Show us your stuff...pile edition

I have school stuff all over it seems.  I am moving classrooms this year so I have tons of stuff piled in the hallway and on the cabinets in my new classroom. I will try to take pictures of that when I go in tomorrow.  I am also teaching summer school in another building in our district so a portion of my stuff is there as well.  I have stuff I wanted to work on in the trunk of my car, which is not unusual my trunk normally has teaching or scrapbooking stuff in it.  The rest of my piles, which are small this year due to the fact I can't carry anything over 10 pounds right now.  I have a pile of books and a pile of technology, since I could not leave it unattended.  I think I will show you the fun stuff though :-).

On Sunday I started back to school shopping at the stores with deals. My awesome husband drove me around and even bought stuff at one of our stops.  What did I get?

This would be my pile of folders and comp notebooks. I was excited to find plastic folders with fasteners.  I bought a bunch of lime green ones for homework folders.  These should last all year.  I bought a few comp books to use as math/reading journals.  I still need more but refuse to pay more than a quarter for these.  There are a few paper folders with fasteners as well.  The best part of this is the Expo markers and Sharpies.  Office Max was awful at first with their deals changing limits in store and not having everything in the ads.  Then at the register they told the two retired teachers I ran into from out of state who were shopping they could get more than one box of Sharpies despite the coupon saying 1.  I sent Adam right away to grap a few more boxes.  I was not greedy, and only got 4 boxes and 2 packs of the expo markers.  I was happy once again with Office Max.  They do need to watch their deals though.  They also had pencils bundled up with rubber bands by the register in groups of 12 and said 5 cents.  I was excited and asked if there was a limit on the bundles, when the cashier said it was confusing but they are 5 cents a pencil. I threw them back at that point.  I do not like deceptive advertising.

Here are 5 plastic binders I got for $1.  I know these won't last forever, but I can use them for different groups this year.  I wish I had taken a better picture of the small roll on top of the black binder.  It is a roll of Washi tape with bikes on it.  I love bikes so I had to get it.  There is also 1 of 2 bottles of glue I got.  They advertised these 10 cents for 10, then changed it to 2 bottles in store claiming an error in the advertisement.

This is the staples haul.  I have double the limits since Adam helped me out.  I got 4 packs of index cards, 4 packs of bic pens, 4 packs of papermate pens, 2 packs of mechanical pencils, 4 packs of pencil erasers, and black and gold notebooks (Go Bears!)  I also picked up a nice pink folder for myself and a cute small notebook with bikes on it.

On Saturday my husband took me to do a little shopping after lunch for my birthday.  I got a super cute notebook from Curlygirl designs.  It has a girl on a bike and a quote about having a tiara!  I also got a cute owl pen that flaps its wings when you write.  The small pink package is a bunch of animal Post-it type flags that included an owl.  I also got a few stickers with my favorite quote "Be the Change you wish to see in the world." I got another bike/quote to hang up in my room as well.  I rounded this trip out with wooden clips that have owls.  I might put magnets on this to use by my desk.  I love the store these are from.   It is a cute little boutique!  I picked up a few gifts for later in the summer as well!

Here I am with my super long receipt from Office Max.  She had to ring each item up individually .  So all 25 or so folders are their own lines.  I love back to school shopping!

Join up and share your piles :-).  I might have to add a few more of mine tomorrow.  I have a book pile at home I could take a picture of.  I might also get into my classroom tomorrow.

Link up here : Bunting, Bows, and Bainbridge

#Freeyourwalls

Earlier this year I learned about Ideapaint.  I thought it was a great way to turn an old unused space or surface into something amazing!  I instantly thought it would be awesome to cover a table in, a cabinet door, and at least part of my walls.  I imagine my students using it for interactive bulletin board type situations, for brain storming when writing, and for scratch paper for math.  I have students who struggle or resist "pencil and paper" tasks and I think this would be a great motivator for them.  How awesome would it be for me to be able to write a word bank for students on my table as they take a classroom test and they could cross off answers and erase when they were done all without leaving the table.  While movement in the classroom is important, having to move a lot during a task for supplies can make it very hard for a student to refocus.

I am moving into a new classroom this year, well new to me, it is actually one of the last rooms in the school to get a make over since we moved into the old high school 8 or so years ago.  I love having a space that is inviting, innovative, and inspiring and that is what I am striving for as I design my new learning space.

Here are a few pictures of my room before I do anything to it:

Here is my room with desks still in it. They are all already gone. I use tables for small group work. In the back corner you can see the sink I now have. There is also a huge closet in that corner. Love that the cabinets are gray instead of the typical 70's colors in other parts of the building. I do need to find a rug to help the floor out.

Leftover brackets from the days of pulldown movie screens. These are already gone and the holes are patched thanks to the awesome custodians in my school building. Now this wall is begging for something awesome!

My room has great lower cabinets and tons of outlets, which is great! It has only one ugly bulletin board that must be covered ASAP. Luckily I have lots of ideas for it!

