I got my fix...

Every August and September as all the back to school sales start and all the pictures of great finds, useful organizing ideas and cute classrooms start flooding my RSS feed, facebook page and Instagram feed, I get sad.

I am sad because I don't have the opportunity or need to buy those great finds, organize all my teaching supplies, games, centers and books or cute-ify my classroom, the reason being is I don't have a classroom.

So I usually sit back and drool and dream through all of your purchases, ideas and pictures.

Until this year!

You see, last year my school closed and all my friends got displaced. They are now spread out all around the district. Most everyone got the school and or grade that they picked as their first choice, so everyone is happy (well as happy as you can be at a new school).

My friend Lisa was super excited because she was a middle school computer teacher and had been wanting desperately to move back to elementary. Our district has had a HUGE number of pink slip teachers so the possibility of switching grades because you wanted to was not an option.

Lisa was given a 2nd grade class! She was super excited and very overwhelmed at the prospect of basically starting over. I told her not to worry, 2nd grade is my grade and I would help her with whatever she needed.

So once all her stuff got moved to her new classroom I was there to help. She was basically starting from scratch, and had nothing from the previous years (because who has cutesy stuff in a middle school computer lab?).

Lisa was given "extra" stuff from her fellow teachers (so she didn't have to buy EVERYTHING) and the librarian was extra generous and filled her classroom library with grade level appropriate books from the school library (from the school that closed).

The week before school started I came in to Lisa's class and we started to organize, decorate and talk about all those little tasks and routines that are so important to the little guys.

We covered her bulletin boards with paper and used the donated borders. I talked her into getting rid of her teacher desk (she has a kidney table and a computer desk) to give her more room (she has 28 students).

I made her calendar wall, her behavior cards, classroom jobs and word wall - all things she didn't have to think about in middle school.

Here are a few pictures of her classroom and the few things I created for her (at this point the room was still a work in progress).


I got my fix! I was able to help, buy and create a small portion of a fun learning environment. Thanks to all you fabulous bloggers, my love of teaching and Lisa's need for help, I realized that I still know what I am talking about and have not "lost" the teacher in me.

Here's hoping you all have an excellent school year!


3 comments

  1. I'm glad that you had the opportunity to help your friend, Shawna. Her room looks great! And I hope that when and if you are ready to have a classroom of your own, that it happens for you. The job market is still tight in my area, and a lot of the younger candidates have to work as aides before they get hired.I love your blog and have gotten many great ideas from it. Thank you.

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    1. Thank you for the kind comment! I do hope one day to have my own classroom but my district has so many pink slipped teachers that it is going to be awhile. For now I live vicariously through all my teacher friends! :)
      Enjoy your weekend!!
      Shawna

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