Thursday, August 11, 2011

Unpacking the Classroom

Many people don’t realize that at the end of a school year a teacher must pack up their classroom.  Some teachers will be moving to new grade levels and/or schools, but ALL teachers(in our district) have to pack up their rooms.

Why?  So they can strip the floors and re-wax them.  So every start of the new year, we have gleaming shiny new floors…

For 12 years, I was lucky and stayed in the same classroom, even though I moved grade levels (everyone else moved).  Two years ago I was moved upstairs and last year I was moved grade levels and down the hall.  But even so this year I had to do the least unpacking of any year..

What takes up the most of my time?  My books…I believe in a good classroom library…I am still short on non-fiction type books….Now looking at this classroom, remember, we were told to purge last year…I have totes of books and materials in our storage unit….So my day consisted of this:

DSC00389 Unpack the closet…most of that is books..I had to go through and sort them, because of course many are mixed up.

DSC00395 End of the day…those green boxes hold all my posters and then teacher resource stuff is on the shelves..

DSC00393 See all those illustrated classics?  A friend sent them all to me, as her children were done with them….

DSC00398 My fiction chapter books…there are more in the white bookcase above…They are so NOT in order!  But will eventually get there…thinking of doing author alphabetical…

DSC00400 These are poetry books (facing), biographies, Dear America books, Magic Tree House Guides, and classics..on top is NF sport compilation books….a whole bunch of my Dear America books are missing…I hope they turn up, but I really only have one more place to unpack…

DSC00396 Non-fiction shelves.. looking a little empty…seems like I might be missing some more books…

DSC00394 This is the last cabinet to unpack and those reference books will go on the bottom shelves of the red/white bookcase above, on the other side…

DSC00397 Big Books and picture books..

I am missing quite a few books, but hopefully they will show up.  I’ve had a package of books mailed back to me after several years…I’ve had kids come up a year or so later and hand me a book they found at home…If they don’t return, I don’t sweat it…if a kid likes a book so much, let them have it….

So this took about 3 hours, give or take,  a break to eat and doing some other unpacking…

I may wander out to some tag sales this weekend to see if I can find some more books…also on the lookout for board games for winter indoor recess…

And because I’m so tired (it’s also unbearably HOT) I put on my pajamas when I get home and veg out the rest of the day….yesterday I knit…don’t think that’s gonna happen tonight…

3 comments:

Keri said...

I prefer to the unpacking to the packing up. Mind you the packing up does mean it's summer break. Back to my room in the next few weeks to do the same. I find it really exhausting. We also have to renew our First Aid training at the same time. I love teaching, but summer vacation is so nice.

sara said...

Looks like a great library!

Gracy's Mom said...

Hi I am going to mail up your Nancy Drew Books also. Have to wait a bit until I have the money to send them. When I go to the Post Office do I just say they are books or is there a certain word to mail them cheaper? Wish I was there to help with the class room. What kind of books do you want when I go to Books-A-Million they always have discounted books?