So, I started reading a book by Melanie S. Unger -- ORGANIZED TEACHER, HAPPY CLASSROOM. She suggested that when one goes in to organize/clean one's classroom, one should go at it by zones, so as not to overwhelm yourself and make it impossible to get anything accomplish.
Well ... I'm not sure I've followed that rule completely, but I did try to work in zones.
Here are some BEFORE photos .... and some AFTERs ... it's a work in progress, don't you know!
BEFORE library zone ... ugly, disorganized, have I mentioned ugly?
BEFORE ... teacher zone looks like a bomb blew up there.
A BEFORE shot ... oy vey, the disorganization!
AFTER: First zone clean and organized.
AFTER: Mailbox and Media zones
AFTER: Teacher zone (except for that HIDEOUS bulletin board) is now neat and tidy.
The rest of the room ... miles to go before I am done.
In my attempt to find my own personal rainbow connection, I stumbled upon this book by Melanie S. Unger. Oh boy, did I ever need to stumbled upon this book! My room has turned into a complete and total disaster by all accounts, and I realize that, whether I like it or not, people are judging my teaching ability on the aesthetic of my classroom. So, interlibrary loan is my new best friend, and I am going to be spending some time this weekend, digging into this book. I'm doing my own little book study and compiling my notes in a LiveBinder here.
Feel free to stop by and visit it in the coming days. I hope to be putting all the stuff I've learned from Ms. Unger into this binder!
When I became a teacher, I promised myself that I would the kind of teacher that would inspire her students ... encourage them to be life-long learners ... motivate them ... engage them ... leave them panting for more fun, creative learning.
And then reality hit ... the kids with behavioral issues ... budgetary constraints ... testing stress ... the lack of colleague support ... the lack of administrative support ... the political machine ... just everything, and that excited girl that dreamed of making a difference in the lives of her students faded from sight.
I was perusing a site not too long ago and was slapped, square in the face, with just how far I'd traveled from that dreamer. I didn't like the person I'd become ... the teacher I'd become. I wasn't bad ... I just wasn't what I knew I had always wanted to be.
I stumbled upon this song from a movie I saw many, many moons ago with my mom and my sister, and it reminded me of just how much I wanted my vision or illusion of teaching to become reality.
So, because I blog as a way to express myself, I decided to start this blog as a way to work toward finding it, that rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers, and me!
