Reflective Teaching: Day 5, Picture This!

Day 5--Post a picture of your classroom, and describe what you see–and what you don’t see that you’d like to.
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After six years in trailer classrooms, several of us teachers were finally able to come back inside the main school building; however, for various reasons, we were not able to move our things until just before school started.

I had gone up to school the Friday before the first teacher workday, and the wonderful maintenance guys asked me if I wanted to get my classroom moved "early" (it was "early" because, technically, we were going to be moved on Monday). I jumped at the chance to get my things into the new classroom since I could use the weekend to at least attempt to get settled in.

The guys and I (I'm including myself because I did end up helping move some of the student desks, but they did most of the heavy lifting) got almost all my stuff from the trailer I'd called home for six years into the new classroom.  I say "almost all" because my desk had been built inside the trailer and needed to be taken apart in order to get it out.  It is a beautiful desk, but not one really meant to be moved much after being put together.  That was Friday.

My super-helpful mom joined me on Saturday as we moved boxes around my room, placing them near the bookcases I'd put them on (but not that day because the bookcases by safety laws are required to be fastened to the walls before they get anything put on them) and setting up a few other items.

Monday came and, as all teachers know, teacher "work days" are not really about giving teachers time to work in their classrooms.  There are too many meetings (district, building, content team, etc....) and not enough in-classroom time.  Tuesday we had more meetings and then Open House.  You know, that wonderful evening when you meet your students and their parents for the first time?  Well, my classroom looked nothing like I wanted it to look.  Here is a picture of my classroom on Monday before I left (note that the desk is finally in the room--but it's in five pieces because it hadn't been put together yet:

Monday, August 11, 2014

    Tuesday night (Open House night) 

the room was still in a bit of a mess, 

but at least my desk was together and the 

student desks were clean.  The maintenance 

guys also promised to have the bookcases 

attached to the wall by the next morning.  

 Mom came back up with me on Wednesday 

(since we stay late on Tuesday, the School Board 

generously gives us Wednesday off before the 

first day of school on Thursday) to help me load 

the books onto the shelves, put up curtains 

she made, and generally make my 

classroom look more like home.

    We spent a good portion of the day getting the classroom put to rights, and I am super grateful 

for mom and all her help.  I am still figuring out 

what I want on some of the walls, but as of this

morning, this is what my classroom looks like:

Friday, September 5, 2014

So... when I look at the picture of my classroom, I see a room finally coming together and looking much more like how I want my classroom to look.  I am looking forward to Parent-Teacher conferences so those parents who came to Open House can see how I normally set up my classroom.  However, I see some areas where I still need help--the blank wall on the right, for instance.  

One thing that I know that I would like to see (with a nod to the advice in this blog post about decorating secondary classrooms) is more student-age-related decor.  I tend to make my room comfortable for me... I want it pretty in a personal library kind of way, with lots of books and artfully arranged shelves with greenery and re-purposed decor items.  I know I need to make it more student-friendly, with current images on posters (although Orlando Bloom on my READ poster is classic and not leaving the wall).  I also need to remember that I should think about adding some brighter colors or patterns or something for the students eyes to rest upon when they're looking around the room.  I also would like to post student work in a creative way.  That, then, is what I want to see in my classroom.