Sorry Its Been A While

There's so much to share!!  These are the turkeys that my cuties made the day before Thanksgiving.  I just barely got the bulletin board up though because it took forever to get them laminated.  We recently got a new copy aide and its taking her MUCH longer than anticipated to get used to everything she had to do.  But a week later than planned we finally got them back and put them up.  Here's some pics:

I'm so impressed with how quickly they picked everything up!  Don't these look incredible??

Also, today I spent most of the afternoon rearranging things in my room.  Here's the finished product.  I'm excited to hear the kids talk about it as they walk in on Monday morning.

Now for some adorable stories!

Our book reports are due this Monday and today I wanted to do a sample report for them so they could see what kinds of things I was expecting.  It was so stinkin' fun and the kids loved it.  We just finished Harry Potter 1 as our Read-Aloud book and so this morning I dressed in black pants & a button up shirt and right before I started I pulled my hair back into a bun and put my glasses down on the crook of my nose.  I started talking in a British accent and the kids burst out laughing.  Oh my goodness.  They thought it was hilarious and begged me to talk like that forever!!  :)  So much fun.

Yesterday was our Christmas Choir program at a school-wide assembly.  I played for the Choir and afterward I found that I was pretty much a star to them.  After school, I was outside for bus duty (making sure the kids get off school grounds safely) and I had kid after kid saying "HI MISS WISER!!"  Half the time I had no idea who they were.  It was nice to see that so many kids looked up to me and they were all so impressed that I could play the piano.  Oh and I didn't get to sit with my class during the assembly but I'm proud to say that they were FANTASTIC and sat quietly listening to the whole thing.  I'm so incredibly proud.

We have one boy in our class that is moving over the break.  His family's house they were renting got foreclosed on so they are moving out pretty quickly.  He's the most adorable kid and is probably one of my favorites!  Well, needless to say, he's been kinda bummed about moving and the other day for our journal entry I asked: "What if there were no Winter Break?"  Two of the students shared with the class that they would be happy because then Brady wouldn't have to move.  Then that afternoon, Brady asked me if I could fill out this page for his "memory" book.  I agreed to do it after school so he left it out on my desk.  When I finally got to it he had written questions like, "Are you happy/sad that I'm moving?" "What is your fav't holiday?" "What's your fav't restaurant?" Just silly little things but it was sweet.  And then yesterday I found this note on my desk and I just about cried in front of all my kids.  This just breaks my heart!!!!!!  I'm gonna miss this kid SOOO much :(

And last but not least, I can't tell you how incredible it is to work with so many children everyday, especially at this time of year.  The last song we sang at the Choir assembly was "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and the whole school was asked to sing with us.  I caught myself tearing up as they all cheerfully, enthusiastically, and genuinely sang the words "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".  The feeling in that room was too brilliant for words.  They truly are children of God and have such a sweet, pure spirit.  I'm truly blessed to have them around me to help remind me of why I chose to teach and what the true meaning and spirit of Christmas should be.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Oh and a New Student!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we have a new student in my class.  He fits in pretty well with his classmates so far.  I had to do some quick thinking re-arranging of our desks so we could make room for him though.  Our desks are now arranged into 5 groups of 5 and there's a lot more room in the back of the room than I thought there'd be.  Pretty amazing.  Have a look for yourself:

Whew...what a long, hard week!

Well, my parent teacher conferences are done!  (Except for 1)  Every student that had a time scheduled showed up when they were supposed to, I didn't have any angry parents, I made one parent cry cause her daughter is just so wonderful, and I now have an extra day off.  It took a lot of prep for those few hours of conferences and Wed & Thurs were both 12 hour days.  But its done!  Yippee!!

On Monday and Tuesday, Jennifer took my class for about 30-40- minutes and they did a writing activity.  We made a bulletin board out of it and it turned out great!  Here's a picture of the finished products.  I'm still missing a few of their individual pictures but everything else is done.

Here's another picture of a classroom idea I found on pinterest last weekend.  I quickly made it and put it up this week and had to do some rearranging around the room.  Here's the finished look.

It's intended to help spice up their writing.  At the bottom of each strip is the common word that they typically overuse.  As the colors get deeper in shade, the words become more complex.  I hope this does well.

