Move-in Tomorrow!

I'm in a sort of funk tonight.
You know the feeling that you had when you were little the day before Christmas or standing in line, waiting for your dad to buy tickets to get into Disneyland? That super excited, thrilled feeling? I have had the same type of anticipatory feelings today. They started a couple weeks ago and started growing until the climax arrived tonight.
I get to move into my brand new classroom tomorrow.
There are no neon-colored frosting stains on it from students dropping their cupcakes on the carpet (it always lands frosting side down). No student has had a long drink from the drinking fountain. It has not been engulfed in the stench of thirty fifth graders, fresh from a long, hot recess. No one has stained the whiteboards with the neon colored markers I specifically ask them not to buy (last time I was in there, there technically were no whiteboards...hopefully they have been installed). The cubbies have yet to house backpacks bulging with papers the students should have taken out months ago for their parents to sign and return. There has yet to be a brand new class of eager children, anxious (at least on the first day) to come to school, interact, and learn something.
School starts in a week from tomorrow. That's right. In a week and twelve hours (roughly), I'll bring in half my class and begin the wonderful first day of school for a group of kids that will only know half of their classmates, at most.
This year will be an amazing one.

These pictures were taken a week ago. Exactly two weeks before school starts. I don't know about you, but I feel like a school should be all the way done two weeks before it starts.
I do, however, love everything about the school especially the colors.

Because I have been classroom-less all summer, I got to make everything at home and in our temporary office in a nearby school. One thing I love about teaching is being able to design and make awesome things.

Stay tuned. If I am not completely wiped out, I'll do updates daily to show the progression of how to set up an amazing, adorable, functional classroom in only a week.

Brother, can you spare a crayon?

Wow.
I am not sure where this past week went, but I certainly did not make very much for my classroom. Granted, I went to a city in the middle of nowhere for a family reunion for my paternal grandmother's family. I also got a free $20 gift card from my local mall and enjoyed a date thanks to that moola. I started running more regularly. I spent time with my new team and we hashed out our social studies curriculum. I put away all my stuff into my new classroom and realized I really do not have a lot... Those are the only excuses I have. (Although, now that they are all written down, I realize that it is more than I thought.)

The only thing I physically made is the start of my student supply station. (Don't you just love a good alliteration?)

I took these awesome Sterilite drawers, grabbed my Silhouette, and made simple signs for the drawers. I used the Silhouette pens to write the different colors. (The orange label is not centered and it is driving me crazy. I figure that when it is sitting in a back corner of my classroom, I will not notice it.)

This past week I also bought some clay from Hobby Lobby (50% off, baby!) because that was my students' favorite reward last year. Come in and play with clay during recess. We'll see if my students this year love it as much as they did last year.

I also received an awesome poster from Vistaprint that I made. Sigh. I love humor. I kinda want to get one of those "stop clubbing baby seals" posters. We'll see.

The "before" pictures of my beautiful new classroom

(As taken by my phone's super posh camera.)
Friends, acquaintances, and strangers,
I give you...my scrumptious new classroom. I could practically live in that lovely place.

Just as a refresher, here is a picture of my old classroom right before I left it for the last time. Three words: No storage. Orange. (Their school colors don't even include orange. I guess it was the color of the 70s.)

I did love how wide it was and the fact that on 3 out of the 4 walls, I had floor to ceiling bulletin boards.
Now for my new classroom. I love it. I will let the pictures do the talking.

Look at all that storage! Oh. What is that, hiding behind the stacked desks? Let's zoom in for a closer look, shall we?

A drinking fountain and sink! Jumping jellyfish, I feel like it's my birthday.

As if one wall of built in storage was not enough, I also have storage on the opposite side. The awesome thing about these drawers is that they all double as filing cabinets. It gets me giddy just thinking about it. (Plus, did you notice that only half of the lights are turned on? Yup. I can turn on just half of the lights.)

Did you think that was all of the built in storage? Sigh. There's more. There is also a small white board at the back of the classroom. I feel totally and completely spoiled.

And...an unimpressive view of the front of the room. Long whiteboard, two small bulletin boards, and a practically swooning photographer behind the camera.

Now I have to figure out how to somehow decorate that lovely room to look even better.

