my new home

I've decided that moving classrooms before school starts is like moving into a new house and having to host a fancy party two weeks later. Only in my case it was moving into a house that was still full of someone else's stuff (it took me two days, 8 garbage bags, and a freebie day for other teachers just to clear it out!) You can't just toss boxes out of sight to unpack later because the contents has to be available for kids to use. The decor has to be finished and things need to be cleaned. Not to mention I can't plan until I'm organized!

That being said, the classroom is finally finished and ready for kiddos. It started out in Miami Vice colors: the walls were teal and orange in a nod to the 'Phins with a wall of magenta thrown in for that South Florida flair. At least that's what I'm guessing:











But thanks to Tim's bright color selection and our 10 hours of painting in a non-air conditioned classroom a couple of weekends ago, I now call this home:



These are views from my front door. This place is so much bigger than my old room.



This is my teacher area. The star bulletin board will eventually hold kid work.



This is my office. Yes, my very own office. I would have painted it too, but I share it with my next-door neighbor (and I'm only showing you MY half -- it's huge!) It will be used mainly for storing teaching materials and other crap from the district. I have so much storage space in there that I had to label cabinets because I kept forgetting where everything was. I prefer to plan out in my classroom because I'm inspired by my kids and their work. But it will be a great place for one of my many college volunteers to tutor kids in a quieter space.



This is the reading center and Word Wall area. I'm going to lower the table for more comfortable seating. The books are all from my personal collection (except for the library books on the table.) Can you tell I love reading?


I now have an actual space for my computers. I'll be getting another one in the the next month so I'll have four for the kids to use! Our school also just added wireless so I'll be able to use my Mac at work for lesson planning and such. I don't have a Smartboard like some other classes, but maybe soon...


Here is our Math Meeting Board (not quite together yet), our recycling center (lovingly schlepped home weekly by yours truly since the school only recycles office paper), and the geography center. The cabinets house art and cleaning supplies.


This is my Accelerated Reader book area. The labeled cabinets all hold kid materials for math, language arts, games, and art projects. I prefer to have them out on open shelving so the kids can see what is available, but it will help keep the dust and dirt at bay. Also check out the flowers on the window sill outside. I hope they survive!


And this may look like just a door, but it's a door to the most amazing thing in the world to me: more storage. You had to have seen my old classroom where I stacked plastic tubs three high on top of the built-in cabinetry (and used a precarious ladder of chairs, tables, and stools to get them down) to really appreciate how much I love this closet. I will post a picture of its interior sometime this afternoon. Oh, and that cabinet on the right is holding more tubs of primary teaching stuff. It was supposed to be a coat closet. In Florida. How silly!

Thank you for visiting Miss Lynn's 4th grade class. I'm sure I'll post more about what we're doing as the year progresses. Right now, I'm just glad to have it done!