How to set up a classroom in six days: Day 4

I thought I would only spend an hour or two in my classroom for day 4. Little did I know how wrong I was.
So Wolf and I left the house at around 8 to head over to the school. Halfway down the street, I chickened out and asked to go shopping first. I hate shopping. Who knows why I decided that was a good idea. So we went to our local produce shopping center and the everything else store. (We always go to two stores.) Then we stopped by the American Craft Warehouse Sale. It was their last day and everything was reduced by another 40%! It was crazy. For $30, I bought 6 12x12" pads of paper, 4 6x6" pads of paper, and 7 12x12 pads of paper that was one paper repeated in a case. It was glorious!
We stopped back at home to drop off everything and then headed to school. It was a good thing we decided to go shopping first because as I eagerly walked down the hall, the anticipatory feeling that the whiteboards would be hung filled me. We walked in. No whiteboards. Grrr. I really hate these construction people.
I stopped the project foreman and asked about the whiteboards/bulletin boards. "Yeah, sorry. I'll have them do your room next." He found the hangers and instructed them to "do the green room next." I'm glad Wolf and I got there around 10 instead of just after 8. We would have been stuck for a couple hours. The hangers didn't get in for another 30 minutes, but they worked really quickly.

As they worked, Wolf and I taped their numbers on the cubby holes.

Here I am sneaking a picture of the bulletin board going up.

 They are beautiful!

As we waited for them to finish, we also put their math books and folders in the assigned cubby holes. We finished around the time they grabbed their gear and left. I have five amazing bulletin boards and two whiteboards. Thankfully they are the same size as the ones at my last school so I knew the fabric I had would work perfectly!

Wolf and I were quick to put up the fabric and my adorable border-ruffled streamers. To hang the fabric, I always pin it first and then staple around the pins. That way, if I need to make adjustments, I just move pins instead of remove staples. It's so much easier if you need to make corrections.
I hung up the streamers with really short pins. They worked perfectly and I didn't have to smash the adorable streamers with a stapler (I hate it when you see stapler imprints). The tips of my fingers still hurt badly from doing that. Brand new bulletin boards are tough and those pin heads are tiny.

Around this time, my wonderful friend Kimberly called. "I'm coming over." She didn't ask or try to set up a time. She knew I would be slaving away and she said she was going to help me. I love friends like that. She was also a wonderful help to have because she is an expert at classroom tables. She has tables in her classroom so she had wonderful hints and tips for my questions. It's also good to have a teacher on hand when arranging classroom supplies in a brand new classroom because they can offer advice on where to put stuff. She helped me position the clothespins for my birthday banner outside my classroom and hang my class dojo banner. Then, she and my husband completely alphabetized my library!

After she left, Wolf and I tidied up. The tables are mostly clear and almost everything is put away. I only have two days left to make my classroom kid ready. Tomorrow we are celebrating my school district's 100th year anniversary! It's kinda exciting, but it will waste almost three hours. Thankfully, we still do not have much in the way of school meetings.

Read about my other days:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6

How to set up a classroom in six days: Day 3

After day three, I was technically halfway over time wise, but I definitely feel like I could be close to finishing setting up my class.
On day three I started setting up functional student decorations. I was so happy to reach that point.
I didn't take as many photos today because I was all over the place.
The day started with a quick meeting because it was technically our professional development day. My principal managed to terrify me. He announced there was no glitter allowed in the classrooms. (I used to be such a glitter hater; I'm almost surprised to see how much I enjoy a tasteful dash of the sparkly stuff now.) I wasn't as bummed because I thought any glitter hater should be sent a box of the stuff in the mail, but because I made so many decorations with glitter paper this summer and it would take a long time to remake it without glitter paper.
After the meeting, I took my glitter cursive alphabet in hand and marched down to him, demanding to know if that was okay, or if I could simply laminate over it. (Was he a hater of the possibility of glitter on the ground, or was he a hater of the idea of glitter?) He laughed a little when he saw how terrified I was of the anti-glitter rule. He clarified the rule for me: No glitter projects for the students.
Oh.
That's okay.
After the short meeting, I quickly got to work. I wanted to clean the clutter to make it easier for the five schools that had volunteered to help us. As I was cleaning, my first whiteboard was delivered! I also made a couple more fabric covered boxes to complete my supply. (I love how they look!)
Then my own classroom organization was cut short so that I could fulfill my duty as a member of the leadership committee and welcome volunteers to our school.

