The classroom is more or less set up. Which is good, because the students arrived on Monday, and administration frowns on making them sit at tables covered with dozens of plastic bins and assorted junk.
I had wanted to take you through what I did every day during that teacher in-service week. I especially wanted to document the idiotic meetings that teachers everywhere are forced to attend, where it is explained that everything is their fault, and if they would just post these "unifying questions" and "essential understandings" and use the "drill-down" procedure to analyze student data, and stop having "low expectations" blah blah blah, then everything would be fine and our data would be all shiny and special.
Whoops. Didn't mean to bitterly rant like that, but goddamn it's ridiculous.
In any case, documenting the set-up of my classroom turned out to take way more energy than I was capable of mustering over the course of the week. Also, I worried that it would sound as if I was whining about how hard it is to be a teacher. Which, of course, is EXACTLY what I am doing.
Anyway, in case you forgot what my room looked like before:
ARGHH! It's hopeless! I might as well quit!
SOB! It's so beautiful! The stupid students will ruin it, I just know they will!
Oh Miz S! You are so organized!
I TOLD you they were going to ruin it! Yes, that's blood. And yes, I took a picture.
What's behind the purple curtain in the bookcase? Just stuff I don't want them to get into.
ReallyGoodStuff.Com. Those fuckers should give me a discount, as much money as I spend there.
How adorable are my little lunch bag icons? Courtesy of my friend Julie who finds the best clipart. I printed them out on card stock, laminated them, and hot-glued a magnet on the back.
Where we sit for read-alouds, where we sing songs, where we play games. And where I sternly berate them from time to time. Kidding. A little.
One of the 19 reasons that I love my job. (Despite the whining, which I hope you will forgive.)
Those are some big a@* bottles of glue. And I love the little poem reminding them to only use a dot. Judging from your beautiful room, you are one fine teacher, Miz S. And those beautiful eyes, well they are a good reason to keep doing it.
Posted by: Cathy S. | September 01, 2011 at 06:57 AM
Will you come organize my house like that????
We've been lucky -- my kids have fabulous teachers -- independent of the administration!
Posted by: liz | September 01, 2011 at 08:21 AM
I LOVE the lunch-choice area! PICTURES of the choices!! With lunch-bag voting icons!! I instantly want to make a choice! (I would be the first-grader standing there in the way thinking it over carefully with furrowed brow as all the other first-graders flowed around me.)
Posted by: Swistle | September 01, 2011 at 08:54 AM
Can I be in your class?
Posted by: blackbird | September 01, 2011 at 09:01 AM
"PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE STUFF BEHIND THE PURPLE CURTAIN!"
I love your room.
Posted by: Susie Sunshine | September 01, 2011 at 09:45 AM
Love your classroom. You are an organizational and classroom design diva! I bow down before you in deep jealousy! And, may I just say that I LOVE that you took a picture of the blood. You are my teaching hero!
Posted by: Liza Lee Miller | September 01, 2011 at 09:54 AM
D's K open house is today and I am right in the midst of some severe panicking because her teacher won't be as wonderful as you are and will probably be mean and scary like my elementary teachers were. SOB.
Posted by: Leah | September 01, 2011 at 10:02 AM
I love this but will ask why blood was spilled. Also, I love the glue poem and the lunch bag art.
We need a circle of calm at work. I may borrow this. You are awesome and not whiney at all except when you are having wine.
Posted by: The bee | September 01, 2011 at 10:31 AM
AWESOME
Posted by: Margaret | September 01, 2011 at 12:07 PM
Man, I am blown away! That classroom looks bright, colorful, tidy and organized--and homey. It makes me want to go back to first grade (but only your class). Would there be snacks?
Clearly, you've put in A LOT of work, Mary, and everything looks wonderful. Gosh! Did I say how blown away I am? What is the snack situation?
Have a great year at school! I hope there'll be snacks.
Posted by: Anne | September 01, 2011 at 04:45 PM
I knew you could do it.
Posted by: Pam L | September 01, 2011 at 06:42 PM
Mary, you are the BEST. Gosh. I love that all of the ranting you do about your work just proves how much you love it. And if the works couldn't prove it, these pictures certainly do. Here's to a new school year, and may you only desire to smack around HALF of the little effers, instead of the whole lot of 'em ;)
Posted by: Laura/DaPFG | September 01, 2011 at 07:20 PM
Oh snap. That should have said "words couldn't", but you knew that. Why does my keyboard suddenly feel too low to type on?
Posted by: Laura/DaPFG | September 01, 2011 at 07:21 PM
Your room looks ADORABLE!! Mine is already feeling messy after one day. :(
Posted by: Margaret | September 01, 2011 at 07:47 PM
Thanks for sharing these pics. Your room looks fantastic. I've been in school for certification and am finally doing my student teaching this coming school year. I enjoy your blog because you are smart about the admin and love your kids. I like that glue poem, too. My issue is that the last couple of years I have been hoarding stuff in my house with the idea I might use it in my hypothetical classroom...
Posted by: Beth Ann | September 01, 2011 at 07:54 PM
If Jane isn't going to bother to have a blog now, the least she can do is amuse us by commenting on yours.
And... BLOOD?
Posted by: Heidi | September 01, 2011 at 08:40 PM
Love the blood photo best.
Posted by: Lori | September 01, 2011 at 09:21 PM
Love this! I think the thing I miss most about teaching is my bright, shiny, first day of school classroom. I've asked my husband to let me decorate his room every year, and every year he passes.
Posted by: Mama Bub | September 01, 2011 at 10:27 PM
I love your room, so welcoming. And I especially love that you had the presence of mind in the midst of a gusher (I assume nosebleed?) to stop and take a picture. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Posted by: Mary | September 02, 2011 at 01:01 AM
Wow, LOVE the room! The kids will definitely mess it up. Especially if they are going to bleed all over the place. ;)
Posted by: maddy | September 02, 2011 at 09:47 AM
The stuffed animal puppy on the easel is cracking me up. It looks like a real puppy, and it amuses me to wonder why a puppy would be stuck up there.
Posted by: Heather | September 02, 2011 at 10:17 AM
Happy Labor Day weekend to you and Mizter. Hope it's free from storms and sniffles and trips to vets, emergency rooms, drama, guilt, and worry. You have an official dispensation from all that, and more, this weekend.
Thank me later. I'll watch for your red head as I trot around D.C. for the next week. This conference sounded like such a good idea a few months ago.
Posted by: Karenth | September 02, 2011 at 11:43 PM
Lookin' good, Miz S! I hope you have a wonderful school year.
Posted by: Belle | September 03, 2011 at 11:43 PM
any flooding in your area?
Posted by: Margaret | September 10, 2011 at 02:45 PM