Another DIY Project

Wow, did I get crafty the last couple of days... Yesterday I made this board.

It's the same kind of things as yesterday's Dry Erase adhesive, but this one is Chalkboard adhesive. This is the inside of my classroom door.  I put it there because I am going to use it to write notes to the students and have the students write notes to each other. But not just randomly. I think I am going to have someone have a specific job for the week- I might call it the "Affirmer." This person's job would be to be observant during the day and notice something that someone did that showed good character or hard work or perseverance during the day.  Maybe it's someone who tried really hard to answer a tough question. Or it's someone who worked without giving up on a difficult math word problem. The person whose job it is would write a little note to that person on the board saying what they say them do.  It could be like a "Caught you being good!" thing. I think the students will really like it. My teacher candidate (student teacher) and I will model it at first and then slowly release that job to the students.  We'll see how it goes! And, the students get to use cool chalk markers!!!

DIY White Board Cabinet

I am not crafty... not much that I plan to do actually works and turns out cute. But, I think today at school I had a minor turning point. I bought this Duck Adhesive white board roll at Walmart.

My original intention was to cut pieces of it and place it near the top of student desks to create an automatic white board that students can use mostly for our Engage New York Math.  But, I have this gray cabinet in my room that is just dying for me to do something with. So, I decided to cover the cabinet with this adhesive white board roll. Then I added some cute ribbon to the outside mostly because it's not wide enough to cover the whole door.  I also did the other side, but ran out of ribbon and have to go get some more.

I plan on using this as a Daily 5 station- probably a word work activity of some kind, but it's also a neat place to write notes to students. I think it's cute!

From Chaos to Organization Part 3

Day 3 of organizing the classroom did not go well. I have one completely empty wall space in my classroom. It is the wall behind my computer tables. (I didn't even take pictures today it was so frustrating!) Let me say that again- it's behind my computer tables. Which means to get it it, I either disconnect everything and move the tables out or stand on the tables to get to the space. I am not a fan of standing on tables, so I opted for the move the tables out strategy.  It's an empty wall with nothing on it- no windows- just a solid blank wall. I planned to put 4 paper spaces on this wall- my plan is to create a "What Close Readers Do" board and then board space to hang anchor charts. I can't easily get to this wall, so it's not space I want to change very often, but hanging an anchor chart or two every so often is fine.  Oh, and this wall used to be a bright color- it used to be blue, some other walls were yellow or red.  But people didn't like that so after 8 years, they just painted it a neutral sort of beige-ish gray.  But the other three walls in the room are a different color- more of an off-white, beige.  So it's a strange color and doesn't match the other 3- all the more reason to put up paper.

So, my teammate and I decided that I need to go with a pattern of some sort- I opted for alternating boards of black and azure blue.  I put up the first board that is above my desk. I can measure from the wall and from the ceiling and get that board fairly straight- no problem really, but my paper ends up being crooked across the top- I have a serious problem measuring and cutting things straight... but it shouldn't matter because the edges of the paper are straight- right? Well, the sides are but the top and bottom are crooked. But I can fix that because I can measure the border straight from the ceiling so I fixed that... The first board looks good. That was yesterday...

But today, I needed to finish that wall.  Well, I measured and cut my paper (but remember it's crooked from yesterday on the roll so when I measure and cut today, the paper is still crooked at top and bottom.  I mark the wall so many inches from the top and- really, I am a smart person- but not a spatial person apparently because the second board was crooked on the sides (because it must be crooked at the top- that's the only way the straight sides can be crooked) and not equidistant from the other board.  I am going under the assumption that the first board was straight...  I think I get it straight and then move to the next one only to realize again my paper is crooked on the sides... I don't even know how to fix it because I have nothing on the wall as a frame of reference that I know is straight.  OMG- I can't even think about it. What should have been so simple- hang 3 sheets of 4 foot wide x 5 foot long paper on the wall STRAIGHT- it shouldn't be hard, but it about killed me. At one point I am standing on a student chair with a yardstick in one hand, the staple remover in the other, pushpins in my mouth and my stapler between my knees, cursing my decision to even hang paper on that stinking wall.

Really- do I need paper there? No! Is it worth the stress I went through today? No (At least I feel like that today)! Will my students learn better because my paper is pretty? No!

Well, I got the paper up- but my border are still not stapled down because I can't tell if they are straight or not- so I will ask someone who is better at it than I am to look at it- but I am kind of afraid to do that because I know she will tell me that the other board I think is straight- isn't and then I will feel like I need to do it all over again... So, I really should just staple it and give up!

The OCD person in me thinks that the slight possibility of crookedness will bother me because I will look at it every day, but I need to squash that OCD person and just say the hell with it- once I begin teaching a slightly crooked border is going to be the least of my concerns.

