Organization

Since I am starting over in a new classroom next year, I want to set myself and my students up to be organized.  I have been all over TPT and Pinterest looking for ideas.  I have some that I currently use and will continue to use, but I want it to look cute and be functional.  So many teachers have figured out how to do this and it totally inspires me to do the same!

I have completed my first major project for next year and that is my classroom rocking chair.  I just love frogs!  So, I had no choice but to paint my rocking chair green!  Here's how it went:

A good rocking chair that is not a glider is hard to find at a fair price.  So off to Craigslist I went.  I found this beauty for $15 and my awesome boyfriend went to pick it up for me.  Yes, he is a keeper!

Then, like I said before, I needed it to be green.  So I went to the store and bought two cans of spray paint (which they happen to have in the exact shade I wanted) and a tarp.  After about 45 minutes of painting and a few hours later for drying, I got this!  I think it looks way better than the original!



Then of course, I wanted my name on it, but how would I get those perfect looking letters?  Off to Pinterest I went and guess what?  There is a Pin for that too!  I printed my name in the font that I wanted in Word.  Then I took a pencil and traced the letters onto the chair.  The pencil left a mark so that I could take a paint brush and see where the lines were to paint my name.  Drum roll please...

I covered my name, but you can see the font.  I can't decide if I want to add anything to it, but this is where I am at with it.  How exciting! 

Next thing is organization.  I don't know how I want to organize my things and my student things.  I am off to blog hoppin' again.  

Life in the Big City

So I guess everyone at work now knows that I am leaving at the end of this year to move to the city.  I am moving to a district with a more challenging population, but I am excited for the challenge.  I have not yet told my students.  I need to figure out how to tell them (special ed).  It is a different situation because I get to keep them for more than one year, so we have an even stronger bond than a teacher that only has them for one year.

I am actually going to 3rd grade regular ed.  I am nervous, but very excited for the next phase of my life.  With that said, I have been spending my evenings on TPT and Pinterest looking for good ideas.  So that's where you come in....What do you find helpful?  What blogs do you follow for ideas?  Tell me all your dirty little regular ed teacher secrets.  Please?

Next Year

I know we are not even at summer break, but I am starting to think about next year.  What are some of your must haves to start the school year? How do you keep yourself organized?  Where do you start on the first day?  Which procedures are most important for the first day?

I want to get a feel for what others do.  There is a possibility that I will be changing grades and I would love to hear what other teachers do.