This Week's Crazy Adventures

Well, where to start?  There's a lot that happened this week.  I guess I'll start somewhere around the beginning of the week.  Monday, I had the students come up with table group names so that I don't always get their table numbers confused.  Here's the names they came up with:

Black & White Snow Tigers
Lake Monsters
Fighting Phantoms of Terror
Wolf Pack
Sharks
Fire Ants

Great, right?  Man, they have quite the imagination!

There's this student in my class that often breaks down crying during lessons a few times a week, constantly thinks the world is out to get him, and told me the other day that the pressure of our activity made him feel like he was going to "implode."  I spoke with my facilitator, Jennifer, about him to get some insights on what I should do.  I've never had to handle a student like that before and his behavior is starting to affect other students in the class (he made another boy cry the other day).  She suggested that I talk with the Guidance Counselor to get some more advice and see what we should do.  At this point, I hadn't spoken with the parents (because I didn't know what to say or do).  As I spoke with the counselor,  she suggested putting him in an anger management/anxiety class.  She showed me the book that she uses so they can identify where they feel stress and how to better deal with it.  I thought it sounded like a good class, and she ended up calling the parents to suggest that their son join.  The next morning his dad came in a few minutes before school started and told me that he was "restraining himself" because he was so angry.  He should have heard from me first and that his son absolutely DID NOT need this class, he's just stubborn & expects the rules to be unchanged (looking back - I agree, they should have heard from me first, however being stubborn doesn't explain why he starts crying in the middle of a lesson).  We set up a time to meet the next day after school.  Later that day, I spoke with my principal and she agreed to be there at the meeting with me.

I pretty much spent the next 24 hours preparing as many notes about when things happened as I possibly could.  I prayed like crazy, cried a little, and pretty much was freaking out.  This dad scared me!  When time came for the meeting, two of my teammates agreed to stay in the room until the principal arrived so that I wouldn't be left alone with the family.  The meeting consisted of me, my principal, the student and both his parents.  It lasted roughly 40 minutes (of which I'm pretty sure the dad spoke for about 25).  Nothing really got resolved because the dad insisted that there is nothing wrong with his son.  The only thing we agreed is that I would be more consistent about writing notes home in his planner and that he would be more open in expressing himself with words so that I can help.  After they left I continued to speak with my principal for a bit and she said that I was right, there is something there that could use some help, and that she noticed those same things in the father.  Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about it because they are refusing services.  We both noticed though that the mother was aware of what is happening, but the dad wouldn't let her speak and won't budge anytime soon.

So the meeting went alright but not as well as I would have liked.  And what an adventure it was.  In other news, one of my girls got in a fight with another girl in 4th grade this week as well.  When we went out in the hall to speak with the other girl and her teacher, Katie (my student) mentioned that she has anger problems.  And she happens to be one of my two student council reps.  My goodness, my kids are just on a roll this week!  I'm about ready for our Fall Break next week!  Wednesday is a half day for us and then we have Thursday and Friday off.  My roomies and I have been keeping a countdown for the last two weeks :)  We're a little excited about it.  And we're even more excited that this weekend we only have to plan for 2.5 days!

Speaking of which...I should go do some planning.  Love you all and thanks for your support, love, prayers!

P.S. This is our class "pet."  We named him Fuzzy and he will be our Star of the Week this next week (since its a short week).

My love notes...

Here's a pic of that note that I promised you.  And the other day I gave them a journal prompt that I told them I would read this weekend.  As I was going through one kid's journal to find the right entry, I found this:

The prompt for this day was "If you could do anything tomorrow, what would it be and why?"

Best Moment So Far

Here's picture of me from this last week before the kids came that morning.  :)

As you may have noticed, I am absolutely loving every minute of this school year.  The best moment so far happened just yesterday and I want to share it all with you.  Right after lunch every day, I read aloud a book to the class.  Sometimes I wonder how much they are actually listening as they draw and whisper to their neighbors (even though they're not supposed to).  Well, yesterday we were finishing this silly little book called "Everything On A Waffle" and in the second to last chapter one of the characters dies and the way it was written, it didn't actually come out and SAY that she died, it just hinted at it.  So when I read that, I all of a sudden noticed that it was SILENT.  So silent that you could hear a pin drop.  And then when I finished that chapter, they begged me to keep reading.  I decided to give in because we get out early on Fridays anyway so there's not really any time after lunch to do anything productive. So I read the last chapter as well.  I love moments like that.  BUT that's still not the best part.  As I was reading, there was one student that was drawing and then wrapped them all up in another piece of paper, taped it and gave it to me.  I didn't get a chance to look at it until after they left for the day but when I read it I laughed & smiled SOOOO MUCH!!  (I'll be posting a picture as soon as I can get my other computer going...I can't find my camera cord to hook up to my Mac so I have to put the SD card in my HP which is currently being stubborn).

