year.

The district science department sends us three science kits throughout the year with their adapted instructional guides to follow. I try to add in some extra readings, videos, and assessment tasks to help students with background knowledge, make it more entertaining, and/or holding students accountable for their learning. I taught two of the units last year and just have one new unit to learn this year.

Today, I started trying to plan math for the year. I think this will be my toughest subject to plan this year.
My school is getting ready for common core standards and we are encouraged to start using them to guide our instruction. However, our math curriculum does not align to common core standards. There are also major differences between the current math standards and common core standards (CCS). Since we're still being tested on the old standards, and the students are coming with knowledge from the old standards, and the math curriculum doesn't follow either set of standards, it is a challenge to start incorporating common core standards.

I spent a couple hours today looking at the common core standards, our math curriculum and pacing/instructional guide (provided by the district), and the old standards to try to find some alignment and way to plan units for the year. Our math curriculum is a spiral curriculum, but the CCS focus on teaching to mastery. Trying to align three different things that are all very different was frustrating and hard to keep track of. I was able to break the CCS into a few units and compare that to our curriculum to figure out what parts of the curriculum would be "extra" in terms of the CCS. I still need to compare all of that to the current math Performance Expectations to make sure my students will still be prepared for the MSP and to pick up where they left off in 4th grade. Then, I'll either cut out some of the extra stuff in the curriculum that's not in either set of standards to save some time or have students' do an assessment task to figure out what I need to review and what I can skip.

At this point, I think I'll dive deeper into the units that overlap since the CCS places importance on deeper understanding and reasoning. Once I figure out how many more units I will have to add in, I can  start figuring out how long each unit can/should be and compare that to our academic calendar to get a general outline for the year.

I have a lot to do tomorrow (including finishing my classroom) before the kids show up on Wednesday.

The highlight of my weekend was getting my new mailboxes! I'm so lucky to have a dad who's willing and able to build them for me. They are gorgeous!

Day 6- Only one more in-building work day!

I went in to school today for about 5 hours. I didn't feel like I got much done in that time, but looking back, I did accomplish a few things. My room is more of a disaster than it was when I started today, but that can be cleaned rather quickly on Tuesday.

The first thing I did today was put organization options in my huge closet. Now it is a more functional space.

Then, I finished the bulletin board that I ran out of paper on the other day. I couldn't find more paper, so I had to get creative. The perfectionist side of me is not very happy with it, but I can deal with it, at least for now. (The blurt chart and extra copies folders are very strategically placed.)

 

My biggest accomplishment of the day was finishing my filing cabinet, which means that my desktop file is empty and ready to start the school year. I use this desktop file to hold all my copies for the week, divided by subject, and any master copies that I use frequently. 

My filing cabinet is also not the prettiest thing, but it needed to get done.

I committed to using this funky shelf for student supplies, so I switched all of the supplies that I want students to have easy access to from my black Ikea shelf to this one. Taking out some of the compartment dividers helped to customize it for my stuff. 

 The most exciting part of my work today was hanging my space pictures around the room. I laminated them last year and today I backed them with black construction paper, then stapled them up. Using black construction paper gave me something to staple through without harming the pictures and makes them "pop" on that white wall. I still have a few more to add, but I'm not sure where I want to put them yet. (Thanks Greg for donating these to my classroom!)

 This is all of them in the corner. There's one more on the left side that I couldn't fit into the picture. As you can see in this picture, I still have one bulletin board to cover (around the fire extinguisher). I just can't stand the look of those carpeted walls, so I'm turning all of them into bulletin boards.

Tomorrow and Monday, the building is closed. I could go work in my portable, but I don't really like the idea of being out there alone. Instead, I'm hoping to start curriculum planning for the year (or at least the first week). It is hard for me to start planning curriculum without having my physical space set up. The late start on setting up my classroom is making it harder to plan for the year, but I have to start at some point. While I was going through files today, I was reminded of how last year, I thought about rearranging some math units instead of following the pacing guide exactly. I brought my math curriculum home and am planning to map it out this weekend. 

