Almost there!

So the countdown begins, I have two full weeks until school starts. I am in panic mode. Ha ha! Ok only sometimes I am in panic mode. This week has been crazy. I quit my job working for my Dad and went to two full days of conferences for New Teacher Induction. I learned a lot of new things that I will put to use the first few weeks of school. I loved being able to sit with my two team members during the meetings and discuss what we would do at our school. My classroom is almost finished. There are only a couple of things I still need to get. (Or atleast that's what I think right now, and then I'll start teaching and need a million more things!) Last weekend I came across the best thing ever at Sam's Club. drum roll please..... A mini laminator!!!! Let's just say, I've been busy this week. ---Side note, we don't have access to our school laminator until like 2 days before school starts because the aids are the only ones allowed to use it. And me being me, I have been freaking out about getting things done early, so I can start planning.

This is it!!!! Laminating some math cards for my class, or maybe they are spelling. I seriously covered over 100 sheets of paper this week. I am so thankful for my friends and roommates who helped me cut all of the individual cards out!

This is only the beginning! I am seriously obsessed with this little machine that only cost me 20 bucks. The laminating paper is 6 dollars for 50 sheets, Not too bad!!!!

This is my writing bulletin board. I am so excited to have a writers workshop and have the students compile their own stories!!!!! All of the little posters I stole from another teacher off the internet. I would die without the internet.

I also found this online. I am going to use this to monitor what steps my students are on for writing workshop. So like Brainstorm, Rough Draft, Edit and Final Copy. I'll use clothes pins with their names on them and they can move them up and down.

This easel with extra storage was bought by an intern one year with her leg money, and when she left the school she had to leave it. I am the lucky new teacher to inherit it. It takes up a ton of space in my trailer, so I will make sure and put it to use. The other side is a white board so that will be nice for small instruction groups!

I found these Genre posters online and they have 2 or 3 book examples on each one. I loved them!!!! We teach a unit about the different genres and kids are constantly reading, so it is a good reminder for both them and me. If you can see, I put some stickers in the window of some fish my Mom found at the dollar store. As you can tell, my windows are still curtainless. My Mom and I went to the fabric store and got the cutest pirate material. I can't wait to make the curtains and post pictures!

I also laminated a bunch of letters! Those are a pain to cut out! Underneath "Out Best Work" I am going to put clips so the students who publish their stories can clip them up on the bulletin board and other students will be able to read them. I'll just rotate the stories as more students finish. I hope this will let the students have some ownership over the room.

Here is my book shelf. I love seeing how many books I have collected this summer. My baby library!!!! I attatched the little genre cards, which I hope will be helpful for my students! I am going to have to find another place for my pictures books.

I passed out the notebooks and crayons and placed their name tag on each desk. I still don't have my class list, but I feel like my classroom is more complete with the stuff out.

Sorry for the long post, but I have one more picture non related to school. On Monday I was driving to the dentist and I was on SF main street when this guy who wasn't paying attention rear ended me. This was my first wreck, so needless to say, I was pretty emotional. (Wait, isn't she always emotional?) So I called my Dad bawling. Luckily he was only a few minutes behind me on his way to the dentist so he handled everything. And my car just has some paint scratched off of it. I am just really glad I don't have my new car yet!