First Day of School Eve

Tomorrow is the first day of school. I have spent this week in meetings and activities with my fellow school employees, and trying to find time to finish setting up my classroom around these. This is the first time I have ever had my before school teacher meetings the same week as the first day of school. Meetings ran Monday-Wednesday from 8:00-3:00 and school starts tomorrow. One of the new teachers in my building told me this morning that my classroom looked "Pinterest ready." That feels like a pretty high compliment, so I guess I have nothing to worry about as far as having the space ready for kids to arrive tomorrow morning.

Blurring the nametags messed up overall look,
but you get the idea.

My head is having a hard time wrapping around the fact that tomorrow is the first day of school. But I think that's true every year. I'm too exhausted to know for sure right now... I had a back to school dream last night that combined teachers, students, and families from all three of the schools I have worked in over the course of my career. We were meeting to discuss a student of concern from my current building, and I had to drive from one building to another with a teacher from my previous building, only to meet with the new science teacher at my first building, who was actually one of my first third graders ever. When I woke up and started analyzing it, I realized my first third graders would be about 24 now, and therefore, one of them really could be a new science teacher at a school this year. It was fun to think about specific students, teachers, and families from each of my buildings when I woke up this morning. Given the content of my two back to school dreams, I have to say I can't find evidence in my life that I am worried or anxious about the new school year; I'm just processing it. Maybe I'll change my mind by tomorrow morning, but somehow I don't think that's likely.

There was a bit of shakeup in my building this week. On Monday we suddenly found ourselves in need of a new middle school teacher. With the two new teachers and IB PYP coordinator hired in June, that brings the total of new people in the building to four. For a staff of our size (just over 20 teachers), that's pretty significant.

Thankfully, even our meetings can be great fun. As an IB candidate school we have a lot to learn about this curriculum framework. One of the first things to learn is the learner profile, made up of ten attributes: Inquirer, Thinker, Reflective, Open-Minded, Risk-Taker, Communicator, Caring, Principled, Balanced, and Knowledgeable. Rather than reading about them, or being lectured to about them, we were teamed up and sent on a photo safari around the school to find places where these attributes are already in action around our building. Even after two IB workshops, this activity helped me to understand and cement the attributes into my brain.

Don't we look inquiring?

And when my principal schedules team building time, he knows what he is doing. At my previous schools we always went off campus during our in-service meetings for a "faculty retreat." It always included lots of prayer and touchy feely conversations. Although I know it was meant to increase morale and a sense of team spirit, it never quite hit its target goals for me. I'm not saying it wasn't valuable time, but it pales in comparison to what I've experienced in my current building. My first year we had a whirly ball tournament and last year we went to a cooking class at Hot Stove Society and prepared our lunch under the tutelage of actual chefs. This year we went on a scavenger hunt put on by the Electric Boat Company. One of the things I like best about these events, is the fact that the parish staff is always included in them. My current building is the first one where I have felt that that the school and parish staffs know each other well enough to really and truly work together. The other "best part" is that the activities is the fun that fosters genuine conversation, rather than the forced conversation that came from responding to prompts given to us at my previous retreats. In my current building, we play together in a structured activity, and learn much more about each other as a result.

Now this is team building!

Besides trying to figure out how to incorporate this lesson that I really learned today (after only my third time experiencing it... third time's the charm, right?) into my classroom culture this year, I hope to get a restful night's sleep that only includes feel good back to school dreams. As tired as I am, I am truly grateful that my first "week" of school is a day and a half, followed by a three day weekend.

The Weekend Before School Starts

Happy Saturday! I am having a difficult time wrapping my head around the fact that school starts this coming week. Monday-Wednesday will be meetings with the entire school staff, and Thursday will be a half day of school followed by a barbeque lunch for the school community, and professional development on our new math curriculum.

I spent four hours yesterday working on decluttering my classroom and then three hours in a meeting for new teachers and their mentors. Then I had an appointment and went to a concert with my husband. It was a busy day. Although there are still several things to do, I could certainly begin teaching without anymore classroom prep if I had to. But I'm glad I don't have to.

