A Bright and Shiny New School Year

The year has started and I'm feeling prepared this year. I made the decision to not come in during the summer to work on my room. (Best decision ever, by the way!) I've still got a stack of papers I've been meaning to file but really, that's all I've got left to do to get my room "set up."

First time walking in.

Easy fix.

I decided to change the background to my ENORMOUS bulletin board. Last year this thing made me angry because the fabric I bought wasn't big enough. So I thought I was so smart buying oversized, fadeless paper. Ha!

Notice how the boarder is yellow on the right side? The windows are on that side and the sun changed the color.

Seriously. You have no idea how big this sucker is.

Notice how there is a section on the bottom that couldn't be covered.

So it's a bit bright. But our school colors are orange and black, so it's not so bad. 

Then I had to dig out all the books. I came into a room with a huge classroom library; I even gave away a milk crate of books to another teacher so she'd have some. Because I can't really bring my books in, I have close to 800 books in boxes in my garage, sorted by authors, and inventoried in an Excel document--but really, I have a life...

This year I'm using my gutters as a recommendation wall. I made cards with a short blurb about them and included the Lexile so kids can find books at their level.

I'm really excited about these books because they are graphic novels. They are fairly low Lexile so they'll be great for my reluctant readers.

Today was our first day with all the students in the school. The day went well, my voice hurt from talking so much, and I could've used a nap but refused to take one like the three-year-old I am. I think it's going to be a good year but check back in October when behavior issues start showing up. That will be the real test.