(The leadership committee is an amazing opportunity I have this year. There are three amazing teachers on it--the other two working on their admin masters. We assist the principal in whatever he needs. We're a step below the principal--and the intern vice-principal we get--and a step above the grade-level team leaders. We help make decisions and help the school be as amazing as possible.)
I welcomed schools and directed them to where I thought they should go.
Lunch was next.
After lunch, my old school came by to volunteer. I was so happy to work with them for an hour and they were amazing! They got so much done. They stayed for a couple hours and seriously got as much work done as I could have working a day and a half. I will definitely miss those guys.
Near the end of the time those volunteers were at my classroom, my father and a woman he is dating right now came by to help for the rest of the day. They were an amazing help as well.
We are piloting the Wonders program for our district this year. All the boxes were sent, but there was no sense of organization amongst the supplies. There were also no storage containers sent (as you often see with literacy programs). They helped organize the guided reading books which took a long time for the four of us (about a half hour).
That was about the end of the day. We were told my whiteboards and bulletin boards would be put in around the time we were leaving. Husband and I were planning on returning after dinner to put up the fabric and bulletin board border I made, but upon inquiring about when the building would be locked up, the project manager said 7:00. Too late.
I cannot wait to come back in today! I can hang my bulletin board displays and almost get my room perfect.

My classroom was ready for volunteers at the beginning of the day! One entire table was filled with stuff for them to do.

The Chick-fil-a cow (named Cow) came by. Pretty exciting.

I hung up my job chart!

This is the only picture I got at the end of the day. You can see my husband on the left and my dad on the right. My volunteers hung my map and (behind my husband), my library check-out system. They also completely finished my stack of stuff to do. All the tables are where I want them and their storage units are filled and ready for my fifth graders.

See my other days:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6

How to set up a classroom in six days: Day 2

Today was a lot less physically exhausting, but a lot more exhausting in other ways.

My husband started off by alphabetizing the library. Once he had placed all the books into rough piles, I noticed he had alphabetized by title instead of author. He was wonderful enough to jump right back in and reorganize the books. We made a deal and instead of organizing it completely, he just organized it by first letter in the last name. I'll have someone else finish the job tomorrow. I think that this idea is super important. Even though I just have a few days to get my room in perfect order, arrange pieces in your classroom the way you want. I am a little worried about having strange people help me tomorrow because I don't know them and they don't know just how I like things (or how OCD I am). It did take a bit of time to reorganize the books, but I know I would have either hated it all year, or spend time in a few weeks to put them the way I like them.

The mess started to diminish throughout the day. Because the cleaning and organizing is so slow, it's hard to tell that the mess is getting smaller. Here is a huge hint to make your life better when doing the frantic classroom setup: Clear out the boxes as you go. Don't do it all at once, but as soon as you have two or three, take a small break from cleaning and organizing and flatten them. (Throw them into the hallway if you are allowed.) Yesterday I did not do this and the mess did not seem to get any smaller. Today we chopped away at the pile every hour or so and it seemed to get more organized faster. For example: Take a look at this picture

And now look at this lovely one. Granted, it is a different angle, but it was only taken a couple minutes later. The construction workers had left the large box the television was packed in right in the middle of the classroom. I pulled it into the hallway and the improvement was amazing.

Another thing I took time to do today was slowly get ready for volunteers. All those piles on the left table are my notebooks with the papers to be glued onto the cover sitting right next to them. Don't be that person that welcomes helpers with, "I do need some help, let me think about what is most important..." or "Let me dig out all the supplies you need to do this; it will just take a minute." Have everything ready to go. I don't really have a "top priorities" list. As long as I need it done before the first day of school, I have it on a huge list, ready to delegate to volunteers tomorrow.

One part of moving in that makes me anxious is that there are construction workers still adding parts to the rooms. If you look in the first few pictures, I am missing my carpet trim that goes along the perimeter of the classroom against the wall. You wouldn't think that someone would get too worked up about not having trim in place, but I was instructed I could not place anything against the walls until the trim was put in so that they could come in and do their jobs. Here is an exciting picture of the trim laid out and ready to go on the wall. The awesome workers were done with my classroom in ten minutes or less. Too bad hanging bulletin boards and white boards does not go as quickly.