Date night before back to school.

Today I finished stapling together my newly created classroom procedure booklet, and am continuing work on cleaning up the small compost buckets that are used for compostable snack waste in each homeroom classroom. This is a new program that my students implemented after attending outdoor environmental education at YMCA Camp Seymour last fall. Getting last year's decorations and teacher labels off of the buckets for a refresh by this year's fifth graders has proven to be a daunting task. I actually started working on removing grime and permanent marker from the buckets on Thursday, and was successful at cleaning about five buckets with rubbing alcohol followed by nail polish remover. But I was working outside because I didn't want those smells in my house, and it was over 90 degrees outside, which caused me to pack it in for the day before using the nail polish remover on most of the buckets.

The smaller stack of buckets was
completed with these products.

In one stack, they are thicker than a
Harry Potter book!

I came back to the buckets today, a much cooler day, only to discover that the final pass with nail polish remover was not working on the remaining buckets. I don't know if it was the heat from the sun after the rubbing alcohol application or the time delay between the rubbing alcohol and the nail polish remover application or both, but I could NOT get the permanent marker to fade even a little bit today. So I did a little research online, and went around my house collecting the suggested products. I had all of the products on hand, and tried each in turn. Product after product made no visible difference, not even the Magic Eraser! I was getting frustrated to the point that my husband suggested just buying new buckets. But even at five dollars each, getting a new set of 20 each year would be prohibitively expensive, as well as run counter to the ideals of the snack composting program and the ideals of a Level Three Green School, a distinction earned by my school this past spring.

The products attempted for the second set of buckets.

Finally, I opened a tube of toothpaste with baking soda already in the manufacturer's mix, and grabbed a toothbrush we keep in the kitchen for scrubbing stubborn small spots. Viola! The permanent marker started disappearing, and with a nice minty scent rather than a caustic chemical odor. I still have about five buckets to scrub, and my forearms and wrists are very sore from the whole endeavor, but I am happy to have found a solution, and a cleaning process that I can hand off to the students in the spring. I was leery of handing them rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover, but I will have no problem handing out toothpaste and toothbrushes for them to use on the buckets.

I'll do my best to take tomorrow off before the official kick off to the school year begins on Monday. I did schedule a massage for myself, but I can't promise not to find "just one more thing" (or two or three...) to do. Right now, I'm off to scrub the remaining buckets, put names on nametags, and email parents a welcome back message.

Personalizing My Room

I had my first back to school dream last night, and as far as back to school dreams go, it was pretty lame. In it, I hadn't planned what I was going to wear on the first day of school, and the only clothes I had clean were the ones I have been wearing in real life to do my classroom cleaning - mostly tank tops and denim shorts. I say it was lame because I had more residual anxiety upon waking from a different dream I had last night, in which a scorpion was crawling out of the bag of dog food and advancing at me with what looked like ink coming out of its antennae, which in the dream was representing its venom that it was going to inject into me. And about ten seconds after waking from the scorpion dream, I was laughing at the inaccuracies of venomous antennae. I guess it all means that while I am fixated on the prep for going back to school, I am not really worried about the year ahead.

I'm sure the dream was mostly related to the fact that I have been scrubbing and cleaning more than I thought I would. I found more places to scrub yesterday, including the cupboard doors, which cleaned up beautifully with the help of a Magic Eraser. I feel like I need to buy stock in Mr. Clean's parent company. I did also leave yesterday feeling like I had more to do than time to do it in, and was making plans to spend ample time at school this weekend so I wouldn't have to stay too late after the inservice meetings next week.

Happily, today that feeling has diminished. I finished with what I'm going to do for just about every bulletin board and wall space. I still have a long board in the back of my classroom that needs a little more on it before school starts, but I plan to leave some it blank for activities that students will complete during the first few days of school.

Mostly I need to concentrate on my own space now. My desk is the last space to come together every year, and the first to explode again once school starts.

