Monday, July 14, 2014

Quick Tip-Felt!

I saw this on Pinterest a while ago, and figured I would try it myself.  I think the original poster said to cut the square in half and fold it over, but I didn't want to buy that much felt (and my Wal-Mart did not carry that much of it!).  



So, I improvised...


This is how I cut the felt.   The diagram above represents one sheet of felt.   Each chair leg will have one of the smaller squares attached to it, so one sheet of felt will cover two chairs.   I bought 16 sheets of felt to cover all 32 desks in my room.   

Nifty, right?   I will likely go back to buy a few sheets so they can be replaced as they get old and worn, but my janitor is already thanking me for less scuffed floors!


Wednesday, July 9, 2014

English Classroom Makeover: Week 1

This is also known as the "how-I-turned-a-science-lab-into-an-English-classroom" post, but I figured that was too long of a title.

Finally.   I've been waiting and waiting for my classroom to be finished so I could start work.   I changed jobs last year, and in doing so, I gave up my classroom.   That meant I was on a cart for an entire year.   I remember staring at my cart int he elevator on the first day of school, thinking "how am I going to do this?"   But I did.  And I survived.  

Realistically, I was so ecstatic to have a classroom, I didn't care where it was, or what shape it was in.  I knew that I would have a place to call mine.   I would be able to set up stations, store our writing binders, have my own pencil sharpener, display my class rules, and set up the room for Socratic seminar, and write the learning target in ONE place, and not have to carry it around with me all the time.

I was so excited, in fact, that I wasn't at all phased when I saw my room like this:  
Granted, the last teacher had not yet completely moved out, but I knew there was still loads of work to do.

Oh, and did I mention that I had a shower?  GREAT.  You can see the it in the picture above if you look through all of the "stuff".   I imagined eleventh graders going mad and pulling the shower...  Ironically enough, the room flooded a few days later because a book fell on the shower in the room next to mine.   the water ran for a few days (both in her classroom and mine) before the janitor found it.

Needless to say, it was 100% crazy pants in there.   

Here are the after pictures!  I still have quite a bit of work to do (and I am quite embarrassed to say I only decorated the room and no files have been brought in-oops.)