Classroom Set-Up 2017-2018 {Day 1}

Today marks my first day in my classroom for the 2017-2018 school year! Our first contracted day is not until next Monday, the 28th, but today was the first day we were allowed back into our classrooms to work on them.

I'm usually in my classroom for all the extra time they give us. I also have to move ALL of my personal belongings into my classroom this year and that takes even more time. I commute an hour each way so it's not really practical for me to make more than 1 trip in a day-- or at least I'm trying to avoid that.

Since I'm returning to the school that I left for one year I have a new classroom! I'm actually super excited about this because it's fun to work in a new space. I have new furniture and materials to work with-- it's refreshing. 

Typically I snap some before photos of my classroom and then share them with the after once it's all done. This year, I thought I'd share progress pictures from each day. I snapped some photos from around my room for how it looked when I walked in first thing today.




Disclaimer: I had previously visited for about 2 hours earlier this month and had the opportunity to move some furniture around to get a feel for things.

I gave myself 3 goals to accomplish and a timeline to complete them by 3:30pm.

1. Unload the car
2. Clean out the classroom closet
3. Bulletin boards

I managed to get all 3 done and a little bit more and left around 3:45pm. I of course ran out of some bulletin border. The 2 colors I bought extra of I ended up not needing, but ran out of others. I'm hoping to finish those up first thing tomorrow morning, but not before I snap my Day 2 photos!

I'm not 100% on my furniture arrangement yet and I have some other pieces to add and areas to define. I'm considering having my desk closer to our Smartboard this year because there are so many cords and wires. I feel like it puts my desk in the middle of our learning centers though?

I need to find some more shelving like the one straight ahead. This is what we've come to use in a lot of our classrooms for our work box set-ups. They hold the shoe size containers and can be much cheaper than typical classroom furniture shelving.

I'm also changing out the bulletin boards even though this room already had paper up. I like to do my boards all the same color. Once up though, I'll try not to change them for a year or 2.

My idea is for this area to be the focus of our work boxes. When students aren't in the room it will be nice to have that table close to my desk for spreading out on.

This is the area straight ahead when you walk in the classroom door. Typically I arrange the furniture to block this area off so students have no choice but to enter the room and go to their cubby. Hoping to make that work out again this year, but we will see.

And then there was this. This was the closet I cleaned out today. There were actually some great materials in there that I am keeping, but most of it I'm passing on to other teachers. Plenty of books, but I have too many myself already. It will be nice to just have all of my box and not a mix of mine and the schools.

Tomorrow I have a meeting/training in the afternoon for 3 hours so that really only leaves the morning to work with. My car is packed to the brim with another load to take in. Tommorrows goals include:

1. Unload the car
2. Finish bulletin boards
3. Finalize furniture placement

I hope you'll keep following along to see my progress. This will also help demonstrate that this does not happen over night and just about every teachers journey in classroom set up is a hot mess.