I thought I'd pop in tonight with a quick classroom reveal. School has already been in session for 2 weeks, but the last month or so has been a whirlwind of activity. Summer was short and sweet this year...and before I knew it, there it went!
We had to pack up our entire building again this year due to more crazy construction. Last summer, as you may remember, they gave us a new roof, ceiling, and heating/air units. That was a really messy project that had me scrambling at the last minute to pull together a classroom before the first day of school!
This summer's construction was not nearly as dirty...but it was definitely chaotic. About 2 weeks before school started, this was the situation in my classroom...
A nice, fresh, neat space, yes? Don't you love that bright blue wall? I sure do! This was NOT my classroom last year...this is one of the rooms down the hall. I got asked to move and since the wall in my old room was going to be painted a lovely shade of orange...I didn't have to have my arm twisted too hard. And look at that cute little stack of boxes! So cute! Amazing how compact you can get a classroom, isn't it? (Although I'm not sure what the piano bench was doing with this pile of boxes.) OH...but wait...that little petite stack of boxes in the pictures was definitely not mine. Nope.
So that was two weeks before school started. The following week...the week we actually came back to work...my room looked a little...well, more full.
Oh, look, the gang's all here! Yes, that's more like it. All of my stuff, plus a few bonus boxes that weren't mine thrown into the pile for good measure...but for the most part, this was my familiar pile of boxes. And my blue rocking chair, which I love very much!
At least that cute, petite stack of boxes (plus the piano bench!) disappeared and I had a clear path from the door!
Needless to say, I had my work cut out for me. One of the added challenges of putting a classroom together during pre-planning is that there is actually NO TIME to work in your room. The very first day we had to get on a school bus (yes, a school bus) and ride downtown for our county's convocation. Later that day we had a safety briefing...so there wasn't much time to actually work in my room! So stressful! Luckily, the next day I was able to work. And work, and work some more. And then my amazing family came in and helped me put some finishing touches on things. Oh, and the furniture arrived (small detail). That definitely made it look more like a classroom!
Here are some pictures of how it looked right before Open House:
This is the view from my desk. I am OBSESSED with my black posters. I made them myself (yes, I will probably put them up on TPT someday) and I think they just pop against that bright blue wall! I'm sure someone is probably wondering if I printed all that at home...why no, I did not! I do have an amazing printer (okay, TWO amazing printers, which I've blogged about before!) but that's so much ink. I paid about $30 to have the posters printed on cardstock at Staples and then I laminated them myself on my small personal laminator. I love, love, LOVE how they turned out. Here's an up-close shot of the shapes posters:
Here's a classroom library shot. The library is still (as it usually is!) a work in progress. As you can see I kept my ancient wooden shelf. Even though we got new furniture, the bookshelves that they got us were too small for my book collection. I'm still working on organizing some of the boxes...I keep finding random stashes of books in odd corners of my house/car/garage.
Here's my new teacher desk. I haven't had a desk for the last couple of years, but since we were getting new furniture I thought I'd give this one a go. It's pretty small, as teacher desks go, and it's on wheels so I can move it easily.
And this was the school supply situation for Open House! Approximately two hours after this picture was taken, all of those bins (plus the paper box, plus the entire back counter) were swamped with supplies. I am so thankful for the supplies...and especially thankful for an awesome parent volunteer who got everything stashed away in my 3-drawer carts and supply closet after the first day! Without help, I would definitely still be stepping over random piles of supplies a week later.
I will try to take some more pictures this week because already I've changed some things (mainly the furniture configuration because I have 26 students at the moment). I hope you've enjoyed the peek in my classroom! It was a lot of work to get it set up but it's nice to be in a fresh, clean space!
No comments