monkey see, monkey do

Normally, I don't step foot back into our school until August. When the office staff returns from their month break on August 1st is the time when I feel the need to shove some furniture around.

Never July.

Until last week my friend, Suzanne, texted me and said the rooms in our area were done being cleaned and she went in to move some furniture. Then I couldn't get it out of my head.

Dang!

I gave in.

Monday morning, on a whim I decided to go in for just a couple of hours until the public library opened because Heather wanted to go to the library.

The carpets have been shampooed, the walls washed, the tile waxed, and the furniture shoved to one side of the room.

I took some before pictures standing at my door, then at the sink. These two pictures side by side make my room look kinda big.

It's not.

More like kinda tiny.

You can see my little helper (and her oatmeal breakfast).

Did I mention there was no air? It was h.o.t!

Here are a few after photos standing in the same places. I am moving back into the room I had for two years before my brief interlude in 4th grade, so I pretty much knew where I wanted the furniture to go.

I do have a small table with the Mac on it that I didn't have before, so my guided reading area is proving to be problematic. Remember? Tiny room. So I experimented switching out my kidney table with a smaller rectangular table for guided reading.

What?! I know. That's primary teacher blasphemy!

I didn't move the kidney table out of my room just yet. I was feeling wishy washy about getting rid of it. I couldn't figure out why this was such a hard decision to make until it dawned on me that I have taught for 16 years with a kidney table for reading. It is just a part of teaching.

Well, I'm 99.9% sure that my 17th year of teaching will not include a kidney table. Plus, I can always get it back if I need it.

My intention was to leave after two hours, but after I took these parting shots, the air came on and it wasn't entirely miserable. So we moved the desks into groups and did a little more work for a couple more hours. It's looking more like a classroom.

I'm going with a new theme this year, so I have some crafting to do to get ready for it. I'll show you more pictures later.

In August.