The Decorating Guru

My expert designer (my beautiful wife) was in today for a consult. Looks like the best use of the curved "bench" area by the windows will become a display shelf instead of a bench. Problem: when kids sit on the top they are right in front of the glass windows, and there's nothing to lean on. So, we'll put plants there instead, and I'm thinking of making an alphabet / book tree. And, in front of the upper plastic windows I'm going to make some stained glass tissue paper designs.

Next week is a big week. The weeders will do their thing.

I got some cool atlases from our head librarian. Thanks!

Getting the Blend Just Right

Part of the job of coordinating learning activities with other teachers is being sensitive to what they are expecting. I SO MUCH appreciate the people I'm working with. They are flexible and easygoing for the most part.
I can put some activities together for the grade 7s and work them all on the same program. No one is laying stuff on me heavy, which is OK by me. "Responses to reading is what they need. Putting ideas on paper at a higher level of thinking is what they need."

Feeding Frenzy

I've learned that teachers love to get their hooks into learning materials, especially if they're FREE. Watching my fellow teachers go through the file cabinets and taking picture files, unit folders and other bits and pieces was really rewarding for me. I also enjoy making the room suitable for staff meetings. Today we held a luncheon so I put the tables together nicely, put on some tunes, etc. Some of these little touches make a nice difference.

I can't wait to see what the room will be like with the extra space coming available!

Getting New Ideas

Today our head librarian for the system came in to have a look around and offer some advice on how to rearrange the library. I got some good ideas about how to set up a different circ. desk, and also how to revamp the reference section.

One good idea was to move many of the reference books onto the general circulation shelves, and keep only a few reference books, such as a good dictionary and a good atlas and not much else.

I pulled three set of encyclopedias off the shelves and consolidated what was left into one area. Finally, the picture filing cabinets are empty, and out they will go to give us more space.

The windows are pathetic. I showed the principal how flimsy they are, and he sent a request to the plant department to have an inspection made on the basis of how poor the security would be if they remained. The fact the the windows are at ground level and are PLASTIC is incredible!