More classroom cleaning. Today I had a clearer idea of how to proceed with my classroom. First, I tried avoiding unnecessary conversations; I also avoided ( but I wasn’t too successful) digging thru the piles of things that other teacher’s had thrown away.

In the classroom, I had to continue going through more books and papers. I really was starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of material. I finally had had enough. I started skimming and putting into the hall any material that did not relate to third grade. For some reason, no one wanted to risk throwing anything away. Even one of the assistant principals “suggested” that I put the books back because the school would have no budget to buy any new materials. I realized that fighting this would be a waste of time. After finishing the books and papers, I started to think about my learning centers. After I had a rough idea where my learning centers would be, I started to put away the test prep materials and the workbooks. Finally, I went to work on covering the bulletin boards. I assumed that since the principals were all present today, the school would probably stay open late to allow teachers to work on their classrooms.

Five minutes after four, the principal made the announcement that the teachers had 5 minutes to leave the building. I went to her and explained that I was far from finished with my classroom. At first she said that I would have plenty of time tomorrow to finish, but then she was nice enough to change her mind with a promise from me that I would be out of the building by 6pm. Strange, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a school where the teachers had to leave so quickly at the end of the day. If I did not have an incomplete classroom to worry about, I would not mind being encouraged to leave early. I ended up leaving the building around 5:58pm. I was only able to do the bulletin board in the back of the room, and one closet door. At first I really did not like the color scheme. Unfortunately, I was in a rush when I went to the nearby teacher’s store (in the rain) to buy the bulletin board materials. I arrived about 20 minutes before closing. After I finished the back of the classroom, I realized that I got lucky. The colors seemed to match. I was able to change some of the planned colors, and use some of the old paper to make it look like I did the color scheme on purpose. Since my classroom was not finished, I did not take any pictures.

When I left the school building, my plan was to go to the local big office supply store in my neighborhood to buy more paper for the walls (I ran out of black), but the store was too crowded. I just looked at some of the electronics, and then I left. I am thinking about buying my own small photocopying machine. The school I am at is nice, but some of the other schools have better photocopying procedures. A couple of schools had a copy machine available for the teachers to use at anytime. Other schools make you put in a request. The school I am at now, I have to go to the secretaries. Although the secretaries are very nice, and they will often stop what they are doing, there are a few times when they can’t stop to make copies. There are also times when the copy machine breaks down. Usually, I plan ahead with my copies, but I think it would be a real comfort to have access to a copy machine for the few rare emergencies. Also, I make and adapt worksheets for my students, having access to a copy machine (especially the enlarger and shrinking features) makes making worksheets easier. I will still go to the secretaries for most of my bulk copy needs.

Post Date - Saturday, September 2, 2006 11:33pm