My IB Wall

As I sat squishing sticky tack between my fingers to ready it for use to adhere posters to the freshly painted walls without marring them, I marveled at how clean my room feels this year. Clean in the sense that I have scrubbed and scrubbed until my arms, wrists, and shoulders are sore, but also clean in a decluttered sense. I had extra space to add more touches of personalization including my SU banner, picture of Saint Rose of Lima given to me by a student at my previous school, and my butterfly artwork given to me by my husband when I got the job in my current building. I even have ample space left in my closet this year to store the paper towels, tissues, and other communal use items from the school supply list.

The classroom felt much more like my space this time last year than it did my first year in this building, but it's reached a greater level of personalization this year. I even put up my turtles for the first time in this building.

The decluttered countertop and some personalization



The First Bulletin Boards

I woke up and went into school on my normal school schedule and stayed almost seven hours today. I'm exhausted, and there is still so much to do! My principal asked me today if I spent this much time setting up last year, and I told him I thought so. Upon further reflection I'm not sure. There is more to do this time around because items that usually stay up on the wall all summer were taken down for painting. The general dishevelment of piling everything from the closets and countertops onto overflowing shelves or on desks in the middle of the room only to have everything from the middle of the room then moved off of the floor for the summer strip and wax is much higher than usual. There is always a little bit of "where did I put that in June?" but this year, I'm asking myself that question a LOT.

Today's cleaning included wiping off the accumulated dry erase marker from the student white boards and reading the messages and seeing the drawings students left for me. There were more than normal this year, potentially because I was in Alabama when they were doing the spring classroom cleanout. I also used another Magic Eraser on the remainder of the built in shelves, one wood laminate teacher chair, and the hallway desks gifted to me by another teacher who will have a much smaller class this year than last. If my class size grows, I will have to pull them into my room, but I prefer to have desks in the hallway for students to use during group work or use when they need a break from the classroom environment.

My favorite drawing and the grimiest board

The rest of my time was spent mostly on wall displays. I got the "Let the Water Renew Us" compliment corner set up, and I have to say I LOVE how it came out. I might get a beach pail to put the blank paper water droplets in, but otherwise it's perfect. I also got my alphabet back up, which took three tries. First it went uphill, then down. I'm sure it's not quite straight, but I'm done messing around with it. I also put the front of the room side bulletin boards together; one for the calendar and the other for the learning targets. Posters were hung outside my room, but I made no attempt to tackle the very long hallway bulletin board that is my responsibility to fill. I also still have an extra long bulletin board in my classroom and a smaller one to decorate.

The completed compliment corner

Ready for September First!

The new job chart

I realized on my way home that I have appointments in the early afternoon hours for the remainder of the week and wished I had stayed longer. So of course I couldn't stop working. I put together a class job poster, made labels for the book report booklets, and made bookmarks to keep near the classroom library. That's enough for one day, right?

Set Up Week Begins

When I got to school today, about 10:00am, the place was the busiest it has been so far this month. Most of the office staff was there, and the principal was greeting a new family, the children of which were decked out in full school uniforms. I saw at least six other teachers working to put their rooms in order, and ran into two parents I know. It is a busy time, which can make it harder to be productive. I was surprised to find I was eating my lunch at 1:45, and disappointed in the progress I was able to make before I left. Tomorrow I plan to go in early, on my normal school year schedule, which should give me an hour or two before the building gets busy to focus on working rather than chatting.

Today was mostly about getting lots of little things done. I unpacked bins that held my prayer table and some teacher desk items, located my step stool that had gone missing (it was in the faculty room), laminated a couple of small posters that were too big for my home laminator, started a bulletin board display for the school theme, unpacked new math materials and added the student books to their cubbies, set up my prayer table, and set out the new book report booklets. I might have done a few other things besides staring at the mess and willing it to take care of itself, but maybe not.



Book report display

The start of a bulletin board

 

Prayer Table complete with my Machu Picchu Rock

Today was also about conversations with co-workers, both about school and chit chat to catch up with people I haven't seen in several weeks. I found out that the sixth grade teachers are swapping who is teaching science and social studies, and offered up some resources I have from the years I spent teaching ancient civilizations to Austin, who will be taking over the job. I talked with Kate about several different things, but notably about our mid-October trip to Camp Seymour and the process of seeking out parent volunteers and communicating necessary information to all parents.

