A New Year

Believe it or not, summer is over and it's time for a new school year to start. This year, I am going back to my "roots". When I first started teaching 20 years ago,(REALLY??) I started in First Grade. When I moved to central Texas, I, again, started in First Grade. Well, after a few years in second grade (and the library), I'm back in First Grade.

I'm excited to begin a new year. I've had a wonderful summer with my family but I'm ready to be back in the classroom. Of course, setting up a classroom can be some seriously hard work. Especially when changing rooms! It's been a busy two weeks and all I can really think about is that I am happy I have two more days before the students come because my To Do list is getting longer instead of shorter! Here's what a classroom looks like when a teacher first enters for the new school year...

Everything is stacked up against the walls. It's time to take it all down and set it into place. Well, at least a place you think it might work in at first. There's a lot of moving around to be honest.













After working for a day or so, it looks like this:

You're feeling good because things are starting to come together. You're envisioning what you want your classroom to look like and sound like with little ones in there happily at work learning and having a good time.




Then it starts to look A LOT worse because you start dragging things out of closets and boxes that you used to store and move things in! This is when you want to throw up your hands and go to work at the local 7-11, but eventually you get to this:

You know it'll get better the more you work (and throw things out).





It's time to sit down and plan your first few days. What will the students do when they come in? What activities do you want to kick off the year with? What routines do you want to start right away? And that's when you realize that your cute room doesn't work AT ALL and you have to get back in there and move things around to create an even better room that functions efficiently... AND, if your lucky, you'll have lesson plans as well....

and another list of more stuff to do. TOO MUCH more to do.

But it'll all get done. And what doesn't get done? Well, somehow things work out and you discover that what doesn't get done really didn't NEED to get done after all.

That's amazing... just like teaching!