Friday 5- Classroom Progress

Join in on the fun of the linky-

Five for Friday for me today is going to be 5+ pictures/areas of work I have done instead of 5 separate pieces of information.

I have done as much as I can for now and will complete it near the beginning of next week I hope.  I start professional dvlpmt on Friday...so have to be as ready as possible.

Take a look at what I have been working tirelessly on....keep in mind...totally new room this year for me.  So there has been a lot of reorganizing and cleaning going on.

Door front:

 Library, still needs some bins- ran out of the blue ones:

 Word Wall, now has a title on it but didn't get the pic of that yet:

 I am expecting lots of help with volunteers this year and I want to be prepared for drop ins:

 Work turn in bins.  I got the cute editable dog themed stuff and the dismissal thing below from Clutter-Free Classroom.

 Dismissal organization:

 This is out in the hallway.  It is the only bb space I have to use in the hall.  It now has a title "We're Goofy About 1st Grade!"  I will put up some of the kid's first completed jobs on the board when we get rolling.  One of my parent helpers from the beginning of my teaching career painted this awesome Goofy for me.  Mrs. Allulis- she was so wonderful.

 This is my unfinished calendar area.  I am not totally happy with it.  I will probably redo some of it.

 This is my math manip area.  Phew, this took all day today.  I am obviously in need of some labels that I didn't realize I needed.  These cool labels are from Reagan Tunstall and I love them.  I still need to put clear packing tape over the tops of them because they are flappy on the bottoms.  The labels are bigger than the bins.

Well, it's a start.  I still have the word work area to get to, the math games/stations to do, then I also have 5 bazillion piles of paper to sort and file.
Well, off I go to try and have as much fun this weekend as possible!

2nd week

Ok, folks.  Week 2 of the 4 week challenge (a little early, but I have time right this minute to post).

I worked on thinning out the girls' rooms with them.  We gave away 2 giant bags to Goodwill, yay!  The rooms are nice and clean and they know where everything is now.

Here are the before and after:

Before- yikes!

After

Before- what in the world?!?!

After

Phew, that took several of our hours to get it all done.  I can't believe how much stuff my kids have.  What's funny is, we don't really buy them stuff (because we always complain about how much they have).  Other people give them tons of things (which I am not upset about, we are always appreciative of that) but it adds up really fast!  I even have the rule- when stuff comes in, stuff goes out.  But I guess I hadn't been paying attention to all of the items coming in and it got overwhelming again.   

Now, their rooms are ready for the new year.  Ahhh.  Nice.

Please join in the linky below and show off your progress!!!!

4 Week Clean Up Challenge!

Ok, so I am late with this but I am finally ready to get my house in order for the start of school.  Unfortunately, I have less than 4 weeks before I start back to work.  BUT most of you will not be in school at the end of the challenge.  So, yay you still have lots of time.  Boo for me though!

I'm going to keep it short and sweet.  Below I have the 4 weeks worth of challenges to get your home in order before work takes over your life.  I am going to run this differently than last year though.  Last year, I had particular areas that I wanted you to work on at a particular time.  This year, I don't care what part of your house you clean, I just want to help you make progress.  I want you to show off your organization and efforts.  So, each week I will host a linky and would love to see the before and after pics of how it went.  If you wish, you may use the graphics below.

I decided to work on my master bedroom's closet first.  Here are the before and after pics.  I just wasn't hanging up my clothes and was making a giant pile of stuff.  I needed to go through all my stuff and get rid of the clothes I didn't use anymore.  I did that and now my closet is lovely again!  Yay!  I also have a HUGE bag of clothes to take to Goodwill.  

What will you clean up first?

Classroom

Today I am going in to school to work on my room.  I haven't been there in awhile.  It's really scary in there.  I mean it.  It is so frightening to look at.  Last time I ran away and haven't gone back.

See for yourself.

Sorry if you get nightmares.  

Above is what it looked like when I moved ALLLLL of my stuff into it.  I have since gone through and thrown away 9 giant trash bags and have sorted about that much into a "give to anyone else but me" pile.  If no one wants it....I'll put that in the trash too.  

This is what it will look like today:

Still scary, I know, but a bit has been done.  Anyone else out there dragging there feet????  I am not ready yet to get going.  I am so happy to be spending all this time with my family.  I am not ready to let that go, but teachers at my school start on Aug 7th.  Sigh.  Too early in my opinion.  I love my career but I sure love my sweet daughters more.  I already am panicking about not seeing them as much.  

