What I Accomplished in Two Weeks

The 2013 school season begins on Tuesday! I have been in my classroom the last two weeks tidying, organizing, and planning and I'm still not done. Oh well! I've had to remind myself that my program doesn't need to be 100% ready to go on the first day. Here are some before and after shots of my room. I'll go into a bit more detail later on.

Before

After

Before

After

The sad part is that the photos don't really look that different. I did stuff I promise! The good thing was that I didn't have to change the paper or borders on my bulletin boards so that saved a lot of time. Here's what I did:

• Re-labeled my bank of drawers (finally!)
• Put extra method books in the drawers and got rid of a rolling cart that was taking up space
• Set up my SmartBoard and added a computer for student use
• Moved my rhythm instrument/materials shelf beside the piano
• Removed student work from bulletin boards and moved posters to the high bulletin boards so that I don't have to stand on the ledge to hang things during the year
• Took down everything from bulletin/chalk boards except for the Learning Goals. I'm going to be posting more anchor charts/student work on those boards
• Dealt with the pile of instruments in the gym. Thank goodness for great colleagues who helped me bring them up two flights of stairs!
• Rearranged the instruments to make room for the new ones on the shelves
• Assigned instruments to Grade 8s
• Put Grade 8 mouthpieces in cups and labeled cups and reed cases with student names
• Inventoried left over mouthpieces to determine the number of instruments the Grade 7s could choose. I'm hoping for an influx of trombone players this year!
• Set up chairs and put tape "Xs" down to ensure (hopefully) that the students set the chairs up each day in the "right" way. I want them to be beautifully curved with an aisle down the middle. My husband looked at me like I was crazy when I told him about the "Xs". We'll see how crazy I am. 
• Put duct tape on the ends of markers and pencils
• Set up my office - labeled magazine boxes, prettied up my mailbox, removed most of my non-music resources, set my Day 1-5 baskets out
• Created class lists and seating plans for my 16 classes
• Revamped my daybook
• Planned my first week
• Got most of my materials ready for the first day!

Now I feel better! I still have a bit of work to do this weekend but I'm feeling good and ready for Tuesday!