And I talked to the science teacher about the worm bin my students created last year. Specifically I wanted to know whether or not she thought the worms were alive in there after all the heat we had last week (with no water/food added since June). Paula said since it still smelled earthy, rather than moldy, the environment was probably still healthy, and helped me add water, more worms from the school wide worm bin, and some greenery to help them reestablish their plastic habitat.



Revitalizing the worm bin

Again I have the sense that as I check things off of my to do list, more items are being added to the bottom. I hope the rate of added items slows enough this week that I can begin to feel like I'm actually making progress toward being ready for students on September 1!



Time to take out the recycling!

The Last Week of Summer

Technically I still have one more week before the teacher back to school meetings begin, but since I am planning to spend part of every day this week in my room getting the space ready so I don't have to stick around after the meetings beyond some finishing touches, I considered last week the last real week of my summer vacation.

I spent most of last week camping with my family and a long time friend of my boys. It was relaxing and the perfect way for me to unplug and recharge before the start of the school year. While I was away, my school secretary emailed me the names and addresses of all the incoming fifth graders so my partner teacher and I could send out welcome postcards. She and I planned to have them out in Saturday's mail. So when I got home on Thursday night and discovered I had left my half of the postcards at school, I knew that meant I had to make a trip into my classroom on Friday.

Since I was going in anyway, I took some Mr. Clean Magic Erasers and used one to scrub six shelves in the built in bookcase in my room and the counter above them. I applied as much elbow grease as I could, spending close to an hour on just six shelves. I did watch a layer of grime come off, but I was still unable to get them to really look clean. It was mildly disappointing, but not all that surprising. I reiterate that white is not a good color for classroom furniture.



The water after 2 shelves (note the spots that would not "erase")

The only other thing I did at school last week was to label my paper bags for my fifth grade survival kits and put the items I have ready for them near them on a desk in my classroom. The survival kits are generally my last finishing touch before school actually begins.

Some items still need to be created and purchased for these

I took my postcards, metallic permanent markers, and the first set of Scholastic book order forms for the year home to work with while I did camping laundry. I really only meant to address the postcards and put names on the little metal buckets for the school's theme on Friday afternoon. I did both of those, but while scrolling through my Facebook I came across a Momastery post that I wanted to print and modify for use in my classroom next year.



That's a lot of buckets to fill!

Aren't we cute?

And then another post caught my eye, this time for an editable classroom procedure booklet from Teachers Pay Teachers. I have an interesting relationship with Teachers Pay Teachers in that I almost never spend money on the site. I have downloaded several freebies, since every seller is required to have at least one free item.  Mostly I look at the previews of items for sale and then decide to either do without or make my own version rather than spend money. Maybe that's why my own Teacher's Pay Teachers products are so few and far between. Now that I get so many ideas from other sellers I don't feel right adding my latest creations which are based on the ideas of others.

The sense that I could make my own version of whatever I needed has kept me from using a classroom procedure booklet in past years. I love the idea, but have never taken the time to make my own. But I took the plunge and spent the five bucks to buy Teaching in Room 6's version to edit it and make it my own... which then took the rest of Friday evening and all day Saturday. But the time spent was well worth it. I am very excited to go into this school year with procedures clearly defined and on paper for students to refer back to, and to even pull out and show parents should the need arise. I had at three parents tell me last year along that their child did not know when and where to turn in assignments, even though there is a standard procedure I had taught and followed for months before any of these conversations. If such conversations happen going forward, I can have the student find the correct section in the classroom procedure manual and read it to his or her parents!

Checking my school supply list, emailing and texting my partner teacher, and even sending one email to my principal later, I have a draft that might be ready to print, staple, and hand out to students on the first day of school. But I think I'll wait just in case the urge to continue editing strikes me again soon.