Well, hopefully I'll remember where I put that magic wand and get the room done super fast.  If I make some good progress I'll post some more pics of the room.

Dance Fan

Ok, this post is unrelated to teaching....feel free to ignore if you wish, just had to share my fun day!

I started dancing when I was 3.  I took a ballet and tap class.  My favorite part was the parasols we got to spin.  :)  My teacher's name was Mrs. Comb...yes, I still remember her name.  I immediately knew that dance was my thing.  If you know anything about dance....just like any other hobby/activity/sport it is costly and time consuming (costumes, classes, driving, etc).  Well, I didn't get to always dance.  I could do it sometimes.  Then by high school, I had done various styles and had many years of enjoying it.  I was on the drill team/dance team for 2 of my 4 years in high school (I wasn't allowed to do all 4- my mom and dad worked many hours).  I danced some in college and almost double majored (early childhood and dance) but it would've added a couple years to my undergrad....and I was not wishing to do that.
As an adult I was in and out of dance classes as I had time between working and life.  I have always loved dance.  I am not great at it, just love it.  Anyway, I am a big fan of all dance shows....and if you are too, the picture below will freak you out as much as it did me!!!

I had the opportunity to do Louis Van Amstel's dance/exercise class called LaBlast in ABQ.  He was awesome!  I had the best time and almost died...but I think I smiled the whole time.  He was super nice and let us all take pics with him.  It was a master class...but I haven't danced in a few years...hence the almost dying part.  I didn't care.  I heard he was coming and I signed up because I had to do it!  I mean how many times would I get that opportunity, right?!?!

Well all I have to say is, put yourself out there.  It is worth it.  

Slideshow and Currently

Near the bottom I have the Currently, but had a couple things to show first.

#1  I was perusing the blogs I love and was reading one of my favorites- Amy Lemons (although now I am not teaching 2nd I won't be able to use her amazing TpT products, super sad face).
While reading her latest post, I was reminded about the fact that I never posted about my end of the year dvd.  Below are some of the slides I made for my dvd.

 

 

Seems many people make dvds now, and I have been doing it for awhile also.  I began when the idea was introduced to me by my daughter's first grade teacher.  Then the next year, I taught 1st and was able to make one with the help of my colleagues.  I have changed my methods over the years and perfected things to my liking.  I use the previous year's power pt header slides to save time and make new ones for any new activities or events that started that year.  Anyway, Amy Lemons referenced another blogger who does a wonderful video of how to use the same program I use.  If you are interested in seeing her video, head over to Little Warriors and watch the video on the page.  Katie Mense does a great job of explaining it.

#2  I have to tell you about something I did this summer with my computer desktop!!!  It's so clever (of Charity, who runs the blog- The Organized Classroom).  She uses custom desktop organizers for her computer wallpaper.  What does this mean?  See below for the results of my custom design I decided on after using her video tutorial!!!  (FYI- there are 2 screens because I have 2 monitors, don't judge...my hubby is super techy and I pretend I am too).

For her tutorial she used several shapes and different colors/designs.  For me, I felt the chevron was busy enough and my brain was not happy with several varieties of things to look at.  If you are still unsure what all that above is about- imagine your computer....the files on your desktop.....those get dragged into the spaces based on "theme".  For example, where it says professional- I dragged all my files that relate to my professional life that did not belong with math/literacy into their...proof of PD, my resume, memos from the principal, district "news", etc to that area.  I spent days organizing my entire computer.  It took me that long as I have just always downloaded a million things and left it in the download file on my desktop.  Terrible, I know- well now I have a place for everything and there is no excuse for "losing" a file anymore.  

I am super late for Farley's Currently!  I was on vacation and just got back.  I will post a little of that at a later date.  It was super fun!

I love that Farley always does such fun designs....how does she always do such cute things?  If you want to join in the fun, click {HERE}.

Listening- We just got back from 2 weeks of a cross country driving vacation....soooo much laundry to do now.

Thinking- I can never get enough summer time with my little girls.  It is especially hard this summer as my oldest will be going to middle school this year....mama is so not ready.  

Needing- I have so much to do in my classroom and the 1st day for teachers is Aug 7th!  So, I have to get on organizing and bulletin boards.  That way, when the first day of pd comes, I will be better prepared to do paperwork instead of worrying about the room.

All Star- I work so hard all the time.  If someone needs help, they know that if they ask me, I will help.  This then leads to the chocolate part of the answer... you know, stress eating!  Always so much to do leads to stress galore.  I am really going to try to slow that down this year.  

Thanks for reading!