Puppies, PD, and Putting it All Together

Hello, Teacher Friends!

We're teachers. We LOVE summer vacation, right?! This is our time to relax. We are only employed for 10 months and we squeeze the work of 12 into that 10, so we can have a sweet break with our families. There are many wonderful options to choose how to spend those 8 glorious weeks. Sometimes, my family goes to the beach. Sometimes, we visit family across the country. 

Sometimes, like this summer, we have Siberian Husky puppies to care for! 

    

 Then, sometimes, we completely ignore vacationing because we are so focused on "next year" that we can think of nothing else. That too was me this summer (this caused my husband to start a rather entertaining blog... https://thesinglelifeofateacherhusband.blogspot.com/ ).

I decided early on that I had some great ideas I wanted to share with my colleagues, but haven't the time during the school year. I attended 2 PD sessions, and taught 4. What fun it was to share the great things that happened in the classroom with my peers. Better yet, I brought in students to present their passion projects to one of the sessions! It was a beautiful thing.

Student Passion Projects above.

Teachers attending PD sessions below.
Yes, it was as fun as it looks!

Why stop there! I've already spent 5 of the 8 weeks dealing with new pups, and planning, prepping, and giving professional development sessions.Why not get cracking on my classroom? 

I had decided at the end of last school year that desks were simply not cutting it in my classroom. I grouped so often that I had to slide desks around and put them together to make a make-shift table to work on, but there would be an awkward angle, and pencils and papers would slip through cracks. I knew we had more students coming in than were leaving and we would need more desks for the school. I put in a request to our maintenance department to build me four large tables. I gave them the measurements and our AMAZING craftsman got to work. These beauties were delivered around the second week of July.  Ignore how trashed my room was.

It was AWESOME that I now had these huge, roomy tables, but I needed chairs, so I put in a request for these really supportive sleek looking chairs. To my total surprise, they were ordered for me! I was ecstatic... until they arrived. Have you ever assembled 25 chairs? It's tedious and back aching work.

 After I assembled all the chairs, my seven donorschoose.org bookshelves arrived! I was thrilled to get my books off the floor and back into a comfy cubby home. Guess what.... yep, more assembly. Seventeen total hours spent assembling chairs and bookshelves in my room. 

P.S. Teachers don't get paid for summers. Some elect to get paid less during their 10 month job to stretch their pay through the summer. In NY I had no pay in summer (not an option). In Tn, my district divides the pay so we get paid through twelve months. Those 17 hours would be paid in smiles and appreciation from thankful students in August.

Needless to say, I had a lot of organizing and work to do to get my classroom ready for the new year. I did it though. I am more proud of this room than any other year. Let me tell you why. 

I truly believe that a classroom should be a welcoming environment where students feel safe, loved, comfortable, and encouraged to take risks. I feel that student voice is absolutely imperative to a successful classroom culture. I have a student/parent Instagram page that students follow. I even have many future students following it (not sure why, but they do). I asked in June if they wanted to continue the DC Comic theme, or have a new design. There were many votes, and DC won by a single vote. I decided if it was that close, I was going to keep DC and add some classy new. Here are the results. I cannot wait to meet my new crew and watch the magic happen in this amazing room!