The first printed copy

There will either be lots or no more posts from me this coming week, as I work to set up my classroom space while keeping things running smoothly on the home front. My greatest fear in starting this blog is that I wont' find the time to write for it once school begins. We will soon find out whether or not my fear is valid.

Back to School Prep

(continued)

Since I couldn't decide what number to put after my previous post, I decided to stop worrying about it. I've been working on getting ready for the first day of school since August 1. Most days I do at least a little something, but I took a nice break from all things related to work when my cousin was visiting from Dallas with his family, and I'll take another break next week when I go camping with my family.

I went into my classroom yesterday, and made excellent use of the new bookshelves Kate gave me. I sorted my books into fiction and nonfiction, and hope that the two separate shelves will help them stay that way. I further sorted the nonfiction books into humanities and STEM topics, but I'm pretty sure it will be a loosing battle to keep them separated out as students begin using them.

My new book corner



The pencil gray smudges didn't photograph well

I had intended to work on setting up the new book report forms (the discs are already falling out, but I'll try not to worry about that just yet) however the cleared shelf space is dingy and smudged. I need to attempt to clean it with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser before setting up a display. I have seen the Magic Erasers work magic on graying classroom furniture, so I have high hopes... But if I were to design my own classroom, I would never, ever want white shelving or counters.

I also spent time organizing the cupboards and made a start at clearing the counter. I was able to set up my science closet and the student cubbies. I'm setting up for 24 students, though the last I heard there were only 39 fifth graders with completed registration forms and fees paid. My principal assures me he knows of 44 families intending to send their fifth graders to our school, and that he expects that number to grow to 48. So I'm prepping for the highest number given to me so far. I've found it's far easier to scale back to your actual class size than scale up on the first day. There's nothing worse than having a student show up and not having a place for him or her to sit or a set of textbooks ready to hand out.

24 cubbies with one set of books each

The science closet

Today I worked on getting materials ready for the school theme, which is "Let the Water Renew Us." I have been doing a version of the bucket filling activity for several years now. I started with a candle theme before I worked at a school that articulated a theme every year. As luck would have it, the first theme at my new school was "Be a Light For Others." So I kept the candle theme where students wrote compliments on paper candles to put into paper candle holders for their classmates. Last year the theme was "Come to the Table," and I made a little placemat for each of my students and cut out fruit for the compliments. This is the first year I've actually used buckets in my theme, and may move to a table top design rather than a bulletin board. The buckets are light enough, but upon opening the package I discovered that the handles fall out very easily. I still think they will do their job nicely, and can't wait to have a class list so I can write student names on the buckets. I'm thinking I'll bill the compliments written on water droplets as "drops of kindness."

Paper rain drops

Buckets and Signage

I keep crossing items off my list, but unfortunately I keep thinking of more things to add to it. I've still got quite a few things to do before my classroom will be ready for my students. Thankfully I still have almost three weeks to get there!

Some of the remaining clutter



Back to School Preparation

(part 1)

Or is it part 2? Or potentially part 4? I have now spent at least four hours each day this week on back to school prep. Yes, Monday was mostly about catching up with my principal, but it was also about wrapping my head around the jobs that need to be done. On Tuesday I found some IB "posters" (you know, Word flyers) for display and printed and laminated them. Well, not so much some, as many. I printed and laminated two sets of the learner profile attributes, and one set each of the key concepts and attitudes. Just poking around online took quite a bit of time, but using the little hot laminator I got with Scholastic bonus points several years ago is a very slow process, and required a run to Staples to buy more plastic pouches. I also created a welcome back to school post card I hope I will be able to mail to the incoming fifth graders before school starts.

My favorite IB online find from Tuesday

On Wednesday my new partner teacher, Kate, told me she was going to be in her room from about 10-2, so I went in again - this time with cleaning rags at the ready. I cleaned every flat surface that is not a counter or inside a cubby, cupboard, or shelf. I moved furniture and think I am ready to check two items off of my initial list from my last post. Kate even gave me two bookshelves out of her classroom, so I ended up rearranging one more time toward the end of the four hours I was actually in my room yesterday. I also printed out the postcards I created on Tuesday, and Kate and I signed them, each taking half home for if/when we get a list of addresses for the incoming fifth graders.