The note said:

"(Eye) <3 U!  and school"


Sweet, adorable, little Brady had drawn at least 5 of the "(eye) <3 u!" notes for me and included them in the wrapped up paper.  It was so stinkin' cute!  The only thing that makes it not so cute is that he's one of my favorite kids in the class, and he told me the other day that he will probably be moving in January!!  :(  I'm so sad!

Anyway, just wanted to share that little day-brightening moment with all of you.  Hope you're enjoying the weekend!

Its Been a While

Sorry it's been so long folks!  School's kept me pretty busy the last couple weeks.  It's finally starting to even out a little bit (at least it seems that way).  Yesterday I felt like I was truly productive because I got so much grading done before I left school.  It felt so good and then I got to work on some extra stuff that I've put off for a few weeks.  So yesterday was a great day.

I was talking to Mom the other day and told her this but I'd like to share it with the rest of you.  I think I'm doing something right because my kids took the Block 1 Math test about two weeks ago and MOST of them passed!  I wasn't terribly surprised about the ones that didn't pass but they did better than I thought they might. So yay!!  And today we're reviewing for the next math unit test so hopefully they'll do well on that one too.  :)  We'll see!

My kids have been going a little stir crazy the last few weeks and today's not helping.  It's pretty stormy outside so they are inside for recess today and let me tell you, its a little crazy in here.  But oh so much fun :)  I love my kids so much!

Here's a little something that my kids made for a Sept. 11th memorial.  We watched a video about it and then had a discussion for about 20 minutes.  It was weird for me to realize that none of them were even alive when it happened.  They asked what it was like for me and how I remember what happened and it made me think that my kids look to me for memories of 9/11 like I look to grandparents for WW2 & the Korean War.  That was the weirdest thought for me.  Anyway, after our discussion I taught them how to make stars out of folded paper (directions were found by my roommate online) and we wrote ways that we can remember those who died.  It was quite an emotional day but since then my kids never let me forget to say the Pledge as a way of remembering.  Here's the bulletin board we made with our stars:

Also, today I received the sheet music for the songs our school choir will be singing for December.  I'm excited to start playing through those (and hopefully not annoying the heck out of my roomies!) and start that choir.

Life is going great here and I'm still loving every minute of my job.  Still waiting for it to sink in though, that I'm actually a teacher.  Hope you're all doing great as well!!!  Love & miss you all.

Oh what a week!

It's been a long week but Friday is finally here!  :) The kids have been pretty good this week, we have just had the same old problem...they like to talk...ALL the time.

Thursday is got a bit out of hand.  We have this time during the afternoon on Thursdays where our whole team goes to a meeting called collaboration.  During this time, there are parent volunteers who come and "teach" our class for about 40 minutes.  Well, I went to the meeting yesterday and I told the kids before I left that if I heard a good report back from the aid that I would make time to read our book that I've been reading to the class. (We're getting near the end of the book and they BEG me to keep reading reach day). The meeting went well and on my way back to my class, I could hear my students all the way down the hall.  That can't be a good sign.  So I walked into the doorway and just stood there, staring them down.  And they STILL kept misbehaving.  The aid was up front trying to continue the skits going but they rest of the class was just goofing off, not even paying any attention.  It was awful.  As soon as the aid left, I had the kids pull out their planners, write in them, and then lay their heads on the desk for about 10 minutes.  One kid still decided it was time to goof off and threw a wad of paper across the room at someone else!  Oh boy.  After the 10 minutes was up, we then grabbed all our stuff and lined up at the door.  As they stood there waiting for the bell, I explained that I knew that not everyone had been misbehaving when I walked in but since the majority was (probably about 90%), I had to punish everyone.  I felt like the world's WORST teacher ever yesterday by the time they left.  I'm pretty sure some of them hated me as they walked out the door but I had to do something!  So needless to say, yesterday was not such a great day.

