Teaching on Pinterest

I Love Pinterest!  There are thousands of great ideas floating out there.  In fact, there are so many ideas for teaching, I have actually gotten excited about the upcoming year, and that is saying a lot, since its summer vacation!

But every classroom picture I see makes me sigh.  Although each class is fantastic, I wonder where these classrooms are located (because I think I want to move there!).  Every room is HUGE - the size of three of mine.  The most student desks I have counted is 24. 24?  I'm at 32 students for the upcoming year in first grade.  Parents came into my classroom last year and said that it was so crowded - that the room was just all desks. I KNOW!!!  Go talk to the superintendent, because yes, quite frankly, 32 first graders in one class is ridiculous!

And where do all these teachers get the money to decorate and re-decorate their  classes every year?  I, too, have been guilty of spending $$$ on my classes every year, but decided 2 years ago that I would no longer spend money into the four-digits.  That was just crazy.

And the time invested - wow!  I have also been guilty, in my early years, of spending way too much time in the classroom.  These teachers put me to shame.  Super organized, beautifully decorated....can I hire them to do my class?

Am I the only one who thinks this? Anyone else out there thinks the same?

Well, that's enough for now.  If you are one of those Pinterest teachers, please tell me where you work - I just might have to put in an application!  But for now, I have to go and spend more time browsing the site for more ideas.  Ta-ta!

Summer Projects 2012: The Beginning....

So I decided in my time off to do some home renovations.  On a single teacher's budget, I have to try to do as much DIY as I can. First up, get rid of brass.  This has got to the ugliest chandelier ever; one of those standard cheap ones builders put in new homes.




I always wanted a fan in the dining room, so this is what I installed:



I like darker wood, and am also changing all door hardware from brass to oil rubbed bronze.  Rustoleum has this great spray paint that does the trick (let's hope!). So I removed all of the door and closet hardware from the house and spent a day working on that.

Next, I am working on redoing the guest bath.  It was cute, and matched the guest bedroom, but I got tired of it.  Plus, I hate oak, and my house was filled with it.  So I also decided to try out Rustoleum's Cabinet Transformations in Pure White.


Here are the before shots:








Well, I forgot what a pain it was to remove wallpaper.  I had a border up at the top, and with 9' ceilings, it was a bit of a pain.  It took a LONG time to remove it.  Then it was time to start on the cabinets and prime the walls:

The hardest part of the cabinet process was the stain and getting all pieces to match. The builder has the wood grain going horizontal on all pieces except for the door.  The door is the piece that stands out the most!  Ugh!  Had to redo it 3 times.  It looks okay now, but for some reason, the door and one of the drawers come out different colors in the pictures, even though in person, it looks good.  So I will have to get up a picture pater.  Got the walls - and ceiling (shame on me for painting the ceiling; now I was paying for it)-primed, but then an unexpected camping trip came up.  Got back from the trip Monday evening.  Was all prepared to get started on painting the walls when this happened Tuesday morning:

SO GROSS!  I was playing with my dog and was running when I hit a corner.  Four toes went to the right, and the little one, well as you can see, went left.  Fractured, and 3-4 weeks to heal.  Ugh.  That was two days ago.  Obviously, that put a halt to my DIY projects. But at least I can work on putting hardware on my cabinets. Well, that is all for now, gotta go ice my foot!

Newbie..

So all this playing around on Pinterest and seeing everyone else's blogs made me finally break down and start one of my own.  We'll see how it goes.  And so the adventure begins...