I am completely in awe of people whose rooms I look at on Pinterest and in blogs. Everything looks so perfect and beautiful- I think- I am smart enough and creative enough and talented enough to do this too. Then I begin the process and realize that I am not and leave my room today completely frustrated and deflated...

From Chaos to Organization Part 2

The first day I always feel that it's the most productive- it's probably not, but it seems that way to me because I go from utter chaos into something that resembles a classroom.  The second day is always one of the hardest for me because that's usually the day I begin decorating. I love this part of it, but I also hate this part of it. I love it because I can do things to create my environment for the next school year- I can make it a beautiful place (or try to anyway) to spend the day. I love looking at a pretty board- it just makes me happy in a weird, teacher sort of way.
But the process of getting there I am NOT a fan of!  I HATE bulletin board paper- really I do. I hate walls without bulletin board and I hate the process of trying to cut things straight or make things straight on a wall.  It's just not something I can "see"- I can't tell if things are centered; if someone asks me "Is this straight?" I always tell them I will hold the paper and they should go look because it's just not something I am good at.
With that being said, here's what I did today.

 This is on my back wall- we are highly encouraged to have all the thinking maps up for kids. The paper behind the thinking maps is from Schoolgirl Style as are most other things- I purchased her Tickle Me Pink Paisley package.

 My Daily 5 board- it's a work in progress as I am not sure yet how I am going to display student choices for Daily 5. We will see what happens with that... I have a plan in my head, but not sure it's going to work.

 Voice level and rules- I also need to put my Hand Signal things here, but I need to find them!

The pocket chart at the bottom will be for Word Work mostly, and I plan to label it, but didn't have my letters at school.

That's really ALL I accomplished and I was at school from 8:30-2:00 (with a lunch break with my teammate and lots of breaks to help her or ask questions about border etc...)

I am happy with it, but it's no where near as beautiful as other people's I've seen on blogs.

I ran out of black paper and I needed some PINK for a couple of places so I had to make the 45 minute-round trip trek (and that's if I go in, rush directly over the the paper, wait in line and leave without looking at any other teacher products- and you know that's virtually impossible) over to our local Lakeshore Learning to get more black and see if they had pink (they did- YAH!). 

Team leads get our keys today so I can come and go as I please (thank goodness- BTW, what other job takes your keys when you go on vacation? Anyone? Only in teaching- ugh!)

I plan to get the rest of my paper and border on the walls and put up my What Close Readers Do board... One of my teammate and I are going to lunch with her student teacher from last year (Cheesecake Factory-yum!) so I will be lucky to get all that done before lunch.

It really is a good thing school doesn't start for another 19 days- how do people do it who come in on the official start date??? I just don't know!

From Chaos to Organization Part 1

I was able to get into my classroom yesterday to begin the process of getting it ready for the first day of school on July 27th. I moved classrooms at the end of the year, moving my things into a teammate's room who was switching grade levels. The end of the school year was strange this year because we did not have the Friday after students left on Thursday to finish things up- we had to be checked out by Thursday afternoon. This presented an interesting problem in terms of moving rooms- things that we would have done after school were done with student help during school. My teammate had moved most of her things already to her new room- she was moving into a vacant room so it was easier for her. They were re-painting the walls in our classrooms so everything had to be moved to the center of the classroom.
My teammate wanted to leave literally 10 minutes after students left on Thursday, so she was really hassling me about getting my things in her room moved to the center of the room- she and I didn't really get along well this last year so neither one of us was being very nice at this point. I told her I would get things done but I couldn't do it while I still had students in MY classroom. So, she moved everything to the center of the room for me. Well, when I came in yesterday this is what it looked like.

Not too bad, right? I mean, nothing was where I would put it and she just shoved everything in the center but I can work with that... until I noticed the horseshoe table. My first task was to get all the big furniture in the correct spots- I have several bookshelves that I needed to decide where to place and I needed to decide upon a meeting area and where to put my small group horseshoe table. So, furniture placement was my first priority.

There weren't a lot of people at school yesterday and no custodial staff nearby, so I was on my own with this.

First of all, how in the heck did she get this UP on top of the desks and WHY?  I have to say I didn't have too many nice words to say about my ex-teammate at this point. But, I was determined to get it off of those desks by myself...

And, I only dropped one of those double desks (and not on my foot)...  So once I got this down, I decide to put it in the corner of the room. Although I think the flag is really going to bother me there right above my head.

But, of course, the table is filthy! It has dried glue all over it and I have to scrape it today...not happy with old teammate. She also took the cubbies with her (even though she has them in her new room and traded my nice clean metal bookshelf for one that has old labels that are stuck on really badly).

Anyway, that was my adventure for the day. Here's what it looks like now after about 3 hours of work. No where near done- but that's why I am at school 20 days before it starts...

But, I did do one cute thing today. I put up my learning target board where I have to write the objectives...