It's Time . . . .

To start re-organizing and prepping my classroom for the year.  I went in briefly last week to unpack a few books and get the lay of the land.  Yesterday I went in for a few hours, but so did 2 of my team-mates, and we spent more time yakking than working.  I went this morning for about 2 hours and got quite a bit done.  I would have stayed later, but a very chatty custodian kept stopping in and I realized that if I stayed I'd get very little done.

My big challenge this year is that I will have a student in a wheelchair and her one-on-one aide in my room so I have to maximize floor space and moving around space for her.  My room is quite small (as is my pod-mate's) so we have each have a lot of reorganizing to do.  I removed a file cabinet and one table so far.  Fortunately they're trying to keep our class sizes small -- at the moment my largest class is 18 but as often happens, the numbers change.  And because our pod is the smallest (only 36 student to share), any new kids will get placed in our rooms.  Once my room hits 20 students it's a squeeze for us all.  I'm debating giving my desk the heave-ho, but it's really the only place where I have lockable drawers for confidential info.  I've always wondered what it would be like to have a room with lots of space and storage.  In the 20 years I've been in this building, I've had a spacious room for a total of 3 years.  I've moved 8 times in those 20 years too.

School starts in less than 3 weeks so I'm really trying to maximize my leisure and get as much done as I can at school in as little time as possible.  Wish me luck!