First Day of School, Internet Woes and a Linky!

(Note:  I wrote this post yesterday before my internet suddenly disappeared.  Since then, I've spend hours on the phone with Verizon, threatened to cancel my services three times and still don't have any internet.  UGH.  So, if things are behind... just know that I'm battling over here to get the services I should have.)

Today was my first day back at school, but I’m going to hold that off for a post tomorrow! 

I’ve been thinking about how much time and effort everyone at my school and all schools put into their classrooms.  I mean, I spend the time and effort papering, printing, arranging pleasing colors and my middle school kids don’t really appreciate all the time I put into it.  Also, I know that I always feel like I learn SO much by looking at other teacher’s décor and styles.

Did you take your classroom from drab to fab?  Show it off!

So, I wanted to host a linky party that allowed everyone to share their classrooms for the 2012-2013 school year!  Hooray!  Please join up!

Here are the rules:

1.  Write a blog post about your classroom!   How did you decorate?  Any fabulous pinterest ideas?  Pictures are encouraged!

2.  Link up to the party!

3.  Share the graphic on your post and encourage people to join in!

4.  After you join, please follow the Rule of 3 (copyright Farley!).  Please comment on the 2 people in front of you and 1 person behind!  That way everyone gets a lot of blogging love and new visitors to different sites!

I can’t wait to see what everyone did for this new school year!  I’ll post my link in here too.  (I didn’t want it to clutter up this info post!)

Moving Pictures

Today was my official "last day" of work - just an inservice day where we get to check out, clean out our rooms and all that good stuff.  It's a quick and easy day, most of our staff can get in and out in a hour.

So, I finished moving over to my new computer room today.  All of my stuff is out on the shelves and needs to be sorted, organized, and put away.  This is the countertop towards the back of the room.  My mini fridge and microwave won't stay in that spot, they'll go back in my "workroom."

 This is the workroom - it's also the "woodshop" with a jigsaw cutter, hole poker (yeah, the technical term there) and a sander that you can't see.  My Assistant Principal thinks I'm nuts to keep the CO2 car program going with the woodcutting.  I think I'll keep it up until all the wood blocks have been used.  You can see that I have a lot of stuff that needs to be cleaned and put away.

Here are some shots of the computer lab....  And decorating ideas?

 I also took a look at the bulletin boards that surround the computers.  I like all the bulletin board space, but look at all those outlets = pain in the butt to work around.  I don't look forward to cutting the bulletin board paper to have to deal with those.  Our school colors are turquoise, black and silver, so I'm thinking about decorating all the boards with that coordinating color scheme.  And, see that lip in the upper left corner?  I'm thinking maybe covering all that in black?  Too dark?  The paint on the walls looks awful and I think I need to cover them.

Finally, this is my desk/teacher area.  I liked the L shape I made with my electronic cart and my small teacher's desk.  The previous teacher had his back to the class (doesn't make any sense, but to each his own) and I had to switch everything around.

I'll be back into work tomorrow to finish things... I hope?!  Anyone else still moving, sorting, etc?

Animal Classification Foldable

I actually meant to upload this post awhile back, but then State Testing madness and prep hit... so I didn't get a chance to post this.

My students were studying Animal Classification Systems and I decided to have them make this foldable that would help them practice seeing and using the 8 levels of classification!

I started out by using an animal they were all familiar with - the average house cat.  I pulled up the official classification levels for a house cat as my prep to the lesson.

To start, I told them the quick story of "Sparky" my mom's cat that she rescued from death... who repaid her kindness by peeing all over my parents house.  They all loved to hear about Sparky!  Then, we started folding.  I did a common flap fold - this time separating the fold into eight "windows."



Actual directions:

1. Fold in half - Hot Dog Style
2. Place one finger on the paper and fold your top flap back... up to your fingertip.  This will leave a small unfolded/uncut section for your title.  You can see in the pic to the left - this section is where you put your title!
3. Cut!  In half, in half again and so on, until you have four bottom flaps.  Then repeat to the top section.  I numbered my flaps, which helped them see what they needed to end up with.
   
   (I always model each one of these steps in front of the class before my students fold or start to cut.  Then I walk the room to make sure they are folding/cutting correctly.  Usually, I'm able to fix the problems before they mess it up so badly they need a new paper.)

We filled in the information together and this is what mine looked like!  Honestly, I wish they didn't turn in this so early... it would have been great for their Animal Projects they're working on now.   

What is everyone else's favorite foldable to use in class?!

Clutter-Free Classroom Project: Week 1

I've been waiting on joining the Clutter-Free Classroom's Clutter-Free Project until today, so I could get back into my classroom and take all my pictures.   Last week, we couldn't get back to our rooms and like years past, our principal was available to be text and I could get into my room a little early.  Now, with a new principal, that luxury just isn't there.

The Week One Theme: Show Us Your Clutter!


Hoo-Boy!  Do I have some clutter for you.  A long, long story short.  I moved schools TWICE this year.  Once in July out of my school (SMS).  Good-bye Room 533, my home away from home for five years.  I spent three long months in my Trailer (T-3) before being allowed to move back to my original school (Hello SMS again!) but not into my old classroom.  I should take a picture of my garage, where I have about a third of all my teaching supplies that never made it back to my classroom in the moving madness.  (Did I mention... I received ZERO moving/time off days to move back to SMS?  Yeah.)

 These are just some overall shots of my classroom.  I just had my tables put in today...  Finally got rid of the dreaded "one-armed bandits" that are such a giant pain in the butt to move around.  I'll take the chatty-ness that tables bring any day over single desks that can't be moved around well.

 My school has tons of storage space.  Unfortunately, it's really easy to turn into a mess.  See this cabinet, it's all my teacher books from the various amounts of subjects I've taught.  I've taught just about all the subjects in the middle school level!  Do I get a prize?  (Insanity! Yay!)

Look, it's all my bulletin boards and poster stuff.  Also, the door is broken too.  I should probably put in a work order for that.

This is the area behind my desk.  I need to sort through the random papers and throw some junk away.

 Part 2 behind my desk.  It needs to become more functional instead of a storage place for my stuff that I use on a semi-regular basis.

I also have a closet.  It's like the black hole of stuff.  Things go in... and they don't ever come out.  My greatest fear?!  To have my students trap me in there.









So this is it... I'll have to ponder what my main goal really is.  I know I've purged A LOT of stuff by moving it around twice, but I want my room to be organized to the point where anyone could come in, work and get things done.  I need to get a few more things on the walls, once I have my stuff in the right places.  Also, I like being one of the most organized teachers on campus too!