Classroom Move!

This week my classroom was moved from the 6th grade hallway to the 8th grade hallway. The good news is that the janitors moved all of my boxes and furniture for me over the weekend. The bad news is that they left all of my boxes and furniture in a big pile in the middle of my room. If you have ever played the Rush Hour game pictured above you can start to imagine my frustration with getting my room arranged. Usually, teachers have plenty of time before school starts to get everything arranged and decorated. On Monday morning I had about thirty minutes!

I was sweating like crazy all day on Monday from pushing furniture around. If you haven't seen school furniture you should know it is usually pretty big and heavy. I scooted it all around the room for hours trying to figure out how everything would best fit in the room and I kept changing my mind. The Rush Hour game comes in because I was working in such a small space. To move my desk I had to push the file cabinet (completely full) a few feet in one direction, the bookshelf (with books) a few feet another direction, and my big blue cabinet (totally stuffed full) a few feet another direction. I had to constantly reshuffle the furniture just to move each piece a few feet. If I wasn't so impatient about getting everything organized I would have called in the Starting Point Moving Crew. Luckily, I  only ended up with a few broken fingernails and sore legs and arms.

I'm having to get use to sharing my new room with another teacher.  We have classes in there at different times so it isn't too bad.  She and I have very different teaching and discipline styles.  I haven't had to write up any of the students in my classes but I did have to write up one of her students today.  Things aren't perfect but they aren't too bad either.  I was really disappointed about having to move classrooms in the middle of the year but there are definitely many advantages.  I know I've got to stay positive and make things work!  If they move me again I'm going to campaign for an ESL tree house behind the school for my classes!