Wednesday, August 7, 2013

New School Year = New Room

Since my mentor retired, another member of my team left for a different school district (Thank heavens!), and the harassment I received last year I got  a new team. I already love all my new teammates (so nice and welcoming!). I moved into my new room and had a stage 4 disaster going on. Over the past week I have managed to tame the piles. Tomorrow is the first contracted day.. can we say, no fun all together. Summer past too quickly! 

Summer Project:  Catalog ALL my classroom books.
Found out I have 993 titles in my library.
Here is a few of my books ready to go back to school.

 Disaster zone 4

Doesn't this look awful! Trust me it wasn't fun digging through this.


Still plain.. but getting there.
Welcome sign isn't mine. But I am proud of my privacy glass I installed with the help of my wonderful mother.


Pass hooks: target.
Passes: Oriental Trading

Checking out how my mood lighting is.

This is my new fave thing that I am incorporating into my room next year. Homeworkopoly!  Thank goodness that Mardel's also started to carry monopoly money borders. It was meant to be!!!

 My calendar usual is on my front bulletin board, but since I used a fabric background there was no way to attach it to the board. So, I now have it back by my desk. Since magnets work on it, it works as a bulletin board of sorts as well.. which will probably be its main purpose since I have a desk calendar, doubling as a desk pad to protect my pecan lady's writing desk. The blue, not so pretty plastic thing, will be my conferencing/ book group scheduler. 
my desk area- wall space.


 Sock Monkey Love. Gotta represent.
Papers already stacking up and school hasn't even started... not a good sign.

View from my desk. Kiddos can't be out of my line of sight... EVER! no more sneaky children stealing supplies or stealing things out of others' backpacks.

Look how clean and organized those cubbies look. Why can't these look like this when the kids get here and shove all their stuff in them.

Supply Center. Conveniently by my desk, so kids can't steal nor waste supplies without me tracking them.
Supply bookcase


 Had to do something to these ugly file cabinets.. Put contact paper over the whole face, was way to much work so I went with a simple strip method. When I bring in my plants to go on top it will be fantastical. After only having one last year and the luck of no one wanting this things anymore I snagged my second one. I plan on using the 1 on the right as the "student file" where they will keep their writing journals, math journals, and science notebooks. The left on will be my paper storage.
file cabinets

Decided to make my desk a conference area as well, using my 2 cubes from last year. Although I don't know how long the cube on the right has left. "Feet" liked to rock on them last year, regardless of the number of times I told him they weren't rocking chair cubes.


Gnomes have to be represented as well!


My spoon family. I used this in previous years to introduce my family. Can you guess who is who?
mom, shane, ryan, dad, me
 Safe seat. Isolated, calming, and still able to get instruction.


This was my biggest investment for this year. Bought it on Amazon using my prime account. Definitely worth it. Love that it has drawers. I still need to get a table skirt to hide some of my storage. 

My "OH NO" area where no name papers go to get claimed or be abandoned forever.
I was going to do a "black book", but I didn't want to have to spend the money on a black binder. Plus, the time to hole punch the papers to put them in it. Instead this uses things I already had and looks cute!


Have my lit. Sets above my cubbies. Partially so students can't reach them (they are shorties) and also I can still see what I have. 

Still had no clever way to hide the science totes. At least they aren't too much of an eye sore and all match. 


I used cork board squares on the end of the cubbies to open up another space to place things. I think it will be either a student work display or better yet the job board.


Word Wall above cubbies... takes up so much space. Hopefully it will be worth the while. 

Dismissal, AM routine, and birthday song.


Bought posters from scholastic's teacher catalog and framed them (target frames). There were random hooks in the wall and couldn't cover them, so I used them with twine to hang my posters. 

It's getting there.


I love my bookcase positions. Plus I can't have anything metal by the smartboard due to interference, so it all worked out. 

Still have a lot to do, but looks better then it did.