I went to a week each of readers' workshop training and writers' workshop training over the summer. It was facilitated by Columbia Teachers' College coaches and was extremely valuable. My team teacher was also there, so we got to think through how we were going to implement each workshop in our classrooms and how we can align our instruction. 

I'll add more about my plan for the start of the year at the end of the weekend. 

Day 5

Ooops! I forgot to take pictures today. However, the changes I made today were not really visible. I started setting up my filing cabinet, laminated my name tags, and die cut a whole bunch of stuff to add to bulletin boards. I also started covering another bulletin board and ran out of paper six inches from the edge of the bottom half. I can't find any more paper in that color in the building either. Not sure how I'm going to fix that one.

I also had to redo some stuff that was already done such as hanging my rocket on the ceiling. More district people were working on wiring in the ceiling, which slowed my progress since I was working around them, and I had to rehang my rocket.

I'm going in tomorrow for 5 or so hours. I'm hoping to finish that bulletin board, work on (and hopefully finish) my jobs board, find a way to hang my calendar on a wood cabinet, and finish setting up my files.

Great News!

I forgot to say yesterday that we got really exciting news in our staff meeting. The preliminary MSP scores have been released and.... (drum roll) 100% of fifth graders passed the science section!! I get emotional even when talking about it. If you knew how chaotic my year felt last year, you would completely understand why this makes me emotional. I'm so proud of my kiddos for putting all their effort into that test, using all they knew, and achieving those results!

You can check out our school report card on OSPI's website here.

First Official Day- Day Four

Yesterday was a furlough day, so no new post for that. I spent my day baking freezable breakfasts, doing laundry, and relaxing a little during the calm before the storm.

Today was our first official in-service day. We had meetings in the morning and were free to work in our classrooms in the afternoon. I walked into my classroom to find 1) the floor beautifully waxed by our amazing custodian, 2) all my furniture piled in the corner (I expected this), 3) ceiling tiles removed (again!), and 4) district electricians pulling wires out of the ceiling. I could deal with the first 3, but the electricians were in the way. I'm ready to have my room to myself for a whole day! Hopefully that day will come soon!
Despite getting a later than expected start, I got a lot done today and I'm feeling much more optimistic about being ready for the first day of school (or at least close to ready).

The custodian helped me move all my furniture back, once the electricians left. That was a quick and painless process. While moving desks, I was reminded of one of the gifts I gave parent volunteers at the end of last year. This fell out of a student desk! I can't believe I didn't find it sooner, and it's been in there since June! Gross!




Then, I set up my classroom meeting/carpet area. Hopefully it won't get totally dirty again or won't have to be moved again. (One of the very large jobs on my to-do list is setting up my class library.)



My desks are back to where they belong. I'm going to have my kids in partners for the first week, all facing forward. I decided this year that I didn't want to start with them in groups because I don't want their first impression to be "We get to talk to each other in this class!" Instead, I want to pre-teach how academic discussions sound and work and build the expectation before putting them in groups.

I don't know if I've taken a picture of my textbook storage. I have table leaders get textbooks for their whole table (meaning only 5 or 6 kids are up and about). It keeps their desks tidier, the textbooks in better condition, and gives responsibility to the group and table leader. 

I made this last year to keep extra copies in. I think I saw the idea somewhere on pinterest (sorry, not sure where). It really helps to decrease clutter on my desk. It also helps kids take more responsibility for when they were absent. 

This was my project table today. I'll have to finish these projects tomorrow. I found myself with so much to do today, that I couldn't stay focused on one thing. Instead, I skipped around from one thing to another to another. On this table, you can see that I made name tags, but still have to laminate them, got the supplies to organize my filing cabinet, started working on my teacher binder, and started making new student packets. 

This is the beginning of a new student packet. I'm trying to put everything a new student would need (no matter when they come in the year) in a ziplock bag. Then, even if given little notice, I can be ready for new students by just pulling out the bag. The beginning of the year is the best time to make these because there's so much that gets passed out to kids and I find that I am more aware of what each student needs. 

