Teacher Week {Classroom Digs!}

Hey y'all!  For those who follow me, you're probably like "Why in the world are you posting about a classroom??  You don't have one right now!"  Which is super true.  My hubby and I are moving to Spain to teach, in September.  So as of now I don't have a classroom.  But I've had one!!  And I LOVED my classroom last year.  So I decided to share my past "digs" with you... some of my favorite moments in my classroom.  There's been many {sometimes few and far between} that stand out in my mind.  I mean, we spend a minimum of 40 hours a week in there.  Usually 60-80.  How can we not have a place that we love? 

 This lady, Martina/Mrs. Cahill/The Hungry Teacher is by far the best part of my teaching career!  She was my student teacher this past year who turned into my fantastic co-teacher!  We're doing a series on our blogs about co-teaching together.  You can check out our first posts here and here.  Or stop by this Sunday to read our second posts on the {amazing!!!!!!} experience.  In this picture we're both dressed as Mrs. Frizzle, for Halloween.  We decorated the entrance to the classroom to look like the back of a school bus.  All the kids had to enter through there.  They loved it!  Even 5th graders whoSoClaimNotToLoveMagicSchoolBus love the Magic School Bus!!

 Here's a view of our classroom.  {Our kiddos are "hiding" because we were throwing a surprise party for Martina at the end of her student teaching time!  Too cute :)} I just love using round tables in my classroom.  It's so much easier for the bigger kids to have conversations.  We had lockers out in the hallway so they could store their things out there, so that wasn't an issue.

Oh The Lorax!  For State Testing we all know the drill- cover up ANYTHING/EVERYTHING that could help any learner in any way.  So Martina and I decided that at the very least, our coverings could be fun!!  I usually like to go with "earthy" colors, but he was just too cute not to use!  You can see in the next picture that on the wall we went with blues and greens everywhere else. 

Christmas lights!  I just adore the feel that twinkle lights provide and would have these guys everywhere if I could.  I rarely turn the overhead lights on.  Instead I use lamps and Christmas lights to illuminate the room.  It keeps us all a little more mellow {I like to think...}

 I can't lie... I sometimes bribe my kiddos.  Not for things that are expectations.  But for things that they have no interest in or control over... like state testing.  I told our kiddos that if they did well on the state testing {just tried their hardest/stayed focus/didn't give up for all TWENTYONE tests} then we would all spend the night in our classroom the week after testing ended.  Well, needless to say, they are all AWESOME {although we have no results back yet, I could see they all tried really hard which is all that matters to me} and so we spent the night at school.  It was the COOLEST thing ever.  You can see our beds all ready to go!  Martina and I slept on a blow up mattress in the middle of the room {with two padded mattresses on top- SUPER comfy} and the girls slept on one side and the boys on the other.  We played all sorts of team building games, hide and seek in the dark {CREEPY!!!} and watched a movie until late that night.  Then we woke up, made breakfast, and had a school day together!  Crazy much?  Maybe.  But It.Was.Awesome.

 Me and Martina all snuggled together :)

 I love this moment.  That's my daddy!  He came and hung out in our classroom all day.  Although here he's doing a crossword puzzle with my students.........

 Loved this Pinterest inspired bulletin board we made.  Aren't they precious!? P.S. That's a faux blackboard made out of black paper and chalk!

 This was my last day with my kiddos :(  I had them for two years {because I looped up with them from 4th grade} and we all just loved each other.  {Most of the time.}  They put together a slide show, made me sit in my rocker, hold my stuffed mouse, and watch it with them.  {Precious!!} 

Here's all my stuff packed up and ready to go.  Such a sad day!  Can you believe that's all I took?  I left a lot with Martina and consolidated as much as I could.  Now it's sitting up the attic of my parent's house just hanging out until we're back from Spain and I can us it again. 

My empty classroom.  The cool thing is that Martina will be posting today all about how she's taken this exact room and made it her own classroom!!  Check that out here.  Isn't she awesome?? 

Thanks so much for stopping by!! :)  Be sure to stop by the rest of the week to enjoy as much of the Teacher Week Fun as you can!!