My New Nest

A while back when I told my mom that I had "taken care" of my teaching stuff, she assumed I had thrown/given it all away. To this I replied, "Your daughter?" I am a squirrel after all, and I think know I got that from my mom. :o)

What I had done was take the huge piles from various places around our house & consolidated them into one easily accessible, super organized closet! The entire children's library in the dining room? No longer there. The gigantic pile of bean bags, pocket charts, & empty bins in the garage? Gone. The mountain of papers, posters & charts under the stairs? Kaput. All of it is neatly stacked, boxed, & organized in my new nest!

The entrance.


It's in a closet & that's a lot of stuff, but it fits...
*with* room to walk in & turn around!


Standing back & looking at all this makes me realize
how much time, money & energy was put into teaching.
If you know a teacher, give 'em a hug!


See that empty square above? I offloaded some things on my sister for her Play Therapy sessions. Not to worry though... I've filled it with a stack of extra bins & baskets that were left over. Can you believe I had more left over after putting everything away??


I have twenty-six of the yellow baskets alone.


All my supplies are where I can get to them
at the drop of a dime if needed. Perfection.


Notice the used crayons that have been collected
through the years... I use those to color homemade candles! :o)


This is the professional development nook...
teacher-books are no longer stored in my bedroom!!


These books are very special to me... my grandfather used them learning to read. The copyrights are all in the 1920s.


The green apron above was my guided reading apron... I wore it everyday while meeting with my guided reading groups. It was a visual reminder that I was with a small group (i.e. not to be interrupted unless there's an emergency). It was very effective I might add!


The blue basket on the right is filled with 'Whisper Phones' made from PVC piping. Tim made me an *entire class set* for Christmas one year!!! They improve fluency & I'm going to be honest, most first graders don't enter the classroom with the ability to read silently.... these help a lot!!! I also used those cheap plastic microphones as a confidence booster for kids that needed a little more acoustics.


My parrot puppet is my favorite (it even sings)!! On the right... I took *mounds & mounds* of papers, separated them by subject, & neatly filed them into these four bins. It took two full days!!


These are just two of my book bins... I have SO MANY CHILDRENS' BOOKS! I daresay that I might just have one of *the best* personal collections out there... definitely locally anyway.


On the right... word/letter frames made from fly swatters.
These & pointers are a great tool for
building print awareness, & they're good for motivation too!
Motivation is 7/10 of the puzzle, if you ask me.


I might have gone a little overboard with pictures...
but you have to realize how much work this was!!
I feel *so good* now that it's all in one place.