Today, however, was FANTASTIC!!!  I don't know what it is but the last two weeks have followed this pattern....Thursday is a problem and then they're GREAT on Friday.  Well, this morning before school started I decided to put up a sign outside the door, above the coatrack, and on the whiteboard.  The sign read:

        "Today is a silent day.  Please come in quietly and follow the directions on the board.  *If I catch you talking, you owe me 1 Bee Buck."

This worked like a CHARM!!!  They came in and immediately started "shh"-ing each other and got right to work.  This gave me enough time to get things ready for the day and give spelling tests to the different groups at the back of the room.  We then went to rotations (my kids went to PE while I took another 4th grade class to the library) and then came back for an assembly.  As we lined up for rotations, I told the kids that the silent day was a test to see how quietly they could come in and get to work because we've been too loud lately.  I also explained that we will most likely have more throughout the year (especially on days when my voice gives out or they were too loud the day before).  Then during the assembly, my class was a bunch of angels during the assembly even when the rest of the school was getting super rowdy.  After the assembly was over, we moved into Guided Reading time.  This is where I meet with certain groups of students on a specific reading level while the rest of the class works quietly at their desk or reads silently.  They usually get pretty riled up during this hour of the day too but you could hear a pin drop in there!  It was great!  I had even taken the signs down so I expected them to get noisy again but nope!

The rest of the day (which was shorter anyway due to early release time on Fridays) went smoothly and I'm now QUITE a fan of random silent days.

Just a quick funny story to leave you with...we had to choose two student council reps from each class and the students had to write an essay about why we should pick them.  First of all, my class is pretty hilarious, even when they don't mean to be.  And one girl in her essay wrote: "If you need help, I will help you.  Because your confidence is my confidence."

HAHAHA not quite sure how that even makes sense but it definitely made for a good laugh on a Friday afternoon, after the kids had all gone home.

Some New Pictures

Hey Mom, here's a closeup of the cabinet doors in the back of the room.  Each bee has a letter of the alphabet and I'm working on making word cards to hang up that have the vocab for Math, Science, Social Studies, and a few other things. 

This last week, we learned about graphs and we made bar graphs in groups.  Here's one of the groups' graphs.  They did so well, and it really helped me to know how they are understanding the lessons.  :)

This is the 'Missing Work' thing I was talking about in my last post.  In this crate, I will have file folders with various assignments that we have completed.  In the folder, there will be a couple extra copies of the worksheet so that if any student is missing that assignment and can't find their copy, they can grab a new one and work on that.  I also made a poster with the title "Missing Work" that is being laminated.  I'll hang this on an extra cupboard in the back of the room so that when I know that certain students haven't turned something in, I can write the assignment name and their name on the poster.  That way they don't always have to ask me if they have already turned something in. They can just check the chart.  I'm excited about this and I sure hope it works!
(Oh and the Cursive Worksheets are worksheets that they will complete on their own time sometime before the end of the year.  There's a couple of them but I won't be teaching them how to do cursive, they should already know how to do that.  This is just to help them practice.)

 And finally, my artwork wall!  :)  A few of those papers are mine to help me remember rotation schedules and then there's the job chart, but the rest of that is all from my students!!  :)

Almost Two Whole Weeks & One Observation Done!!!

I'm almost at the end of two weeks now and I'm still loving being a teacher!  :)  It's so great to hear "Miss Wiser" from 24 little kids every day (although some of them overuse those words!!!  Haha), get hugs at the beginning and end of each day, and see the little drawings they make for me hang on the wall behind my desk.  It's completely fantastic.  :)

Here's some highlights from this week:

1.  IT WAS A SHORT WEEK!!!  lol  We didn't have school on Monday due to Labor Day, so not only did I have extra time planning things for the week but the school week was a little shorter.

2.  I got my computer back!  It took about a week for them to fix it, but its finally back and I got a nice little blue case to go on it.  The kids were a little confused when I came to school with a blue computer today.  I even had one say: "I thought all the teachers had white computers!  Why is yours BLUE??"  I laughed and then explained to them that it is white I just put a blue case on it.  Just like Ms. Leavitt (another 4th grade teacher) has a purple one.  They were all ok after that.

3.  It's Thursday, and I have nearly everything graded for the last two weeks!  Yipee!  :)  I got a lot done last night and a few other things today after school.  So now I just have to work on entering those in to the online gradebook so the parents can check it.  I have also been able to get a few other little projects done.  For instance, we now have a crate in the back of the room, on the counter, for any missing work assignments, or for those that have no name on them.  I'm also working on a chart where I can list each assignment and the names of those who haven't turned it in.  That way, they can see if they are missing it, and if they can't find the original assignment, there will be a few extra copies in the back so they can do a new one.  I'll post some pics of that when I'm done with it all.

