Teacher Week - Classroom Digs

Today, I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' for their Teacher Week again! Today's post, Classroom Digs! This is where it all will go down this year! I started with a clean slate this year when I moved rooms and grades so there's a lot of work to be done!

Okay, so before I start bombarding you with photos, I have to make a disclaimer: my room is nowhere NEAR finished!! But it looks A MILLION times better than it did when I walked into it a week ago! It looked like this....

note my piles and piles of unpacked boxes 

lots of work to be done!!

So I spent a few afternoons last week in my room, and a TON of time yesterday and today and this is what I have...

My SMART board, calendar, etc.

I LOVE the chevron fabric I picked for this board! I was so worried it would be too busy but I love love love the way it turned out!!

Also, there will be a student-sized desk and a computer in the general area of where those two small Sterelite drawers are. We're getting new computers for the staff this year!! Yay!

My (incomplete) writing center! In that little set of drawers, I have all kinds of fun writing tools in the bottom drawer and the other drawers will house different kinds of paper and maybe some writing prompts. The little green basket has our class journals (idea taken from this pin) and the pocket chart will have weekly spelling words, etc.

This is going to be my Daily Five board! This is where all our I-charts will go. I'm not sure what the shelves underneath will hold, but right now, it's a mish-mosh of things that need a home!

My work-in-progress shelves. Obviously those are all my books ( I still need labels!) and the shelf on the left will hold math materials, science materials and Daily Five stuff!

View of my desk/front of the room....that handprint rug will be gone in the morning. My AWESOME mom found me a gray and white chevron rug! Excuse the mess on my desk...that wasn't even the worst of it!

My birthday board, alphabet and chalkboard. That whiteboard will be our homework board once I cut out some adorable vinyl letters with my Cricut! My alphabet wasn't staying up today, hence the tape :( I have to wait til someone can come help me put it up with something better!

Close up of my birthday board! I cut the cupcake liners and tops from a template I made and cut the letters and candles out with my Cricut! I LOVE the way they turned out and I think they look great on the black board!

My desk again...envision the cubby hole in the back covered with an adorable chevron curtain, soon to be made!! Also, the table with the pink crate on it (and the pink crate) will be GONE soon!

Panorama view of my room from one door

Panorama view from back by the windows!

My desks will be coming soon, and my principal said there's a kidney table with my name on it lurking around the school, so I'm waiting on those! My afore-mentioned awesome teacher mom is bringing me another huge shelf from IKEA tomorrow that she didn't want in her classroom anymore! Like I said, there's still a ton of work to be done, but definitely check back later on for the final tour! I still have two weeks before the kids start!

Now here's a picture of the pile we all have....all the stuff we don't know what to do with and that still needs to be gone through and organized and put away....hopefully this will get smaller tomorrow!

Well, I guess that's it! See ya tomorrow for "Now, Teach!"

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Let's Talk About Me! - Teacher Week 2013

Hello, Teacher Week 2013! I’ve lurked around Teacher Week for the last two years, but here I am this year, and I couldn’t be more excited about it!! So without further ado…

10. My name is Emily and I’m a 20-something living and teaching in New England!

9. I taught PreK for two years and this year I’m movin’ on up to second grade! I teach at a little Catholic school in the town I grew up in and I LOVE my school (not to mention the 6-minute commute from my house)! I got my job teaching PreK there right out of college and I couldn’t be happier!

8. I’m a certified SCUBA diver and I have been since I was 14. I LOVE the ocean and all the creatures that live there!

Me diving in the Bahamas circa 2004

7. I could live off of caprese anything. Caprese salad, caprese paninis…there’s just something magical about that combination of tomatoes and fresh mozzarella!

6. I love Zumba® Fitness. I took my first class about two and a half years ago, and I was hooked! So hooked, in fact, that I got my instructor license in June of 2012 and then my Zumbatomic® license (Zumba® for kids!) in October of 2012. It’s my escape. It keeps my head on straight, especially after a crazy day at school!

Me teaching at a fundraiser for my summer camp a few weeks ago!

5. I love to sing! I sang in choirs in high school and a cappella in college (check out my awesome group Redline A Cappella on iTunes!) I don’t sing nearly as much as I’d like to anymore – right now I’m confined to belting in my car!

4. In the summer, I work at a day camp for kids with special needs. My heart and soul live at this camp. For the last nine summers, I’ve spent 5-6 weeks playing, swimming, doing arts and crafts, singing, laughing and loving with “my kids.” They inspire me every single day.

3. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. I thought I wanted to teach high school (history) for about twelve seconds but then I came to my senses and realized I belong with the munchkins! If I wasn’t a teacher (or working with kids, let’s be honest here) I think I’d be doing something scienc-y, like forensics or marine biology.

2. I have two half-siblings…my brother and sister are twins! They’re 7 years younger than I am and I love them more than words can say. I’m super close with my little sister. People say we look more like twins than she and her actual twin do! She helps me in my classroom all the time and is always down for a fro-yo date when the craving strikes! I love her tons and I’m going to miss her SO much when she goes away to college next year!  

My beautiful sister and I before her prom back in May!

1. A few other things I love: Grey’s Anatomy, Washington, DC (where I went to college), summer time, anything chevron, my two dogs (a Yorkie and a Golden Retriever), Starbucks, cheese, reading, laminating things, Apple products, scrapbooking, polka dots and the colors blue and green.

Well…that’s that! See you around tomorrow for Classroom Digs!! :o)

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Blogging, Take 3?

I’ve tried to get into the blogosphere a couple of times but it’s crashed and burned. I’m a lurker. I love reading all those amazing teacher blogs out there, and I’m constantly on BlogLovin’ refreshing my page! So here I go again, this time with a new blog name to go along with my new grade! Hey, third time’s a charm, right?

I’ve been teaching PreK for the last two years, and due to some enrollment changes, I’m getting bumped up to second grade this year!! I couldn’t be more excited about it. As much as I loved teaching PreK (and I will miss those little munchkins!) I’m thrilled to be in a new place with a new grade. I have an awesome grade partner, which makes the switch that much easier.

But switching from PreK to 2^nd?! Talk about a transition! I’m in the midst of getting my classroom ready and here’s what I have to work with…

My SMART board!! YAY!!!

I got to go for a few afternoons last week after my summer camp job, and I actually got quite a bit done! All of those boxes are unpacked, my awesome teacher-mom came in to help me for a while and organized all my books and put them on shelves! (A huge undertaking! I’ve got a library that wouldn’t make you think I was a third-year teacher!) I just have to tackle my desk area and then I get to do the fun stuff…DECORATE!

You’ll notice that there is a severe lack of desks in my room. Due to all the enrollment changes, a handful of teachers had to switch rooms this year, so we’re still figuring out where all the desks need to go. I hope I get mine soon!! J

I’ll leave you with a little story behind the name of my blog… my dad has called me Munchkin my whole life. In turn, I’ve called my students “my munchkins” since I started teaching. Anyway, my dad heard about Deanna Jump on CNN after she earned a million dollars on TpT and decided that this was the perfect name for my blog. So here it is. Munchkins, Inc.

Well…I guess that’s it for now! See you all around this week for Teacher Week over on BlogHoppin’! J

Emily

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