Classroom setup

I spent most of yesterday in my classroom, setting up, then most of the evening with a colleague, planning our curriculum. It was a long, exhausting day, but it did one thing well - made me really freaking excited about the upcoming school year. My classroom looks better than it ever has before. I borrowed a ladder from a custodian, and the fact that I was not balancing a chair on top of a desk to hang my posters allowed me to go higher and safer, and now my goal of not having one inch of wall left bare is nearly complete. My department head, who thinks my classroom gets too cluttered, will be horrified, but I don't care. I want my kids to be able to look all around them, and find quotes or pieces of information that will inspire them.

I have hung all the tone words on word strips up in my front corner. In addition, I've hung transitions, verbs for strong literary analysis, and dead words. I've hung posters of authors ranging from Shakespeare all the way up to Cisneros. I've only just started on the bulletin boards - this other stuff is above the bulletin boards and the chalkboards.

It's all made me very excited about the school year, and, on this, the last day of summer vacation, I'm on my way in again, to set up my computer, before going to help a friend move.