New digs

 Turns out that moving classrooms is just as hard, if not harder, than moving residences. A classroom isn't like moving an office. I LIVE in my classroom. I have to be equipped for all manner of chaos that may break loose at any moment ("I let some girl paint my fingernails this morning. Do you have any nail polish remover?"). I also provide most of the furniture, office supplies, books and other material for my classroom, so moving is no small task.  Here's what my room looked like in late August:

I also found this while cleaning out my new desk. Apparently the last teacher in the room was... strange.

 Here's my room as it is now, kid chaos and all.

I don't know if you can see it in the picture above, but one strange thing about my new classroom is that it's wedge shaped. All of our buildings are circular. The classrooms arranged wagon-wheel style facing an interior hallway. It's strange for a lot of reasons--you can hear everything in the hall but only see one classroom in either direction. You can also get lost pretty easily. I took down the "Welcome Ms. Cook" sign on the second week of school and my poor freshmen were totally disoriented. Even now, kids often walk into my room accidentally and then say "oh! I was looking for Ms. M's room..."

One thing I LOVE about this room is the storage. I have 2 1/2 (yes, half) standard-sized classroom closets, plus a counter with cabinets AND drawers.

My new home away from home!