4.  The wall behind my desk is getting rather full.  The kids, in their spare time, love to do art.  Whether it be drawing or coloring, or whatever!  And quite a few of them have given me some to put up behind my desk.  I'll also work on taking pics of that so you all can see that beautiful artwork.

5.  And finally, I have had my first observation of the year!!!  One of my BYU professors and my facilitator (Jennifer) came in yesterday during math to observe my lesson.  I had planned this great activity and was planning on using clickers so the students could give their answers that way and the computer would calculate the numbers.  (Kinda like on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire when the audience has a remote where they choose their answer and then it shows a graph w/all their choices).  The lesson was on surveys and it WOULD have been perfect...IF it had worked.  Ms. Leavitt came in yesterday morning to teach the kids how to use them so we'd be all set for my lesson, and they just kept the clickers in their desks until the lesson and then the software just decided not to work!  It was super frustrating but I still got points on my observation for having that planned into the lesson and for trying to make it work.  When it didn't, I had to do some quick thinking on my feet and ended up having the kids use sign language to show their answers (a,b,c,d).  This got me a few more points which was great!!  Overall, the lesson went well and the kids did well.  The only problem that my observers noticed is that a few kids got up, while I was instructing, and got a drink from the sinks in the back.  It was kinda distracting so they commented & marked me down for that.  So that's what the kids and I are working on over the next few days.  I'm trying out a new system for that.  I'll let you all know if it works out.
I was warned beforehand that they usually score lower than normal for the 1st observation so that you have plenty of room for improvement and it was lower than I thought it might be but it was still a good score.  Out of an average of 5, my score for the lesson was a 2.82.  That's about where I ended up after my last couple observations, so I'm right on track and I have plenty of room for improvement.

(By the way, hardly anyone gets a 5 on their observation score.  A 5 means that you did everything perfectly, so I doubt that I'll ever get there this year, but as the years progress, hopefully I will be able to reach a 5.)

Ok, enough of my rambling for now.  I'd better go do some grading before institute tonight!  I'll try to post some new pics this weekend!!  Love you all and thanks for all your support.  It means the WORLD!

Third Day!!

School has gone so well the last three days.  The kids are great and are going to be a lot of fun this year.  and they're all SUPER smart.  :)  We got our badges last Friday and I was so excited.  I'm officially a teacher!  Here it is:

 Oh and when I showed up on the first day, I found this beautiful arrangement on my desk with a note saying "good luck on the first day."  It's from Jennifer, my facilitator (mentor teacher).  She's such a sweetheart!

All ready for the kids to arrive!!  :)  Almost time.

Well, I made it through the first day!  And I'm still smiling...

Another cute little treat from Jennifer...found this on my desk during lunch on the first day:

I was so surprised how SORE I was after that first day.  My legs and lower back were so sore it hurt to stand, sit, or lay down by the time I got home that night.  After a good night's sleep though, I felt just fine for the next day.

The second day was just as great.  Kids were a little more talkative but still a bunch of sweethearts.  We did a bunch of walking around the school, learning where things were, and making sure we knew what procedures were  required in each place.  We also played a few games and they loved it.  Oh and during lunch, some guy from the district came to fix my computer because the CD drive was broken when I got it, and he took it WITH him.  So I'm now using a loaner computer and I don't have any of my plans for the rest of the week.  So I have to re-type them all up each night.  It's kinda a bummer.  I can't wait to get mine back.

Today was a good day as well.  We got started on math and reading and played a few games.  We also spent time finishing up things they hadn't finished the last two days (math pre-test, learning styles surveys, all about me book, etc.)  I'm not sore anymore but I am SO exhausted.  I'm going to finishing typing up tomorrow's plans and then head to bed.

