Bye Bye Ugly Bathroom

Remember the early to mid-eighties when faux wood laminate was the happenin' thing? It's hard to believe there was a time when people paid top dollar for such hideousness. Yet, I have the evidence to prove that it did indeed happen...

Ok, you can look away now. Don't burn your retinas staring at it for too long. That, my friends, is my kitchen. Bad, isn't it?  Go ahead... look at it again. Just take a gander at the back splash or the lovely wood "valance" or the stunning wood accent stripes adorning each cabinet door. Oh wait, that's not wood. Silly me! I almost fooled myself.

Think that's bad? You should've seen my bathroom. The ENTIRE vanity, doors and all, were that awful faux wood laminate. And to tie it all together were large square wood knobs. Honestly, I wish I would've taken a picture but I was trying to pretend it didn't exist. 

So what does one do when their entire home is covered in the worse laminate on earth? Cabinet Transformations! Without going into all the details, let me tell you that this stuff is the best product on earth. In one weekend, without any sanding, I turned my bathroom into this...

 

The cabinets are a dark espresso with brushed nickel hardware and I painted the walls a very pale gray. It's quite lovely in person and makes me oh-so-happy! I've started on the kitchen which will be an even more dramatic change because it's such a large space. It will probably take me all summer though because I have TWENTY EIGHT cabinets!

Summertime... and the livin' is easy.

I'm two weeks into summer and I've already slipped into planning for fall. What is wrong with me?!! My partner teacher and I got the go-ahead to take down our wall and full co-teach which I am very excited about. We already mix the kids up all day long, so this will really be a bonus for us.  The downside was that we had to move to a new building on the last day of school but even that isn't so bad because.... WE ARE GETTING NEW CARPET!!!  Ok, it's just really sad to be that excited about carpet. But we're also getting new paint. We'll have the best room in the school!

So, it's been kind of irresistible to start a little planning... like floor plans and decor and fun stuff like that. We've decided to do black bulletin boards with bright accents. So, I made these matching labels to put on our hand sanitizer:

(adorable frame graphics provided by Ashley Hughes)

Last year we used little plastic fish as our "bathroom buddies" which the kids placed on their desk when using the bathroom. That way we knew where they were and other students knew the bathroom was occupied. However, I quickly became afraid of touching the fish because I'm positive they were totally infested with billions of germs. So this year, we are putting these labels on bottles of hand sanitizer which students will use as bathroom passes. When they return to their desks, they'll just take a squirt before putting the bottle away. Not my original idea, but brilliant nonetheless!

So besides all this planning, my summer has consisted of making over my bathroom. I will post pictures of the results tomorrow. Be sure to come back and look because it's quite stunning, if  I do say so myself!

Need Some Clip Art?

Yeah, I know... I've been neglecting my blog. I do feel slightly guilty about it. I mean I really intended to keep up better than this! But I have some legitimate reasons. Mostly family drama and I don't mean the entertaining kind that everyone eventually laughs about. Posting the details online isn't really appropriate, so I hope you all will just accept my excuse without further explanation.

Now, the fun stuff! If you sell on TpT or Teachers' Notebook or just like to make your own stuff, you absolutely MUST check out this giveaway. You can win a ton of awesome clip art and fonts!  And I really mean a ton of it, good stuff, no great stuff! (Wow, that was a terribly grammatically incorrect non-sentence.) Honestly, I'm hoping to win myself but you should enter too. I don't mind the competition LOL.

 

I promise to get back to blogging on a more regular basis soon. Today was the last day of school (woo-hoo!!!) and as soon as I recover, I'll be back in business. Happy end of the year!

Wrapping Up The Year

Whew! Just 15 school days left and that includes vehicle day, field day, awards ceremony, and who knows what else I'm forgetting! Just like every other teacher, my schedule is packed. I think I have 3 IEP meetings just in the next week.

I've been thinking about what I can do to help myself be more organized next year. We only get one post-planning day, so I have to make the best of it or else come in over the summer. Also, my partner and I are planning to take down our wall for next year and fully co-teach in a double room. We already mix and swap kids a good part of the day, so we're ready to jump in with both feet. I'll really have to get organized though. I don't think she'll fully appreciate my rotating piles system! lol

This past year we both used Christina Bainbridge's HORSE folder idea. I really love it but I'm going to pare it down a little bit.  Unfortunately, most of my parents never once wrote in the parent/teacher communication section, so I think I'll leave that out next year. Here's how I'm going to do them...

First, I adore the "Saddle Bag" idea and plan to use better quality zippered pouches. I used the cheap clear plastic ones from Walmart this year and they didn't hold up well. The "zipper" broke on all of them. Next year I'm getting something like this...

You can get them for $1 at the Dollar Tree and they have actual metal zippers on them. Putting these in the students' daily folders is a brilliant idea! Notes to and from parents, lunch money, permission slips, book orders, etc. all go in the "Saddle Bag" and they don't get lost on the way. 

The next section of my folders is going to be where students record their progress on things like fluency, math facts, and maybe Reading Counts points. It will be a page that looks something like this...

Behind this page will be a section of help pages for the kids. Things like sight word lists, math facts, and other things they need to practice at home. I'll put those in page protectors to keep them nice all year.

Finally, at the very end will be the Friday Notes section. I plan to make them all up ahead of time, 2 to a page, and then I just have to check them off on Friday.

Now, why am I thinking about all of this now? One simple word... INTERN. That's right; my handy dandy intern is going to put these folders together for me now. When school starts in August, all I have to do is write the students names on them. I'm even going to have her make up a few extras for kids I might get throughout the year.

Well I planned to talk about other ways I'm wrapping up the year but I've spent all this time just talking about folders. I'll have to write part 2 at another time. But here's a little giveaway to celebrate the end of the year (it starts tonight at midnight)...

One person will win my set of End of the Year Classroom Award Certificates and my Student Memory Book.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck!!

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5738915/?claim=qf7bpyy8xuq">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

I don't know about you but I have been SO busy the last couple of weeks with end of the year reteaching and retesting, FAIR (computer-based reading assessments), data meetings, and the dreaded formal evaluation. Actually, that went really well and I didn't even break out in hives over it!  I'm not sure how many years you have to teach before it becomes old hat but I'm sure it must be at least 50.

This week should be fairly relaxing though. Today we were treated to donut holes in the teacher lounge. Tomorrow we get a yummy lunch from PTA and Wednesday, another one from administration. I can't wait! They bring in two guys with a big smoker and they cook all day... BBQ pork, beans, corn...oooooh, it's going to be good!  What does your school do for your Teacher Appreciation Week?

I'm sure you already know that Teachers Pay Teachers is having a HUGE sale tomorrow and Wednesday. These sales only come along a few times each year, so now is the time to stock up! I know I have a ton of items on my wishlist that I'm planning to buy tomorrow. Ooooh, I love a good sale!

Here are a couple of my newest items that you might like to check out...

Classroom Award Certificates

Be sure to stop by my store to see what other new things I might have for your classroom. (Everything will be discounted!) Happy shopping...