August 1, 2011

BACK TO SCHOOL?!?!? & a little injury update

Hi Friends!  It's been awhile!!!  Blogging has just gotten away from me lately...between a wonderful high school friend's wedding and other festivities, getting ready for summer school, and wasting one billion and one hours on my new favorite site of all time Pinterest, I've been a bit distracted!
^This Girl got married Friday!  
(Yes, that is Friend & Me at Disney Land senior year in high school dressed like 5 year olds, 
complete with princess backpacks...)

In other news, I tried running today for the first time in 3ish weeks!  [Side note: Running at night in summer is all fun and games until someone gets a bug in their nose...GROSS!]  While I was so happy to be out there and moving (my legs have literally been ITCHING to run lately!), unfortunately I still had some aches and pains.  The good news is that nagging shin thing that I thought was a stress fracture was totally fine (phew!).  The bad news is that the ITs are still tight, my hip flexor is hurting again, and my knee's hurting more in the miniscus area in addition to the IT band area (PT doesn't think that's a big deal tho--let's hope not)...soooo that's all fun.  I'm trying not to be bummed out because it could be worse--a stress fracture would for sure be worse--but it's definitely not fun.  Oh well.  I plan to take another week off and try to loosen up these muscles (especially the hip flexor!  what the heck!), and I will give it a shot again next week.
ANYWAYS, enough about my lame attempts at running...

Today was the first day of Summer School!  When my alarm went off this morning, the single thought in my head was, "WHY THE HECK DID I SIGN UP FOR THIS?!?!?" After the first day, I think it's going to be pretty painless.  I'm coteaching with another teacher which is SO nice, plus there are only 12 kids in our class!  Why aren't all classes like this?!  Because summer school is in a different classroom, I've been able to work in my room little by little without worrying about it being functional for the time being.  When I came in a week or so ago for the first time, I was greeted with this...
Desks stacked 8 high!!!  Cut to me climbing on top of other desks and unstacking these babies...let me just say that between this, climbing on cabinets to hang things from the ceiling, and let's not forget when the projector screen fell and HIT ME IN THE SKULL, some of the scariest split seconds of my life have taken place in my classroom...YIKES!

Anyways, the furniture is pretty well arranged now, but there is still SO MUCH work to do.  Today my project was to tackle my cabinets.  Since last year I have been organizing and reorganizing them in hopes of coming up with a system that makes sense and maximizes space.  Well, somehow today this involved me taking EVERYTHING out of cabinets and throwing it all over my room...

Messy Desk :(

It drives me crazy that sometimes cleaning involves making everything hella messy first.  Hopefully it'll be worth it in the long run!  (Hey, I did get to break out the label maker, though, which makes any day a good day!)  The few cabinets that are actually finished:
Neatly labeled math manipulatives 
More math manipulatives plus math and literacy series & materials...

Even if the organizing is still a work in progress, 1 thing I DID accomplish though today was to make this beautiful (if I do say so myself!) clip chart!  I've been seeing the Clip Chart behavior plan on so many blogs lately, and after I read the ebook by the mastermind behind this system, I was sold.  (Special thanks to Mrs. Sunny for explaining the Clip Chart to me!)  I will post more on how I plan to use this in another post, but here she is in all her glory...
After a long day of summer school and cleaning insanity, I told myself I had earned a trip to the teacher store aka HEAVEN aka "Where did my $$$ go?!?"  Teacher Mom and I always say that we are not allowed to go to the teacher store without a LIST and a PLAN.  Today I went with neither...and WANDERED the store, grabbing things right and left.  Oops...between the teacher store and a trip to Staples, I did some damage today, and unfortunately it has only made me want to go buy more classroom goodies...

My favorite purchase (which was totally unnecessary) was a set of cute magnets with the names of subjects on them that I plan to use for my homework board.  They are adorable!  I figured if I was this excited about them, even though I totally don't need them it's worth it. :)
Anyways, I feel like this post was super lame, so I apologize.  I promise I'll be back in the swing of things soon. :)

Have you started setting up your classroom yet?
What impulse buy have you LOVED?  Regretted?
ORGANIZING: Love it or Hate it?  I love it, but HATE the mess that tends to come mid-way through!

11 comments:

  1. I'm in love with those magnets!

    I just got hired for my teaching position today and our open house is Thursday, with school starting Monday. SO, needless to say I'm working frantically on my classroom. So much to do, I hardly know where to start!

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  2. I just started using the clip chart in my classroom at the end of the year. I love it and so do my kids! They especially love when they get to change to a new clothespin!

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  3. ooo gosh i just saw the "passed notes" thing I love it ahhh so cute. Ok so thanks so much for your blog comment this was my response:
    Oh no!! I have totally been there, am there I guess. I am glad this sort of helped. We have to stick with it and stick by each other you know. We are runners, we can do this! But I totally feel you. So what now? Do you have a PT to go to?

    Also after reading this, few more things. Makes sense that you are tight. Think some PT and yoga will really help. I love your organization and the stickers with the subjects. You are totally the cutest teacher!

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  4. This post is not super lame! It's super AWESOME! I am so glad you (and your skull) survived the classroom injuries! This post gets me pumped to go work in my classroom. I love the conduct chart how they can go down, but also exceed expectations. (I am secondary, so I can't use that, but I love it!)

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  5. OMGosh those magnets are super adorable!!! How fun for a homework board (now I'm gonna have to hunt some down myself -- shopping here I come! *wink*).

    Loving your clip chart. I am telling you, it will change your life!! I found some super cute little gem stickers at JoAnn's crafts to add to my clothespins when the kids get up to Outstanding (or even better "off the chart"!). I didn't do that part of it last year but I think with my small fries they will just love it. The gems were $1.40 a pack. Not bad!

    SO JEALOUS that you get to be in your room already! I am DYING to get into my classroom but our contract states they only have to let us have access 10 days before school starts. :/ Usually principals try to let us in earlier but I'm not betting on getting in before the 22nd.

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  6. Fun post! I do not teach but my sister teaches 1st grade and I help her put her classroom together every year. We always dread it but then end up having a blast.

    Good luck with summer school! :)

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  7. so glad to hear that your pain was not a stress fracture! hope another week of icing, etc loosens up those muscles so you can head out for an awesome run here soon :)

    okay...so I am not a teacher but I tihnk being a lifetime student counts and i LOVE new school supplies. haha. so seeing all your pics was super fun! have a great week!

    Thanks again for your email last week...printed the saying the very next day!!!

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  8. I always find cleaning my classroom to be a messy endeavor too! I like the chart you made :)

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  9. I don't teach, but I have many teachers in my family, so I can totally relate to this post. I remember many summers with my dad setting up his classroom. :)
    Glad your injury is not a stress fracture!

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  10. Are we twin sisters in another life??? It seems every year that when I think my room is "almost" finished some invisible force makes me pull stuff out of my cabinets to go through and organize and THEN I end up not having time to completely organize it so I end up stuffing it back in my cabinets! Go figure!

    I was just in my room today and will go back tomorrow and the day after and.... :)

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  11. hehe love that picture of you and M. I think I might have even taken that pic... :-P

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