Making Progress

Yesterday my wonderful husband said he'd go with me to Home Depot to get some supplies to put up shelves in my closet and hang my classroom curtains (the window is too large for a standard curtain rod, or at least one that costs less than $50). Not one to turn down help, even if it is only a half hour before dinner time, we loaded up the girls (ages 4 and 2) and took off with my list.

We made, what I thought would be a quick trip, before dinner but shortly after arriving at Home Depot I realized it was going to take much longer than expected. I wasn't totally sure what I wanted to use the hang the curtains (one of the reasons I brought Justin along) and it took us quite a while before we decided a smaller copper pipe would work best. We eventually ended up finding everything we needed and at that point our car was packed with boards, pipes, and supplies so we decided to just take everything to school and start working for a bit. We picked up some teriyaki chicken for a classroom picnic dinner and headed to school.

All was well for the first hour or so. The girls were content to color and use stickers while they ate their dinner and we worked. Justin got the curtain rods hung while I cleared out the closet and then we got to work on the shelves.

In the mean time my 2-year-old decided it would be fun to dump out everything she could find and hide it in new baskets. We had math manipulatives, art supplies and toys everywhere!  For a solid hour I spent most of my time keeping the 2-year-old out of trouble while trying to help Justin as much as I could. I finally started a movie so we could finish up for the night and for the most part the girls watched that while we worked on the last of the bigger shelves. After a few set backs and one additional trip to Home Depot (thankfully Justin went on his own this time), we ended up leaving school around 9:45 pm with half my shelves up, all the curtain rods installed, and two tired girls who were both ready for bed.

I went back this afternoon with my 4-year-old and we installed the last two shelves ourselves and did some organizing. I now have four new shelves and curtains on all my windows and it cost me just over $100. I still have a long way to go, but things are starting to come together a bit.

Good-Bye Room 3

Today is a bitter sweet day for me. I finished cleaning all my things out of Room 3. I have really enjoyed this room and will miss the memories and friendships I've made here, but I am excited that a new teacher will have the chance to make it her own. Some great people have taught in Room 3 and I know the next teacher to move in will be no exception. 

And as for me...I'm on to new adventures in Room 27!

Room 27

A new grade level and a new computer lab...umm I mean classroom. :) Our school building is out of traditional classrooms so I will be transforming our school computer lab (from here on out we will call it Room 27) into our new 1-2 classroom this summer. I have some fun ideas for the space but have a lot of moving to do before then. I thought I would post some "before" pictures so you can see what Room 27 looked like before I started doing anything with it. Stay tuned for progress updates...

A Year Of Change

Well...I found out last month that I will be teaching a 1st and 2nd grade blended class next year. At this point, I am feeling a little overwhelmed about this adventure but I know in the end it's going to be an amazing year. I am blessed to be able to loop with 13 of my students from my kindergarten classes this past year and all but one of the 2nd grade students I will have in the fall were in my kindergarten class the year before. I have an amazing class list with parents that are equally as wonderful and the most supportive principal you could ever ask for. I am excited for all that this year will entail.

I've decided to blog about this new adventure as a way to document our year, share ideas, and keep in touch with parents and other teachers. A summer of planning and organizing lies ahead of me, but I'm totally up for the challenge!