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?