Hello, New Room : Classroom Reno

Okay Ya’ll, I am so excited to tell you about my new classroom. Yep, that’s right a New classroom. There is definitely a story there and I will have to go back a couple years to tell you all about it.

So I have been teaching for five years now at Carver and I love teaching there. I loved my classroom downstairs, even the ugly carpets, because it was MY room… it was the place where I landed my first “big girl” job and would finally be able to show off all my learning. I wanted my room to be inviting and fun, so I put lots of fun pics around and got some inspirational posters… I mean, you have to have inspirational posters on the walls when you’re a teacher, right?! I even took time before my first year painting some murals on the walls. It was a great space and I was enjoying having my own space to teach my amazing students. But as the days went on, the room began to show its flaws. The biggest flaw was that my room would flood. Yep, that’s right, water everywhere- flood. Well, I am an orchestra teacher and wooden instruments do not do well with water.

Here is a pic of the old room- you can see where the carpet has been pulled back. 

It was such a pain, having to constantly wonder if my room was going to be flooded, whenever Springfield was getting slammed with rain. I had heard from the previous teacher that the room would sometimes flood, but I had no idea how bad it would get. Every year it seemed to get worse and worse and last year there were two horrible flooding incidents. The first happened over Christmas break and didn’t affect the students or myself, but the last one happened in May, almost the end of the school year. We still had one last concert and had to be displaced from the classroom for a week to the small gym. So for the whole week, my students and I had to walk downstairs to the room, plug our noses from the horrible stinch, grab instruments, head upstairs for rehearsal, and bring the instruments back downstairs after the rehearsal. The students did incredible all in all with the transition, but it sure was crazy.

OLD ROOM

Carver had just gotten a new principal and she was so supportive and helpful when it came to trying to fix the flooding problem. She called so many people and discussed the cost with high up officials in the district. It came down to the fact that the district was not going to be able to fix the flooding problem, because it had gotten worse due to the foundation moving and it would end up costing way too much money to fix. So it looked like I was going to have to tough it out. The carpet was in terrible condition from all of the times it had been cut and peeled back.  Although I really wanted new carpet, I didn’t know if it was smart to even try and get new carpet with the flooding issue not being resolved. I went ahead and looked through the binders of sample carpet pieces and picked out some carpet squares that I liked. I was going to be placing the order soon for the new carpet, and still wondering if it was the best decision,  when my principal came to see me with a proposal. She asked how rehearsing in the small gym had been going and if I could possibly see the small gym becoming the new orchestra room. First of all, I was shocked that she would even think about turning the work out room into my orchestra room and Second, I was completely humbled that she cared so much about the situation.

I had gone the last four years constantly obsessing over my room and thinking about all the horrible things that could happen if the flooding continued. I took my principals idea to heart and began looking at the pros and cons of each room. The more and more I wrote out the lists, the pros began to outweigh the cons. So we went forward planning to turn the work out room into my orchestra room. Paint was ordered, equipment was moved, carpet was laid, to reveal the new and improved orchestra room. It was hard work getting everything ready and I went in to the school several times over the summer to paint and make sure everything was in order for the new year. Thank goodness for the help of my awesome friend, Kathryn Cole, her guy friend and my awesome hubby. We worked really hard, but it was so WORTH IT. My room is amazing!

So here are some pics of the amazing transformation!

BEFORE

   PAINTING ALL DAY LONG CALLS FOR MY AWESOME PAINT PANTS! 

NEXT STEP- PAINT AND CARPET

END RESULT

WELCOME TO MY AWESOME ROOM!!! 

INSPIRATIONAL/QUOTE WALL!

OUR CLASS PET – PINKY! One of my students won her after contest last year when we went to Incredible Pizza!

There are so many pros to this classroom, but the best one of all is not having to worry about flooding! Thanks so much for coming on my little classroom tour!