Surprise of the Week and a few pictures

I have been trying to go to school each day for a few hours these last couple of weeks to prepare my room and purge the extra stuff I had from last year.  Junk just seemed to grow in my room.  I was just about finished purging and was beginning to put stuff on my walls when......I heard that one of our "big" rooms was available.  

This room has its own a/c, 2 bathrooms, and is 1.5 times as big as the other rooms.  It's one of the rooms we drool over at our school.  So what does a good teacher do? Yep go to the office to ask to be moved!!!  

THEY SAID YES!!!!  

So, all my decorations.......

(I had chosen clown #2)

All of my decorations had to come down.  

My really organized teacher shelves.....all coming down.  

I started moving yesterday at lunch time and with the help of a super sweet facilities gentleman who stuck it out with me to the end, we finished a little after 4 yesterday.  It's all moved into the new room.  It is not however organized or decorated!  Did I mention that my kiddos come to meet and greet on the 5th??  

One last look at my old room.....it was nice and cozy (read: cramped) but it was home for the last year.  

Part of my new room....my four student tables are already set up.  The open door in the back left is the boys' restroom with the girls' restroom on the other side of the black bookshelves.  

The other part of my new room....excuse the coke machine!  This was going to be a teacher's lounge this year but we have too many students!  The small door in this picture is a "sink room".  I think this must have been some kind of art room long ago.  The "sink room" is about the size of a linen closet with a HUGE sink in it so it's completely unusable to me but this room is amazing!

The computers on the shelf are not mine so don't get excited yet!

A view of my his/hers bathrooms with my class library in between.  

I also got my class list yesterday and I have 23.  23!!!!!  I've honestly NEVER had 23 before in my life so that kind of worries me.  I had my centers all set up for 20 which is our "perfect class size" at our school but sadly I'm going to have to make more!  I also don't have an even number.  I hate odd numbers because someone is either left out of a partner for Whole Brain Teaching OR I have a group of three where someone really doesn't share as much.  How do you handle odd number classes?  I've asked for one more/one less but for now I have 23.  

SO that's where I am at in my classroom just one week before I meet my students for the first time.  I hope you have a great weekend!  I go back officially on Thursday!

Sunday Smorgasboard and a Request

Today I'm linking up with Fabulous in First for a Sunday Smorgasboard.

What a week it has been.  If you remember, a couple Tuesday's back my poor pup got loose and was hit by a car.  Quite a few hundred dollars and a few vet visits later and he is doing great.  He seems to be healing nicely and is back to enjoying life again. 

This past Tuesday we found out that someone very close to me, someone that I love dearly, has cancer.  What a scary word that is!!  No one in my family or my husband's immediate family has ever had to deal with that so this was quite a shock for both us.  YES, we've been very blessed to not be affected by cancer for all this time.  It seems that with the diagnosis your whole world changes.  Life seems to fall apart and you are left picking up the pieces.  

This is a verse from one of my favorite songs because no matter where I've been in life, through good times and bad, I've never walked alone.  I know that my God is faithful and He will see us through this.  I'm thankful for His constant love and protection. 

By the way if you've never heard that song, you can check it out by clicking here.  

I know that none of that has anything to do with teaching but it's honestly where my heart is on this lazy Sunday and I felt like sharing it!  

Well, my first anniversary as a blogger is coming up as well as 100 followers, it appears.  Since I will likely be hitting them both around the same time (August 1), I would like to have a giveaway on my blog to celebrate.  Please check out the form below (I hope it works!!!) and let me know if you would like to join my giveaway.  As part of the rafflecopter, I will have guests like your blog, store, and facebook page in order to get entries.  

Thank you for reading along!!!  I hope you have a great week!  

Be sure to check back tomorrow for a classroom freebie!