I made a desktop file for my desk. So simple, but something I didn't have last year. I think it will make a huge difference on the condition of my desk. To copy, To file, To read later. 

This is my almost clean desk! I know it still looks messy, but you should've seen it before... well, actually I was too embarrassed to take a picture. My desk was the only piece of furniture that didn't move, so everything that I wanted out of the way got piled onto it. Also notice in this picture that I got a new network cable that is long enough! Yay! Now I have a working teacher computer and can keep up with email, start planning and making electronic files, etc- all the important things!

Tomorrow is an optional day but I will be there all day trying to get my classroom finished (wishful thinking). I will hopefully make more progress tomorrow than I did today and maybe even start thinking about lesson plans for the first few days of school. 

Day Three

Today was a busy day. I had a lot to get done since I left the room a disaster yesterday and it has to be clean for tomorrow. One of our amazing janitors is going to wax my floor. He didn't get a chance when he did all the other rooms because of the moving schedule. Now it is causing us both much more work, since we have to clear the floor after all the furniture has been set up and I have unpacked. Anyway, he's willing to do it and he's doing it on my schedule! And he said he wouldn't be able to move the furniture back before I come in on Thursday since the wax will be drying overnight, but he'll help me to move furniture to wherever I want it to go. He is a very kind man! Wax will make a big difference on this floor, I think!

I had an awesome helper for most of the day today which also really helped. She finished leveling ALL of my books! Incredible! I've never had all my books leveled, even when I had fewer books.
She also helped me with a few two person jobs.

Overall, the room looks a lot better! I created more work for myself at the end of the day when I needed to put more stuff away but didn't know where to put it yet. I started shoving things in shelves, closets, and boxes, just to get it out of the way. When I go back on Thursday, I'll have to take everything back out and actually organize it.


One of the two person jobs was hanging my rocket on the ceiling above the carpet area. It used to be high up on the wall in my classroom that had super tall ceilings. I don't have the wall space for it in this room, but I like it better on the ceiling anyway!

I put some math manipulatives and supplies away in this shelf. I thought this would be my math shelf for kids to access, but I'm rethinking that. I think the one I posted about yesterday that's kind of odd might be better for math stuff. 

I found another box of teacher resource books, which sparked a reorganization of my bookshelf. Probably doesn't look much different to you, but took my a chunk of time and is now more usable to me. (Sorry for the blurry picture.)

This is by the door and will be the way the kids leave the room to go to the bathroom, the office, etc. I made these sheets a few days ago. I think they'll be much better than using notebook paper like I did last year. 

This is what my classroom looked like when I left today. Notice the mostly clear desktops and floor! 

My helper also helped me put up the paper for this bulletin board. I learned that everyone else I've had make bulletin boards for me are much better at it than I am. Those ripples will drive me nuts all year! I think I will try to recruit helpers every year! (Ahem... Mom & Dad, you were great at it!)

Also, the cabinet that I was not very happy to receive yesterday (partially pictured on left, below) was renamed "The Chokey" today. Calling it that made my day! (I obviously won't call it that around parents or students.)

My huge learning of the day today was that I should've bought a staple gun sooner! If you are a teacher and you don't have one, get one! They make putting up bulletin boards, posters, rockets on the ceiling, etc. so much easier! They are especially helpful if you have carpeted (or soft) walls, like I do, since using a regular stapler wrinkles and tears the paper when you put pressure on it. The staples also seem to grab much better (even the small size).

I forgot to mention my good news from yesterday. My coworker and I wanted to paint our "new" bookshelves since they have seen much better days. We thought about having a parent painting party. When we approached our principal about painting, he also came up with the idea of a painting party and is going to get our PTA going on it! I'm going to add The Chokey to the list to be painted. I can't handle the mauve and mint paint job that is currently on it. 

Tomorrow is a furlough day, so I won't be working. Instead, I will be cooking and baking freezable to-go breakfasts for school days. 

