Whew! Made it!

I don't know how the first week is over! It flew by compared to those 2 weeks of straight meetings!

I have great kids and a great team! It is going to be an awesome year!!!

grade level websites arent live (yet). but they will be soon. See if you can spy me in the staff picture!

http://www.friscoisd.org/ly/schools/elementary/christie/

Classroom Wrap Up and My VW

Things have been CAH-RAZY in my life these past few weeks. Let's see, I moved apartments (didn't have internet for a week), finished setting up my classroom, meetings on meetings on meetings for FISD training, and OH YEAH my car got it's death sentence. Its Cancer... Stage 4... and its only a matter of hours :(

That was a lot of stuff in just a few sentences. If you havent checked out my classroom pics on facebook, I created an animoto to show them on here!

http://animoto.com/play/2J4klMyHXLKRlrZKq0VCyw

My sweet little bug. I know I've complained about it, but I LOVE THAT CAR! It was unique and suited me well. The transmission is kaputz, and apparently replacing one is a couple of Gs. $7,000 to be exact... I have been wanting to get a new car, but I had goals. I wanted to pay off my credit card debt from the lack of funds this past year not having a full time job + the $3,000 I have put into CAR REPAIRS. I wanted that bug to last me at least one more year! uhg. what a waste of money and my time...

I am very emotional about this. Of course I am stressed that I found this news out days before school starting, but a piece of me dies tomorrow when my mom trades in my car. It is a loss, and I am grieving.

Lucky for me I have awesome Grandparents that will loan me their GMC Acadia while I get through the first few days of school, and have time to process my thoughts and make an informed decision.

Will keep the blog world updated on what happens! Once my rug gets here I will post a blog with pictures of my new apartment!

Good bye little beetle. You were so much fun!!!

Classroom: Part 2.5

I didn't want to wait till the end of the week to update about what we did in my classroom today. My mother is amazing, and dedicated today to helping me out in my classroom. She put it in her iCal on her phone and everything! Anyone that knows my Momma knows that she is a HARD worker. It worries me sometimes actually. If she finishes a job and you don't have one waiting for her she gets pretty antsy. She needs to learn how to sit down so I can think.

The job that took all day was cleaning out the cubbies and putting in the shelves. My mom worked so hard on that while I continued the sorting of math stuff... That is the biggest job ever.

I wish I had taken a before photo of this area, but we had to get right to work. You'll also notice my old apartment curtain hanging up by a tension rod to hide math tubs. What's awesome about having a classroom is your "funky" style can really come out. My early college year all of my things were bright rainbow colors... I have grown up a little bit and now have neutral color paletes in my apartment decor. But this bright stuff has been perfect for the classroom! The Math games and manipulatives are still being sorted, but will hopefully have a handle on that tomorrow!

One of the teachers on my team has a longer, more narrow classroom. I heard she had desks and wanted to trade my tables in for her desks. Luckily she wanted to! I am so thrilled to have desks!! I just need to make sure all the desks get to be the same height. I am hoping that once I arrange the furniture, the room will start to feel more"done". 

I was told today by a teacher friend that your room is never finished. There is always something you want to do or add, but once push comes to shove and kids are ready to come through the door, it will be ready for them. 

Classroom: Part 2

I have a lot on the brain right now! Next week should be crazy. . . My classroom is still an unorganized disaster and although my vision is coming together, it feels like it will be awhile until it is ready for Meet the Teacher Night. It would be great if I could work on it all day and night up until then, however, I have meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, I am MOVING to a new apartment on August 9th/10th, I start Beginning Teacher Academy August 13th! I don't think I can go up to the school on Weekends, and pretty soon I need to start lesson planning! 

I am SOOO thankful for the help that I have had. Not only do all of my goals get met in record time, but it is so nice to have company! I have AMAZING aunts/uncles across the board, but Richard and Kathy came all the way up to Frisco to help me in my classroom all day Friday, despite their Fridge biting the dust and their tree problem! I am so blessed and without their help my day wouldn't have been nearly as productive. Here are a few pics of what has been accomplished since my last post. 

I was house sitting this past week, so only went up to the classroom for 1 1/2 days, and had a meeting at the school with my team on another. Richard and Kathy came Friday. I have to toot my own horn just for a second. Once my accordion wall was locked in place, I put this corner up 100% on my own! I was so worried to hang fabric and border alone in fear that it wouldn't be tightly pulled or the border would be crooked. It may have taken me a little longer than if I had help, but I did it! 

Please take note of the clear counter in the above picture. Also on my own, I took the liberty of pulling out EVERYTHING in the closet and filing cabinet so that I can organize it my own way. This job will be done on Monday and I am a little scared. 

Kathy put up my Math Tools letters!

See the counter now? Oh don't worry that is just a fraction of the disaster!

Richard and Kathy did my number line and all of the place value posters all by themselves while I worked in my corner. I am so glad that this got done, and I know that If I had to put up each individual number and place value card and it wasn't straight I would have gone nuts. They are a great team! It's starting to look like I teach Math! You guys have no idea how much I appreciate this!

See the green wall with blue border to the right? That's the corner I have been working on. It is still a work in progress!

Kathy and I made these letters during the summer before I was allowed in my classroom. I am so glad we did these because They are so cute! I wrapped the letters in yarn, Kathy made the flowers, once we command stripped and push pinned the letters on the wall, we placed the flowers to cover the push pins. 

I didn't take many pictures this past week, but other random miscellaneous things got done. The couch is gone! and I have been a clorox wiping fool! Setting up a classroom is a much bigger job than even I expected! 

Hopefully things don't get so crazy that I can't blog the finished product!