I've Been Working Hard

Summer marches on, doesn't it?
I worked in my classroom this morning - I think that means my summer is pretty much over because I think I will be going in just about every morning for awhile.  Hopefully I will feel ready at some point and try to forget about it briefly, but I am not holding my breath on that point!  There is so much to do!

I have been busiest this past week moving photos and docs and music files from my old home computer (almost 10 years old - Apple, I salute you!) to a brand new one.  The old computer was just too old to sync up with the new one, so anything not in the cloud (like almost everything) needed to get moved manually.  I am just about done with that - done enough to say I really don't care anymore if I missed something!!

I have also been reading The Daily Five and following along with the discussion over at We Read We Blog We Teach . They will be discussing CAFE next, and I am excited to bring many of those elements into my 6th grade class next year, and probably figuring out a way to incorporate the iPads while I'm at it. This is truly a summer of non-stop learning and growing for me. On another note, I made a video of the mess that is my classroom the other day.  I also took pictures of each wall - hopefully the befores and afters will be very different!I will post the still pictures later when the room is done.

One project I have tackled is taking 4 of these old and dirty cushions that came off of a wicker corner group that will become the center of my classroom library seating:

And I added 4 of these new beach towels, bought on sale at Target for only $5.00 dollars each:

And covered them to make pretty new cusions!  Maybe after awhile, I will take them off and sew them to make them sturdier, but for now wrapping and securing them with large safety pins has done the trick. I can't wait to see it all together in the room.  

The next project I have tackled has been to take a storage unit that was natural colored wood, but had lots of marks from old stickers and labels and pen marks all over it

I cleaned it.  I sanded it.  I repainted it in fun colors.

Then I added these cute little chalkboard labels. When I decide what will go into them, I will write on the label with white chalk.  

Cute, no?

Sixth Will Be Spectacular

When school starts again in the Fall, I will be moving to 6th grade.  I can hardly wait.  I was filled with much trepidation when the assignment was first suggested to me, but now I am eagerly awaiting teaching older students.

Clearly I will have a very busy summer.  I have moved out of my old classroom, but the new one is...maybe not a complete disaster...but it is a jumble and a mess.  The former teacher has moved out, I am pretty sure, but she left piles of things for me to go through.  That is good because perhaps there are things there that will be useful to me. But it is bad because (see above) I have to go through them.

That's the physical classroom.  I also have to become an expert in 6th grade curriculum and plan my year.  And we are getting iPads so I have to familiarize myself with fantastic ways to incorporate those into the curriculum that I am not completely familiar with yet.  And there is the SmartBoard.  I know the SmartBoard, but I'm sure it will be used differently in 6th.  And with iPads!  

But for now, I am going to focus on making my room nice and getting a feel for what I am going to teach.

Stay tuned.