Some of you are cruising in to the finish line, others have already crossed the finish line.
However, this is the time of year where we have so many mixed emotions, so many deadlines, so many added responsibilities and an urgency to be done. At my school, we get the opportunity to move every single item that belongs to us personally to an off campus location be it home or a rental property at your expense. Every year, I feel like a college kid moving out of the dorms and heading home for the summer. You know you are excited for the time off, but you just want to be done packing things you know you are not going to touch until you come back in the fall. I'm thankful for the people who help me to do this every year. It is such a waste of effort in my view, but I understand the why of the process at my school. (Not to say I don't want to change it altogether.) :)
Yet, today, I want to write down the last bits of information that I'll pack away until I get ready to plan and prepare for the fall. As such, here is my list:
- Practical arrangement of classroom furniture - I'm not quite ready to move to flexible seating completely, but I want to move in that direction for at least one of my stations. I want to align my class in a different direction so that the front is not in the same place as it was this year. (This was my first year in that room and I aligned for the board. I figured out that I can align to a different wall and still make it all work.) I want to find some alternative seating on sale during the year, so I'll be keeping my eye out toward that end, while I work on sketches of alignment.
- Better usage of poorly placed bulletin boards - This will require more thought. Should I paint the entire wall and boards with chalkboard paint and use that for a makers space? Ideas written on wall with chalk and pics of completed items on the old bulletin board spots? Not sure, but maybe something will come to mind.
- Better usage of the dead space in the room - I think if I anchor skinny tables around the support pole beam thing in my room I can make that become a student centric place for stations and collaboration. It is the weirdest support beam in the world, but I need to embrace it and be able to reclaim that space.
- Streamline support materials - I want to go through my math curriculum and organize all of the support materials by chapter and make them digital. Then, as students struggle, I can copy and paste the information to provide to them, rather than physically digging through and making a copy to have them hopefully bring home.
- Biographies - I want to purpose to read some biographies of people from the areas of subject matter I teach. I want to add some personal tidbits to the curriculum and I want to inspire students to realize they can do great things. I also want to find kid editions of lesser known people for them to read about.
- Writing - I'm creating a format in which students will need to write everyday for math, but not in a typical manner. If I get it done, I'll share. :)
- Fountain - I know this is weird, but I want to figure out a way to have a self-contained water feature in my room. Cheaply. I don't have water running in my room, so I have to just have the same water recycle to make it work. I want it to be beautiful and loud enough to block out peripheral sounds, but able to be turned off if needed. Research required. Also, my husband will have to be enticed to help. :) Shhh ! Don't tell him yet!
- Better organization of materials - I forgot where I had the fossils when it was time...just found them as I packed everything up. ARGH! So, cheap clear containers and baskets, here I come! Cheap shelves, come to mama!
Those are my immediate thoughts. I'm sure I'll add more in the next few days. I hope you'll share your lists with me and we will inspire one another before it all gets lost in the smell of sunblock, the feel of sand beneath our feet and the fun of summer!
First published May 26, 2018
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