Cover Me! I'm Going In... (to my classroom)

That's what I felt like this "morning" when I finally psyched myself up to go into my classroom.  I am lucky enough to have had today off from the restaurant, and I don't have to go in until late evening for the rest of the week, and I have no other prior commitments... which means... I can go to school!  Now let me explain the title of this post... my classroom has been used for almost the entire summer for one thing or another, up until the week before last, but last week I was at the literacy institute so I couldn't go work in my room.  So since bodies have been in and out of my room all summer, I wasn't sure what I was going to be walking into.  Let me just say that I was pleasantly surprised!  Everything was pretty much how I left it, and of course I brought my camera along to document the process of putting my room back in order.  Enjoy!



I rearranged this corner right at the end of the year... as you can tell from the wall, my library used to be in this corner



look at all the green paper keeping the dust off my stuff



more green paper, and look!!  I have tables!  (I'm trying tables for the first time ever this year)



oh, what a lovely pile of who-knows-what!

 Once I was over the initial overwhelming sense of being back in my classroom, I snatched all that green paper and filled up the recycling bin, time to see just what I shoved where during my last minute decision to rearrange my meeting area and library...


phew!  bulletin boards look alright



SOOO many books, at least they're already organized... sort of...



word wall made it through the summer in tact, nice!



what to do with all those cords??



where'd my whiteboard border go?



DonorsChoose kidney table with "DO NOT INVENTORY" all over it... this table has caused quite a few headaches, and a few tears, too... but it made it through furniture inventory without magically becoming county property, so I WIN!!!



Alright, so at the end of the year I moved a filing cabinet that was beside my desk to join the filing cabinet that you see in this picture.  The idea was to decrease the amount of "teacher space" that I take up in this room, and downsize the dead space under the window.  My desk has to be near the window because that's where the projector business is (remember all those cords?).  So I moved the filing cabinet, and it made my teacher area smaller-ish.  But then this rolling book cart decided to be a problem.  It stuck out far too much.  So I moved one of the filing cabinets to the area next to the bathroom, since it holds miscellaneous stuff anyway, I didn't need it near my desk.  Moving it gave the rolling cart enough room to exist without completely closing off my kidney table, and both sides of the cart are still accessible.  WOOT! 



leveled readers live on this cart, and student book boxes live on the bookshelf where the leveled readers are now... lots of rearranging in my future!



random filing cabinet's new home, behind the backpack cubby

 So that's it... day one.  I also laminated my new border and nameplates since our Media Specialist won't be back at school until Monday (when we report for pre-planning).  I'll be back tomorrow with more updates!