The Classroom

I know that many of you are anxious to see the much anticipated classroom shots...so here they are. In retrospect, I should have taken a before and after shot so that you could see how much I have truly accomplished in the past week. Just picture the last day of school when 8th graders run out of the building singing the song, "Schools Out for Summer." This then leaves behind a disaster area of dittos and "Current Science" magazines not to mention a thick coating of dust and dirt for Melissa to clean up when she arrives at her room for the first time! Needless to say this has been a project.

I'm almost finished with my tidy standards based classroom. I still have an array of writing posters that need to be hung up along with a word wall...yeah! I do have some good ideas for tackling these last two items though. I'm planning to make the word wall interactive so that it will actually serve a purpose in the classroom and then put all the 500 writing posters that were given to me on rings so that it forms a flip chart for easy storage and less clutter.

Oh, and I need to mention that my classroom is from the 70's check out the light blue walls with the burnt orange lab tables...gotta love it! I tried to go with a bright colored theme to distract from the horrible decor. Yes, and all those desks you see are all necessary. I am going to have 6 sections of 8th grade physical science with anywhere from 29-42 students per class!! YIKES! I might be eaten alive by all those 8th graders!

I know you can't see them, but I made the cutest little numbers to number the lab tables in my room. I spent at least an hour meticulously cutting out the numbers on different colored paper and mounting them on black paper and then finally laminating them for durability, I realize this is very nerdy! Ok, last thing, I know this is long. My dad would be so proud of me today because I actually hung something up on my own and had to use tools. Yes that is right folks, Melissa using actual tools and pretending to be handy! I hung up these hooks in the back of my room so that my green lantern could hang from the celing. I'm pretty proud of myself! Dad, I also used the tape measure you purchased for me too!