I'm fortunate enough to have the flexibility to go in early. I don't have to worry about child care costs and live ten minutes from school, so it's not a big time commitment to run over and work for a few hours.
If we're being totally honest, it will be about three hours of work per day followed by a nap.
I tend to put on music (or a few movies) and work until it's done. I'm hoping the pod is relatively empty so I can be productive (and not distract myself with chitchat).
I did sneak in yesterday during Open Library and set up my tables. I also noticed I had two extra tables, but we figured out who needed them and the custodians said they'd take care of it.
Here's a rough outline of what I hope to expect during setting up my classroom:
Day 1 (Tuesday, August 1st...theoretically)
1. Hang my bulletin board fabric and spray with wrinkle release if necessary. I tend to staple the top and let the wrinkles fall out overnight.
I have two classroom bulletin boards and one in the pod. I'm reusing fabric from last year. Some of my fabric is an old bed sheet from Goodwill (twin works great), some is fabric from Joann's, and I'm pretty sure some is an old table cloth. Fabric gets washed over the summer and reused each year if possible. Unlike paper, fabric doesn't fade over the course of the school year, which is another teacher win.
2. Move furniture (if possible). Some of my bookcases will cover the bottom part of bulletin boards, so I can't move everything.
3. Set up my teacher desk.
Day 2
1. Finish hanging bulletin boards by stapling the rest of the fabric up.
2. Hang bulletin board borders. I'm using mesh this year on two of them. I'm hoping it goes much better than the time I used burlap:
It was beautiful, but it took hours. HOURS. Never again.
3. Finish moving furniture.
4. Hang the net. Yes, fishing net. It goes with part of my aquatic theme.
5. Start to organize my library. When I moved classrooms, I tried to separate books and send the fifth grade books home to live in the garage. I didn't get to all of the books and just gave up at the end. I'm sure I'll have some books to weed out that aren't appropriate for third graders.
I'll also be reorganizing my classroom library. I probably won't have entire buckets devoted to Number the Stars or The Giver. Sure, I'll keep a few of each in my library for my higher readers, but the rest will be stored at home in the garage. Instead, those buckets will house Babysitter's Club books (because I keep finding them for super cheap at Goodwill). My library needs to match my students' levels.
I will also use this time to look for any damaged books or ones that need stickers (to match the bins and help the kids know where to return books).
Day 3
1. Sit on the floor and continue to make piles of books.
2. Begin to put books in buckets. Put buckets of books on the book shelves. Repeat.
3. Make a list of sticker labels to print.
Day 4
1. Hang up bulletin board decor. Print the lettering for the banner (and stuff into my purse to deal with at home, where there is wine to drink while I cut out letters.)
2. Copy cacti for students to color for our pod bulletin board.
3. Attempt to find the box that says beginning of the year papers.
4. Finish classroom library.
5. Unpack my snacks (top desk drawer of my teacher desk is devoted to snacks).
Day 5
1. Copies (before everyone returns)
2. Empty remaining boxes.
3. Finish setting up technology.
4. Revise and print new business cards/magnets
We have to return on Wednesday, August 9th. The kiddos show up on Monday, August 14th. I'd love to be totally done in my classroom before the 9th. Thanks to our union, we have the 10th to work in our classrooms without meetings. I'd like to use that time to work on lesson plans and copies.
In the mean time, I'm working on a bulletin board banner and giant mermaid tale from home. Home is where the wine is!
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