Not a normal Saturday night.

Today has been one of those not so normal days.  Rain all day and the oh-so-addicting Zimmerman Trial.  I've been sucked into watching this "trial" all day... not really a trial, more of the anticipation of whether the jury will make a decision or not.  I have always said that if I was not a teacher, I would be a private investigator - trials like this only prove that to me even more.  However, I would never in a million years give up my teaching position! :)

As the jury deliberates on into the night... and the rain continues, I have no desire to venture out into the crazy Charleston city (where it floods anytime it rains).  So here I sit at home on a Saturday night wondering what to make of my time.  

Then it hits me, I have had a project sitting in a room for MONTHS waiting on me to complete.  Yes, MONTHS. I have had these two very large bags of tennis balls since September.  I am not lucky enough to have carpet in my classroom... all day long I hear the "screech" of the chairs sliding along the floor making the worst sound ever.  However, the thought of cutting a million tennis balls has been the last thing on my list.  Unit now.

I have successfully cut half of the tennis balls in one of the bags.  Yes, only half of one.  BUT, that's progress! :)

And of course.. No project would be complete without the disruption of my 9 month old kitten. She wanted to help?

Just for next year!

First post!

As I am entering my second year of teaching, I want to make everything perfect for the next school year.  This past year my classroom was a MESS (and I put emphasis on the mess for a reason).  Throughout the entire year, I was not pleased with my setup and was constantly changing everything.   I changed desk arrangements, wall decorations and even my desk placement.  I blame this all on the fact that I signed my contract the week before school started... and started with nothing.  Not complaining! :)

This year will be different.  We got out of school in early June, so I decided to take that month off.  Now it is July and I am in full swing in my classroom, changing ALL of the things I did not like last year.  This year will be the year of the perfect classroom (for me).

At a recent conference, I had to opportunity to attend a class in which the 2012-2013 National Teacher of the Year, Rebecca Mieliwocki, taught.  The idea behind the hour long session was to get an idea of what works in the classroom.  One idea being to name your classroom.  The kids love it, you are able to say, "Alright, let's head back to "The Spot"! So that's what I did.  Welcome to 'The Spot'.

I have started with painting.... not the walls, but the furniture.  I wanted a red, black and white room (like a ladybug), but this was hard to do with BRIGHT blue and brown furniture.... Here is the transformation of my math manipulatives shelf.  I was so excited about getting rid of the blue, that I did forget the before picture.  Here is a picture of the during and the after.

After painting, I wanted to add some "life" to my inherited ugly book shelf.  I did that by throwing out the old and getting two completely new book shelves.  After putting together the first shelf backwards, I gave up for the day and continued the next day with the rest... I have to say. I love the new!  It is not finished (I want to add really cute ladybug labels, which I will get to this week). Here is the start of this project.  It is not perfect, but it is light years away from where I started.

I am so excited to finish this classroom and to show you what it will be...