Leftover brackets from the days of pulldown movie screens. These are already gone and the holes are patched thanks to the awesome custodians in my school building. Now this wall is begging for something awesome!

 The outdated dinosaur tv left from the days of Channel 1 News. Can't get rid of it since it was given to us by Channel 1, quite possibly before I was born. Now to come up with something creative for it.

To remind you of what my room used to look like.  This is just one corner, but doesn't it feel warm, inviting, and welcoming?

Dear Ideapaint,

I need your help to help my new room!  I know this can transform my classroom while inspring other teachers in my building to transform their rooms! Help this teacher put inspiration into action!

Love,

Mrs. A.

Optimum Organization Saturday

Hosted by:  funin4b  and Ladybug Teacher Files

Things were pretty crazy at the end of school a year ago as usual.  It might have been slightly crazier due to my teaching partner of 6 years moving to a new classroom and a new teacher taking her spot in my room.  We are required to have everything off of our desks and most surfaces for the summer.  My room did not have a lot of built in storage so the closet was often jam packed.  I used this closet to keep all of my extra school supplies.  I love school supplies so my extras are quite the surplus.  I collect notebooks and folders anytime I can find them less than a quarter so I always have what I need on hand.

At the end of the school year after packing up my closet looked like this:  

This was bad!  There were supplies all over the place and varies things from around the room crammed in empty spots.  There was no rhyme or reason for the organization.  I just tried to shut the doors and forget about everything in there.








Last summer my husband and I took a great trip to Vegas with friends:

Vegas was not kind to me and I lost most of the small amount of money I was willing to lose playing penny slots and later video poker.  One of my favorite things in Vegas is the great food.  I especially love Max Brenner's, a restaurant that is all about chocolate.

While I was at Max Brenner's enjoying some yummy chocolatey goodies I checked my email.  There was an email from the Container Store.  I opened it and was surprised and amazed to find out that I had won a $1,000 gift card from their store for my classroom!  I had entered in their blog in the spring and was picked to be one of 10 teachers across the US who won!  I was so excited!  I love the Container Store so this was perfect!  Plus I knew my room was going to need lots of help and attention in the fall.

I spent a few hours right before school on a Container Store shopping spree. I knew I wanted to get things to fix the closet and a few other trouble spots in my room.  I also wanted to get things to share with my coworkers who work so hard day after day and are a part of my amazing team.  

After my shopping spree and a few hours of work I had my closet looking like a Container Store Ad, perfect and functional:

I was able to group all of my supplies together into baskets for easy use and it kept things that were often sliding all over like folders and notebooks all in one spot.  I used my label maker to label the baskets as well.

This year I am moving classrooms so I will have to make some changes due to a different sized closet in my room.  I am hoping to make the new set up just as organized though!

Be sure to stop by again on another organization blog hop to see other spots I organized in my classroom.

A huge thank you to the Container Store for their generosity!

5 for Friday

Brushing the dust off of this blog in hopes of maintaining it more this summer.  Thanks for sticking around or stopping by as a new reader.

http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com/

It is hard to believe it is the first day of summer!  It is finally feeling like summer here.  We have had some warm days and a few storms.  We are under a storm watch currently.  I was inspired by summer to fix up my blog to reflect the fun days ahead.  I have not had much summer yet as I taught classes, prepared for summer school, and later taught summer school in my days off.

I have been busy reading and collecting titles to read.  I have always loved reading and summer gives me the time to finally read.  I can't wait to join up with The Nerdybook Club this Sunday for #titletalk.  I always add a ton of books to my wishlist. I am reading one of my favorites The One and Only Ivan with my summer school class this summer.

This year I packed up my classroom of 7 years to move to a new room in the building.  It is a room that has been used minimally over the years so it is pretty much a fresh slate and in need of some TLC.  I have grand plans and hope to get in to paint soon.  It will be strange setting this room up for one teacher from the beginning.  I shared my old classroom for 6 years.  I hope all of my furniture fits.  I had to wait to move any of the furniture in until the floors were waxed.  I am hoping to be able to figure out away to continue to use only lamps in my classroom, but with no window it may be tough in the new space.

This year was supposed to be the year to shine, but it has been pretty rough so far.  I am really trying to keep a positive outlook, but so much has gone wrong it seems.  This summer will hopefully be a time to recharge and get that positive spark back!

One of the concerns I have had this summer is with my back.  It started hurting Memorial Day Weekend while I was running the Med-City Half Marathon.  I have been in for x-rays and started on some physical therapy.  This week at summer school though it started to lock up and hurt very bad.  I went back into the doctor and she ordered an MRI to be done early next week. I am back on activity restrictions.  I have missed the past 3 days of summer school due to not being able to get out of bed or be steady on my feet.  It has been hard for me to be away and know that others are having to work harder because of my absence.  I hope to be back on Monday.  My back has also kept me from racing this summer. I will miss my second planned triathlon this weekend.  I do plan to volunteer and cheer on my husband this weekend though.