In the back to school season my Facebook feed is full of pictures of classrooms decorated by teachers who have serious Pinterest addictions. Everything is color coordinated and chosen to enhance the overall theme. These posts used to stress me out until I learned to scroll past them.
My room has never been Pinterest worthy. I have never selected a theme or worried about colors clashing. This time of year I spend time sitting in the middle of my room, thinking about room arrangement. This year we are required to have three feet of distance "nose to nose" between students. It's better than the six we needed last year, but still fraught with challenges. I have re-arranged my student desks at least four times and my teacher space twice so far this week. It's Tuesday.
I hung fabric on my bulletin boards this year based on the rumor that it won't fade and I will be able to leave it up for years, possibly until I retire. I've heard of teachers "inheriting" fabric covered boards who never changed them during the 10+ years they were in the room. I hope it's true because I wrestled with the stretchy fabric I purchased for hours over two different days. I chose stretchy fabric because I was worried about wrinkles, but it proved challenging to hang. Despite my best efforts, I was never able to pull on it evenly. I butchered the edges of the fabric (with regular scissors that have cut countless sheets of paper and laminator film) enough that I may never be able to change out the borders. I'm praying that the hundreds of staples I impaled through the fabric and then removed didn't cause any runs that will become visible outside of the borders.
Each year my school selects a theme that we use throughout the year, and most teachers use in their welcoming hallway displays. This year the theme is Building a World of Joy. My co-workers have focused in on "world of joy" on their boards. Apparently I went against the grain by zeroing in on "building." I plan to add my students' names on hard hats around the tools.
I helped with the new teacher orientation this year where I learned my school has a budget for flexible seating. My room was a middle school science lab right up until COVID shuttered schools in March of 2020. I snagged a couple of standing desks last school year, but don't have anything else that would qualify as flexible seating. I emailed the principal and facilities director asking what was available and expressing interest in a low table and floor cushions. My principal replied telling me to order a table and cushions. I didn't waste time ordering, but don't know if the new table will arrive before school starts.
Despite my best efforts to ignore such posts, I am in the process of creating a new poster for my classroom based on something I glimpsed in my Facebook feed. Someone was asking about poster ideas for a middle school math room that weren't cheesy. The comment that was visible to me as I scrolled past inspired me, and I hope it will inspire my fourth graders. When I was in fifth grade I decided I wasn't good at math. That internal perception (even though at the time I was in the "high" math group) plagued my progress in math through college. I hope to head off that kind of negative self talk in my students.
My "new" partner teacher quit on Friday, before she had started putting her room together. By the end of the day we had hired the person who student taught with my partner teacher last year. She and I met for drinks on Friday and went in yesterday to work on setting up for the year. She and I get along, she already knows the building and lots of the curricular resources, and even knows many of the new fourth graders from her time subbing in third grade after her student teaching was complete. I'm glad she was offered the job and happy to have her as part of my team.
Tonight I attended a happy hour send off for a co-worker who is moving out of state. It's been a whirlwind kind of August for sure. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I do know I will meet it head on when it arrives.
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