Starting to Feel Real Real!

Hey everyone. So I've been teaching 10 little Kindergarteners this summer and I'm really enjoying it. What's really fun is we all get to eat together at the same time so the teachers all seat down to gab a little. I think we are all in agreement that a 4 day school week all year round would be sooo much better for everyone involved and we would be willing to stay an hour or so longer each day to make it happen.....a bunch of wishing thinking going on!

Anyway, I've been using another teacher's room for our summer class but I found out this past week which room I'm going to be in next year and started working right away after the kids left each day. The room I have was empty all last year so all of the lovely broken pieces of furniture found their way inside, isn't it funny how that seems to happen!

View from the doorway. You can't see all the other furniture to the left but it's there, it's everywhere!

The teacher that was in there the year before retired so I've been combing through the things she left behind and trying to decide on a theme for next year. She had a Texas, western theme and although I am a Texas girl and proud of it, I don't really like the color scheme. 

The western wall, cute but had to go.

The room right now feels really dark to me so I'm wanting to brighten it up with light and vibrant colors. I think I'm going to paint the wall you first see at the door a bright, turquoise blue and the other 3 a pale grey since they are an awful shade of yellow, musty, beige right now. I've got my work cut out for me but the excitement of having my very own first classroom is energizing!

I hope to post more room pictures soon when I've made more progress. I'm off to Dollar Tree and Walmart for supplies! :) 

Teacher's Toolbox...Just Need a Teacher's Desk Now!

Hello blog land...Alas I have returned to you after a very busy and crazy end of year schedule that has only become busier since the kiddos left last week. I signed up to teach summer school this year and was selected a few weeks ago to have the Kindergarten class. I'm having a grand time with my 9 sometimes 10, when they all show up, little darlings and can tell this is going to be great experience for next year....Oh yeah, I forgot to mention...I recently was hired as the new Kindergarten teacher at my school!!!! YIPPPEEE...HAPPY DANCE!! Yeah I literally did a little happy dance in front of my principal but after 2 years of trying to get a teaching job there I think she understood! lol

So that leads me to searching through numerous resources for lots of classroom ideas for next year. If it weren't for pinterest and my dear mother, who herself is a Kindergarten teacher and will be retiring next year after 30 years in education, I would be lost! I actually found this idea for a teacher toolbox many months ago on pinterest here from Create Teach Share and had hoped to make one for next year and now that I know I will be teaching, I set off for all the supplies.

I found the Stack-On 22 drawer toolbox at Home Depot for $16.92. It's a little cheaper at Lowe's, but I liked the gray better than the dark blue so I payed the extra $.50 for this one. Then I headed off to Hobby Lobby who had their single sheets of scrapbook paper on sale for 50% off SCORE, and searched and searched....and searched....yeah seriously my mom can attest to the fact that I probably went back and forth, pulling various combos of paper off the shelf and putting it back for eternity about an hour....I know I know, what crazy person takes an hour to pick out 4 pieces of decorative paper...guilty crazy person here.

I kept going back and forth on should I try to find paper that would match my classroom decor?! Paper that was BRIGHT and BOLD?!?! Maybe I needed to go to Michael's Craft store and see what they had?!?!?!...After a look from my mom I knew the later was not an option...so I finally settled on this really cute cloud paper and a matching shimmery blue (truthfully, I also bought a few different designs so I could fret over it a little more at home before my mother left me at Hobby Lobby to walk home). Anyway, I think it turned out super cute and will work great since I am Mrs. Cloud :) so it's personalized! You can get the template and font for the drawers from the link I posted earlier. I just cut my paper down to 8.5 x 11 and printed right onto the scrapbook paper, then cut the words out and used doublesided tape to stick it to each drawer. I decided to change a few of the drawer names that will better suit my needs...most importantly the bottom middle drawer! ;) You can download the font here.

Toolbox is all ready, just need a desk to put it on.

Hope y'all are enjoying your summer! I'll post more school idea finds soon!


Toodles! Mrs. Cloud :)