My Train Wreck of a Classroom

AKA:  Before pics.  Ha!

But seriously.  If you are needing to feel better about the crazy state your classroom is in, never fear.  You've come to right place.

Here are some before pics when I went in on Monday:

These 6 (ish) desks are covered with FILES from my 2 tall filing cabinets.

I have since gone through ALL of this, filled a giant recycle bin to overflowing, filled a cardboard box to overflowing, gotten rid of 1 of the file cabinets, and rearranged the desks.  :)

Here's after working/sorting/recycling/filing for about 6 hours.  Yeah.  Ridic.  Oy.

This poor recycling bin didn't know what hit him.

After 6+ hours of work, I still had to sort through these piles, plus the bucket in the pic below.  

I thought seriously about harming myself, lol!

The last of the last.  I know you'll be happy to know, and will rest easier, knowing I COMPLETELY FINISHED sorting/chucking/filing all my files yesterday.  It gave me great joy to announce that I was finished to my teamies, who were also up there working.  They expressed their pride that I was able to stay focused on this one task for 2 days without getting distracted by shinier, more exciting objects.  Yay me!  :)

Moving on...

A bunch of the crap stuff I bought.

I'm keeping my awnings from last year, even though they are a little worse for the wear, or as I like to say--rode hard and put up wet.  But oh well.  Ain't nobody got time for that.  I re-did the borders on the left and right sections.  Go me.  :)

Birthday board.  Yay chevron!  Just need kiddos' pics for each month!

Now.  These next few pictures are the collective banes of my existence.  Cords.  Frickity frackin' [insert 4 letter word(s)] cords. 

No, but really.

Still more.  (I didn't even take a picture of the ones under the student computers.)

And one of my very favorite parts of my room this year:

What's that, you ask?  THAT, my friends, is the spot on the wall where my t.v. used to be.  They removed all of our t.v.s over the summer but neglected to patch/paint/etc.  So fun!  Guess I'll be finding a poster to slap over this hot mess.  (Do you like the shrine to my son on my cork board?  LOL.)

I rearranged my desk set up for this year.  Again.  (Yes, I change it every. single. year.)  I need a fresh start, people.

I'll be back soon for an update on my classroom progress.  You would think each year would get a little faster, wouldn't you?  Because in my 7 years of experience in setting up classrooms?  It so doesn't.  :)