What was accomplished

What has yet to be accomplished

When I got home on Wednesday, I pulled up some files I created in summers past, and did some printing and laminating, with cutting thrown in for good measure. I made states and capitals bookmarks and math reference sheets for my homeroom kiddos. I prefer to use the small at home laminator for these because it is a thicker lamination than the bigger (much faster) machine at school. I emailed the files to Kate, because there is a limit to how much time I can preside over a hot laminator in 80 degree weather without AC, and because pouches for the little machine are expensive.

Wednesday's and Thursday's at home accomplishments

Today I stayed away from my classroom, but did make another run to Staples. I think that that's the third one for my classroom so far this summer. (Dang - eventually I need to make a trip there for my own kids rather than my students.) I am planning to give over my book report bulletin board space to IB this year, so I came up with another way to display the short book reviews I have my students create. The theme is "A Good Book is a Treasure" and I have had my students fill in one form a month telling their classmates why they should or should not read a particular book. I found myself brainstorming ways to do the same thing, but without the bulletin board space, as I was trying to sleep last night. I settled on a solution this morning, which had me out the door early to pick up the necessary supplies at Staples. I think I only worked on the book review solution today, but since it involved an Internet search (for the cheapest prices), a trip to Staples, creating a new Word document, printing, cutting, gluing, and disc assembly (see photo), I'm confident it was at least four hours of today's time. And I meant to write today. Not that blogging isn't writing, but it's not the writing I had planned for today. Darn. There's always tomorrow...

New individual booklet format

Bulletin Board format from the past



Back to the Classroom

I went to my classroom today. My main purpose was to turn in my receipts from the Austin trip, but I knew I also needed to start wrapping my head around what actually needs to be done, that must be done at school, before school starts.

After bringing the bags of my first Staples purchases of the summer into my classroom, I dug through my IB materials from the Austin trip and walked into my principal's office with them in hand. It was great to sit and chat with him about the workshop in Austin, my impressions of my new co-workers, and the year ahead. It was worth the time and the drive in to just sit and debrief with him today.

After that, I skirted back around the VBS groups in the upstairs hallway and past the barriers put up to dissuade these groups from venturing down the hall to take stock of my classroom. The walls were painted last month (including the inside of the closet walls), and then the floors were cleaned. This means my room is even more disarray than usual, with everything taken out of the closets and off the counters by me for the painters, but put back by others for the floor cleaners. I have a huge job to unload shelves and put everything away where it will be easily accessible by me and the students come the first day of school. Not to mention the job of cleaning the accumulated grime off of the chairs, desks, shelves, cupboards, and counters. I made a list:

• Physical room arrangement
• Counter clearing
• Shelf/cubby clearing
• Shelf/counter cleaning
• Desk/chair cleaning
• Bulletin boards inside classroom
• Bulletin boards outside classroom
• Cubby set up
• Nametags on desks
• Welcome bags

I didn't bring my bag of rags with me, and wasn't really dressed for hard core cleaning, so I put the desks in table groups, and made my list. I still have two long tables to position before I can cross even the first item off of my list. But I shouldn't complain. I can go into my building whenever it's convenient for me this summer. I know from my colleagues in public school that this is a luxury not to be overlooked or taken lightly. I have heard stories of teachers being given mere hours in their rooms to prep for the first day of school, as they are denied access to the building unless their administrator is present. As a career Catholic school teacher, who has always been able to spend as much time in August setting up as I want, and as the wife of someone in the business world with a downtown office where we stop to use the restroom and get pain relievers or sodas/coffee when we are downtown, I don't understand a system that doesn't allow professionals free access to their workspace. But I digress.

So I didn't accomplish much today. I keep telling myself it's August 1, and I have literally all month to prepare. But I'm fairly certain I'll be back soon to do some of the scrubbing and other work required to get the space ready for the students on day one. I also need to sit down tomorrow and make a list of the other things that need to be done, but can be done at home. I sense that is a longer list, so I should get started while I still have plenty of time.