My Classroom, Teacher Resource Center, and New Craft (Pics!)

Get ready for the motherload of pics y'all!

I went to the Teacher Resource Center yesterday and got lots of items laminated for my classroom. As promised, I took my handy camera (I'm not cool enough to have a smartphone yet) and snapped some pics for y'all. I did wait until the two other teachers had left because I felt a bit dorky asking them if they were cool with me taking pics for my blog.

This is the cute little computer area that they have set-up. You can print 10 color copies and 25 black and white copies each visit.

This is the beautiful Variquest area. It can print posters on the right and cut outs on the left.

Here is a close-up of this beautiful machine. Can you tell that it is love y'all? The computer is also touch screen!

This is the paper area next to the Variquest. You can get 10 sheets per day to use. The big manila envelopes on the bottom are there to help you take the items home.

This is a large working area. They also allow teachers to check-out this area for meetings and such so that you can work while you are planning. This is where I like to sit and get my stuff all together before taking it to the laminator. Yep...that's my junk on the table.

This is the view from the table over to the far wall. You can see two laminators set-up. They also have a poster maker over there. The big tables are for cutting the laminating film off using a slider thingy (like my technical terminology).

The bookshelves contain the teacher resources that are available for check-out. Most of it is really elementary age. They have lots of center resources. I have checked out the buzzer system before for jeopardy games and the kids loved it. They are starting to get more middle school items in now and trying to build up their middle/high school supply. They have book-sets you can check-out to use with your students. The great thing about this is that they send it through the courier in our school district so you don't even have to drive over to pick-up or drop-off!

This is the newest area that was being set-up last week. These are all theme bags...again, mostly for the elementary school teachers. Through the door is their little storage area.

That is the end of my tour on the Teacher Resource Center. I am really in love with it and love the plushy new building they are in! It is so cozy that you don't even feel like you are doing work! The wonderful ladies that run this place are so sweet too! I'm really grateful that our school district provides such an awesome place for us to use for FREE!

Moving on.........here is my classroom! Day #1...

This is the view when you walk in the door. It is going to need a lot of work. There is still some stuff up on the walls, bulletin board, etc. from the teacher before me. I also need to scrape some of the poster leftovers off of the wall before I put anything up. I am really puzzled on the best layout for this room...

This is my view from the windows going across the opposite side of the room. I have 3 whiteboards total...however the one in the front of the room is connected to my Epson Projector and my Digipen (aka a Smartboard).

This is what the hubs and I accomplished in about 45 minutes. I wanted my desk moved across the classroom because I have a pretty good size classroom library and since the room is more of  a rectangle the kids complain they can't see if their tables are by the door. Sooooo my plan was to make the reading area over there and move my desk. However, I might not be able to do this if I can't find the right long cords for my computer so that I can still use the smartboard, TV (which runs through our computers), etc.

Here is a close-up of where I will hopefully *fingers crossed* be keeping my desk. All of the bags have school supplies in them, etc. It is a mess!

I have so many ideas for this space, but these tables are HUGE and when you put 30 kids in this room it is cramped. I didn't take a pic of it but I have 10 student computers and bulletin board on the back wall (near the windows) so they take up some space too.

Alright............that ends the classroom tour for now.

So this was my project last night and today. (Please ignore the mess in the background. My cat loves this box and I can't get rid of it. That is also her chair in the window which has amused me this summer watching her chirp at people (we have a walking path behind our house)). I found a similar pin on Pinterest and knew I HAD to have this on my teacher desk. The kids are going to love it! Do I really intend to use it? No, not really. I think I only took away 3 cell phones last year. I am pretty lenient with them and a lot of my kids have books on them so I'll let them read on their devices. I just tell them that if they are caught not reading they lose this privilege. I am working on fixing up the lines using my Xacto knife so that the bars are straight.

This is one of my favorite! My dad has taken to eating McDonald's Happy Meals for me again to help me collect some minions for behind my desk! They are so stinkin' cute! He ate like a bazillion Happy Meals for me when I was little for Beanie Babies so I asked for him to bring it back for minions. LOL!

That's it for me folks! Hopefully I didn't overload you on pictures.

I gotta get back to the hubs. We are celebrating our 4 year wedding anniversary today! YAY!