Love you all!  I'll keep you updated :)

Back To School Night

Well, the last couple days have be quite busy but this has been quite rewarding tonight.  The last two days we have had morning meetings at our school from 8-12 and then had team and individual planning time for the rest of the day.  Tonight we had Back to School Night and got to meet parents and students.  Today's individual time I spent finishing up decorations, labeling supplies, and putting things in students' desks.  I also had to shove a couple things under my desk :)  At 7, all teachers, parents, and students met in the gym and our principal introduced all the teachers.  Then we went back to our rooms while the PTA talked with the parents for a few more minutes.  Then the parents and students went to their various classrooms.  We had to give a 20 minute presentation about our rules, procedures, and such to the group and hand out our class packet.  Then for those parents that had more than one student at our school, we did another 20 minutes presentation for a 2nd group.  I had almost all of my students come tonight (all but 5) and they seem like a great bunch!

Fun story for all of you...
...One of my kids asked this before the 1st group:
Jake:  Because you're new, are you going to be mean?  And are you going to have a break down in the middle of the year?
Me:  *after a pause of shock*  Well, do you think I'm mean?
Jake:  You never know because I had a teacher in 2nd grade that had a melt down in the middle of the year because our class was so bad.
Me:  Well, if we have a great class, I won't have a break down I hope!
Jake:  Me too!

Hahaha :)  This is gonna be a great year!

Tomorrow's agenda is just meetings from 8-10 and then team/individual planning for the rest of the day.  The new school year is almost here!

First Day of Training!!

So today I had my first day of training with the district!  :)  We spent the morning talking about the curriculum, what subjects we have to teach, and various resources to help us teach it.  Then we had more meetings in the afternoon learning about specific requirements that are associated with our first year of teaching and a few other general district resources that are available to us.  Overall it was a great day, but it got kinda long and boring by the end.  I went with two of my new roommates who are also starting next week and we met up with a few other interns and two others new teachers at my school.  It was great to be able to know a few people there and talk through things afterward.

After training, Jessica (my roommate who is also working at my same school) and I went over to our facilitator's house for some help and advice about getting all our plans ready for the first week.  Pretty much a good and productive day.

Tomorrow I'm planning on spending most of the day at the school setting things up and finishing up plans. And three of my teachers from BYU have offered to give me about three hours of time to help set my classroom up and finalize some plans.  Then there's more training Wed and Thurs morning, followed by more planning time, Back to School night and then Friday is all planning time.  It'll be a busy week!

A few hours of work makes all the difference!

Yesterday I came with Mom and Dad to start setting things up and here's what it looks like at this point.  It's close but not quite ready for school to start.  Here's a few pictures for all of you!

 Thanks for the curtains Nana!  They look fantastic!!

 These are called Wall Folders.  They will all have student names on them and this is where they will turn in their work throughout the day.  This way I can visually see who still has not turned their work in.

And I finally got a tentative class list.  I will have 24 kids: 15 boys and 9 girls!  That'll be a handful!

This is IT!!!

HELLOOOOO!! 

So I'm sitting here in my new classroom writing to you.  :)  I wish I knew how to make that smile EVEN bigger!  I can't tell you how excited I am right now.  Here's a few pics for you all of the 'before'.

YAY!!!!!  I've taken an inventory of that pile of desks and chairs to see what all I have and I'm working on an arrangement right now. 

Oh, and for those who were wondering, here's the measurements for my TWO windows (they're the same size):  54'" tall x 53" wide.  And that includes the window frame.

K, back to room arrangement :)

Oh, and a few other things....

I forgot to tell you all a few things:  (Well, Nicole you may have already heard them)

1.  Yesterday, I finally got my username and password for my student access site.  This is what I will use to keep track of their grades, make seating charts, take attendance, and a few other things.  Yay!
2.  I've limited the access on this blog to only those that I've invited.  If you'd like to share this blog with others, please ask first.  As a teacher, I have to be very careful about the things I say about my students and especially WHERE I say it.  So I had to make this blog extremely private just as a precaution.  But I wanted all of you to see it and I wanted to be able to share all my adventures with you on a regular basis (I hope :P).

This week's adventures

Hey everyone!

I just found out that I can go into my classroom anytime within the next few weeks before school starts.  I'm planning on heading up there Friday to check it out.  I'll take some pics of the room so you can all see what it looks like before and after the decoration!  :P  I'm really excited to start planning my very own room.  I love say that...MY very own CLASSROOM!!!

And because I've been super stressed about getting everything done and because Nicole is the world's best roommate, we came up with the goal that by the time I go up on Friday that I will have all of my plans ready for the first week of school!  (I'm not certain that I can get them ALL done, but I will certainly do as much as I can!)