I LOVE what I get to do

Guess what?
For the past three days, I have not gone to BYU. Instead I have been heading North to a cute little elementary school in Lindon. I get to work with a 2-3 grade class and an awesome teacher. I stay there for six hours each day and every day is an adventure and really gets me excited to graduate and get my own class...until I decide to have little ones of my own.
Some of my favorite quotes so far:
"The sneakers threw eggs at your garage door."
{My teacher wanted the students to write a sentence describing what some sneaky people did while she was on vacation this summer.}
Example of something extinct? "People that do drugs all day."
Example of something endangered? "When people live at the side of a mountain that is about to explode, they are endangered."

Today, I got three hugs from students. I feel bad because I should not encourage them hugging me; I should really discourage it. What are you supposed to do when a cute little third grader just comes up and does it out of the blue?

Last, but definitely the cutest:
During this week, the students have been learning how to write letters. On Monday, they wrote a letter to their teacher. Tuesday was for someone in the classroom. Wednesday held one for the principle. Today they were supposed to write one to someone they appreciate. Emphasis on someone in their family.
I was collecting the letters and the students lined up to go to social studies. One little girl who I shall call T handed me her paper and said it was for me. "Thank you, T." I accepted the letter and put it in my pile, thinking that she was just giving it to me to put in the pile.
She pulled it out and put it firmly in my hand. "No. I wrote the letter for you."
I think my heart melted.
I waited until she was out of the classroom before I read her letter. It was the sweetest thing in the world!
"Dear Miss. Yahgar. I think you are so cool and fun. I think your last name is cool cause it's Ya gaer. What are you being for Halloween? What is your favirte candy? Mine is every one! It's cool that you go to byu!!!!!! I think that you are so prety. Are you married? I'm defently Not married. Love, T"
Well, that settles it. I'm cool and fun and I cannot wait to teach full time.

Why I want to be what I want to be when I grow up

Ever since before I was in public school, I have wanted to be an elementary school teacher. I have always been in love with children, so it made sense as the perfect profession for me. Children always make me so incredibly happy and I have wanted to be a mother ever since I tried naming my little sister after my nursery teacher. (I think she is grateful to my parents that her name is not Sister Mendenhall.) Years upon years ago, it was my bedtime. I was pretty young and I was telling my older sister a bedtime story. It went something like this:

"Once upon a time, there were a bunch of fairies." (Insert lovely things that the fairies did here.) "Then one day, all the fairies got really sick. They went to the doctor and the doctor said, 'Well, either you are all going to die....or you are all going to have babies!'" (The facts of life were a little hazy to me back then.)

Having a classroom will be like having a lot of nieces and nephews. I will get to spoil them, teach them, watch them learn, discipline them a little, and at the end of the day, send them back to their parents. Granted, it does come with loads of responsibility--there are way too many people out there that will sue for anything. It also is not the highest paying job in the world. In fact, my first year teaching (internship) will be just a few hundred dollars more than what I make right now at my kiosk, but I do not get people that go into their profession because of the Christmas bonus they will bring home or the salary that will be more than I could possibly make by teaching.

Ever since getting into the eled program, I have been in love with the courses, the teachers, and the girls I have classes with (and two boys). I cannot wait for school to start up again in the fall so that I can see these people again and get back into the classrooms.

And so it begins

On Wednesday morning, I almost peed my pants because I was so nervous. The wait to laminate six pieces of paper was an hour longer than it should have been and I laughed a strange, nearly forced laugh whenever the laminating machine fixing tech men made joke after joke while trying to find the problem with the machine. I did laugh when I thought of the image I left (while tripping out to my car) for the last stragglers, obviously uncaring that they were late to their 9:00 class.

25 beanbags in a mesh bag in my left arm.
A 6' x 4' laminated bundle that I needed to take sheers to.
My bag, unusually large, on my right arm.
7 curiously long jump ropes along for the ride.
4 large orange cones balanced precariously on a few binders balanced on the palm of my right hand.

A half hour, I was to my destination. After running around frantically and trying not to look completely crazy, I had a minute to spare; to make sure I had my whistle around my neck and a mic properly attached.
"Hello, third grade! My name is Miss Sederberg and I'll be your P.E. teacher for the next five weeks!"