Once the trim was up, I took full advantage. Another little tiny detail I learned this afternoon is that I will not be getting a teacher desk this year. I'm not heartbroken over this news. I've thought about getting rid of my desk each year, but have not thought through the logistics enough to really go for it. The news was shocking because this was the first time I had heard it. My classroom design changed several times today after receiving news like that.
As many of you do, I will have my headquarters at my kidney table. It will be under where the TV is.

I stashed my science supplies under some counters and added a curtain. The curtain was made a year ago, but it matches my wall perfectly.

Another fun idea for nice and neat storage: I saved some of the nicer boxes that I packed in and hot glued some adorable fabric to one side. These were placed above all my cabinets for extra storage if needed. (I still need to make some bigger ones with aqua triangle fabric.)

Tip. While breaking down boxes, careful not to let the scissors slip and cut you instead of the cardboard.

One hard thing today was getting rid of memories that are no longer needed. I created two adorable paper airplane garlands last year that just don't fit this year. They went into my trash box.

The desks started getting clearer. I only have a few items still in boxes.

Here is what the classroom looked like right before I left. Not too shabby. I have almost everything put away and I am ready for volunteers tomorrow. Tomorrow five schools are giving up half of their professional development day to help out.

An awesome mom donated this IKEA cabinet to me last year and I love using it. This year it will hold our data binders. (You can also get a sneak peek of the birthday chart.)

Here is a preview of my teacher space. I am keeping all my picture books back there and an old little cupboard that I owned when I was a youngin.

See my other days:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6

How to set up a classroom in six days: Day 1

Did you get hired super last minute? Are you a procrastinator? Did you (like me) get an amazing chance to work at a new school, only to be let in a week before school starts?

If you said yes to any of these, this next set of posts is for you.

School starts in one week from today and I was able to move my supplies into my classroom today. Setting up class in a week is tough. I only worked until 3:00 today and then I was spent. It is however possible. (Okay, I'm not actually done yet. This is just a prediction.) I will take you on a journey to prove it to you.
Here are the day 1 highlights:
(This is probably the most boring day. Yawn.)

7:00
I pull up to the school, husband close behind. Our Subarus are filled with all the supplies I brought home to revamp and all the crafts I made over the summer. We check in with the janitor to make sure there are no special instructions and start unloading the cars.

I was so excited to see my awesome star tables had been set up the previous night. Aren't they beautiful? More info on them later.

7:15
We finished unloading both cars and drove to my old school to load them up again and again and again (three trips total). During one of those trips, a lovely large box appeared in my room.
My district is going to move to TVs instead of projectors in the future. We are the first elementary school to be fitted with these beauties. 70". Not too shabby.

10:30
We finished moving everything in just a few hours sans dolly or other rolling apparatus. (Confession: when we moved the boxes full of books, I did steal a chair with wheels on the bottom to roll those into the classroom, but it's just because we were exhausted by that point.)

My classroom was stuffed!

The television was unveiled! At one point I had over a dozen district janitorial/construction crew in my classroom showing each other how to hang it up. It was rather entertaining and a bit freaky when one mentioned that even with the sturdy wall bracket, he thought the TV wasn't as secure as it should be...
Husband told me that I should inform the kids of the first rule of earthquake safety: run away from the television.

We took a lunch break and shortly thereafter, the television was placed upon the wall. The bracket is designed as to be pulled out at an angle so I can permanently or temporarily direct it more towards the class.

We worked through more and more boxes. It took a while for us to get a good rhythm going. We found it was best for my husband to have menial, monotonous tasks while I did the organizing and emptying of boxes.

I spy a Wolf.

My husband convinced me to leave at 3:00 with him (he had work). I am glad I agreed to that. I was getting so exhausted that I would sit on the ground for long periods of time and was not being very productive. Here's our pile of boxes we cleared out.

My classroom isn't even technically done. I'm missing two whiteboards, five (or four-I never got a definitive answer) bulletin boards, the carpet lining that goes on the base of the wall, a 2"x4" piece of carpet, and electrics to be sorted (the skylights only turn on when the lights are on...not terribly useful).
At least I don't teach first or second grade. They were denied access from 11:00 yesterday morning to 9:00 tomorrow morning.

Stay tuned for tomorrow. I hope to get rid of almost all my boxes.

See my other days of organizing:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6