Feathering the Nest

Ummm, remember that unfinished classroom I showed you on Monday?
After 4 days it is still largely unfinished. Not for a lack of work.
But everything is now a lovely shade of O'Brien's Bumblebee Blue.

I had to laugh at myself that with ALL the boxes I still need to unpack and sort, I felt the need to put a new coat of paint on my shelves. (And, don't tell the other teachers: to iron my curtains with  my iron and ironing board lugged from home.) I just know that I will soon be spending  ten hour days in this room and I want it to look nice and feel like home.

I think the general population (read that: not teachers) would be amazed at the amount of time spent fixing up classrooms during the summer. We are not required to be at school for Inservice until next week, but most of us are logging some major "volunteer" time in our rooms. I know I'll go over the 40 hour mark tomorrow for the work I've done this week. But how many jobs let you fix up your work area any way you want to? (Granted: most of it is with our own money, but it is so worth it for the pleasant surroundings we create.)

The first year I taught was in the early 80s. The only supplies the school secretary would give us were a red grading pencil and ONE ROW of staples at a time. I am not making that up. In the mid-80s I taught at a school that required us to paint our own chalkboards on the wall if we felt we needed them. (They did supply the paint. But not the brush.)

The school I am teaching at now gives us a stipend for beginning of the year supplies (thank you, PTA!) Still, there is so much that a teacher must buy... without a tax deduction for the effort. But we want our rooms to be a place that our students love coming to each day. And I think every teacher at my school is successful in that endeavor.

Time enough to look over all the new curriculum next week during formal meetings. For now, I'm preparing the room to be a magical place...because we'll be making the future.