Day Two

Today was a long and exhausting day with lots of furniture moving and swapping.
I thought I had been given all of my furniture before the weekend. I guess not, because it kept coming and coming today. I walked in to find my door blocked by 2 bookcases and throughout the day more bookcases and cabinets were added. At one point, they couldn't fit any more furniture in my room so they were just pushing it in from the door. Who thinks classrooms need that much furniture? There wasn't any room for kids much less me in the classroom! I have no idea how it got ordered, since I certainly didn't request that much.

I was so overwhelmed I didn't even think to take pictures, although they would be entertaining. There was no way to walk in my classroom! Luckily, the workers had some time to kill at our school and were willing to help move things around and they took out the stuff I didn't need.
The blessing behind all of this is that I got to get rid of my rickety, wobbly bookshelves and replaced them with sturdier ones. However, in the time it took me to take all my books out of my old bookshelves, the workers got busy again so I got to haul all my old bookshelves out and across the playground to storage. I also hauled all the primary sized chairs that were left in my room down the hall to a new 1st grade class and one of my filing cabinets down the hall to another teacher who didn't have one.

Again, I thought they were done with furniture deliveries, when they showed up again with a huge cabinet. We had some trouble trying to find a place to put it which was when one of the movers mentioned that I don't have any more room for furniture. I was shocked to hear there was more. He said there were two more bigger cabinets that were supposed to be put in my room. At this point, I drew the line and told him not to put any more furniture in my room!

By 2:00 (5 hours after arriving at school), I finally got some of my own work done. Here's pictures of some of the stuff that I did throughout the day.


I swapped out my bookshelves for these sturdier, longer, lower bookshelves. I also continued leveling and sorting books.

I made this rocket which is the beginning of my job chart. (Inspiration from Bulletin Board Ideas) By the way, my amazing Dad put the paper and border on this bulletin board! I'm still impressed.

I moved and set up my group table to find out that I don't really have space for it, so I'll have to think about that. The table is, hopefully, temporary since I asked for a grant to buy a kidney shaped one.

Also notice the mini-fridge in the background. It's a recent Target purchase and I think it's the perfect size! It doesn't take up too much space and will fit my lunch and a little bottle of coffee creamer if I decide to bring my coffee pot back to school.

This lovely (sarcasm) piece of furniture was delivered today. It is very well built and I think it has potential, but I have no idea what to use it for yet. I'm thinking paper storage on either side of the top, but don't know what to do with the middle or bottom. Any ideas?

This is the huge mauve cabinet that was delivered today. I don't like where I put it, but am having trouble finding another spot for it. I need to figure that out quickly though before the carpenters come out to bolt everything to the walls. 

I forgot to take an overall picture of the room, but it doesn't look much different than yesterday. The large tables that were in the back of the room were removed (finally) and my bookshelves changed. The rest of the classroom still looks like a tornado hit it. 

Day One of Setup

Wow! Today was a busy day. I am exhausted! I had a team of helpers to unpack and set up my classroom today. I am sooo thankful for them! We got a lot done!

My classroom looks like a complete and total disaster but, believe it or not, we made a lot of progress!

I was too tired to keep going, but had a really hard time leaving my classroom in this condition. Notice the big changes: the desks are arranged for week 1 (they will change), there are complete bulletin boards (thanks Dad, Stephanie, Wendy and Mom), all the boxes are unpacked, the bookshelves are in their places. 

Note the Home Depot aprons on the chairs. I got that idea from Confessions of a Nerdy Teacher. More about that later. Thank you to Megan for tying them all on! 

There is only one storage closet in my room. This is it. I would like to do more organizing, but that's not where my head was at today. 

My library books are all unpacked and all of them that have levels are labeled and sorted by level. There's a few piles left to level, but they're close to done. Yay! Thank you Mike!

The text books are in their shelves. Thanks Dad!

The supply shelf is coming together. 

I will be back at it tomorrow, unfortunately without the team of helpers. Most of the staff will be in the building tomorrow as it's the first day the building will be open for normal hours. I'll be interested to see what it's really like to be in a portable when there are others in the building.