Classroom Transfiguration, er...I mean Transformation

Ah yes, I remember this feeling...walking into school and up the stairs into my classroom...it's like I never left (though I haven't stepped a foot through those doors in 2 months).  And then seeing my classroom in all of its packed up glory. *heavy sigh*. It's funny, because that image of a packed up classroom is actually GLORIOUS...when it comes at the end of the school year.  Because, at the end of a school year, a bare bones classroom means that I'm allowed to leave and ready to go enjoy all the festivities that summer has to offer (and by festivities, I mean sleeping and binge watching old episodes of Friends and Seinfeld).  But at the beginning of the year, that same image means it's time to put up and take out and unroll everything that I took down and put in cubbies and cabinets and rolled up just 2 months prior.

I have mixed feelings about this time of year.  On one hand, I like this fresh start.  It's that "new school supply" feeling, that time when everything is just so fresh and so clean clean.  I can reinvent my classroom if I want to.  But at the same time...uggghhhh.  I can't help and look at my classroom and just think "this is going to be a lot of f*&@ing work."

But it's fun work.  And it's worth it (I think so anyway).

Though it would be easier if I had a magic wand to go from this...

...to this....

 But alas, all I have are my handmade magic wand pencils, and they don't work quite the same way the magic wands in the movies do.

 

So I'm going to digress for just a bit, and then I'm going to circle back around and explain (I promise I'll explain).

I grew up in Florida.  And such, visiting theme parks was something I did on the reg.  Apparently, back in the 80s, ticket prices to Disney were a far cry from the astronomical ticket prices of today.  And then you add in the Florida resident discount, and the fact that my parents bought seasonal annual passes…it was almost like Disney was paying US to go there.  So we went to Disney.  A lot.

When Universal opened, we surprisingly didn’t immediately go check it out.  My first visit there was actually a school trip (someone in my class had a dad who worked for the company or something, so my class got a VIP backstage tour of Universal…and it was AWESOME!).  But I don’t think I went back until I was in college.  By that time, Islands of Adventure had just opened, and it was like a roller coaster bonanza.  My entire family quickly sprung for annual park hopper passes, and Universal/IOA was quickly added to our repertoire of theme park vacation time.

My reason for sharing this (and I have a reason, I promise), is to explain WHY I love theme parks so much.  I know, they’re hot, they’re tiring, they’re ridiculously expensive…but they were a part of my childhood.  I would love for everyone to have the opportunity to get that same joy that I did from walking into the park and just going “wow.”

And such, I want my classroom to be like a theme park.  I want students to feel as though they’ve escaped the everyday rigmarole and have entered into a new world.  If they can buy into that, then hopefully, they will buy into what I’m teaching.

This year I have once again gone with a Harry Potter theme.  I usually like to switch it up from year to year (I’ve done beach, Dr. Seuss, Snoopy and the Peanuts gang, and Where the Wild Things Are), but things worked out well for me with a Harry Potter-themed classroom LAST year, so I figured I’d just continue on.  Please enjoy the journey through my classroom…

I just think it is SO COOL how Hogwarts students need to go through the brick wall at Platform 9 and ¾ to get to the Hogwarts Express.  So…this is kind of the same thing, right? The bricks are “no fade” bulletin board paper (thank you Amazon Prime), and I painted the Platform 9 and ¾ sign myself.  (Disclaimer:  I was somewhat worried all of last year that I would be told that having paper on the wall outside the classroom was a fire hazard…but no one ever said anything.  Just be aware that…they might).

Hogwarts banner, represent!  The acceptance letters were given to me by a friend who attended a Harry Potter-themed bar crawl.

Got a boo boo?  Obviously you’ll need to visit St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries (Madame Pomfrey is on holiday, so you’ll have to apply the bandages yourself).

I’ve had this mailbox for about 4 years.  Another teacher was *gasp* throwing it away!  I’ve just used it as a spot where kids can turn in their notes from home (oh, so many notes.  So, so, so many notes to turn in).  How I did not see the connection earlier between having a ready-made mailbox in my room and a whole chapter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone devoted to receiving mail, I have no idea.  Better late than never, right?  I hot glued the little owl to the top.  He’s just taking a rest from his busy day of delivering acceptance letters.

And speaking of mail…here is the Owlery!  This is a shoe organizer, and I use it as “mailboxes” for the kiddos.  I put any notes that need to go home in the kids’ individual mailbox, and the kids check them each day when they come in (or…they’re supposed to).  It’s better than sticking a note on their desk and having that note end up…in their desk until the next time we clean our desks out.  Also, you’ll notice my personalized Hogwarts acceptance letter to the side.  I ordered mine from Legendary Letters (legendaryletters.com), but I’m assuming there are resources you could use to create one yourself if you so desire (spoiler alert, I did not desire to do that).

I must say, I’m pretty proud of this one.  I painted a recently acquired bookcase (it was that boring fake wood color), and filled it with a few different things.  The top 2 shelves are devoted to HoneyDukes, the legendary wizarding sweets shop, with a mix of some popular candies.  I have:

-Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Bean (they’re just regular Jelly Bellies)

-Gummy Slugs (gummy worms)

-Licorice Wands (Twizzlers)

-Wizochoc (Hershey Kisses)

-Fizzing Whizzbees (some random candy I found at Target that are like square sour Gushers)

The price list was painted by one of the other teachers (because she has beautiful handwriting, and my handwriting looks like a 12-year-old boy’s handwriting) on a mini-chalkboard I got from Michael’s.  As one of my classroom rewards, I give out “knuts” and “sickles” in leiu of regular classroom coins.  Students can use those coins to “buy” treats, such as items from HoneyDukes or a “spell coupon.” (For some reason, having the opportunity to take your shoes off in class is like the ultimate treat for some kids)

To finish filling out the bookshelves, I found some random glass bottles at Michael’s, attached potion labels (thank you Pinterest!), and filled them with really whatever I could find (dish soap, hand soap, colored water, glitter, moisturizer, etc. etc.)

Fluffy guards my desk, of course.

I was SO not good at keeping up with table points last year…I had these cool test tube bottles that I would put the colored marbles in to denote points given to the table groups, but the marbles were all different sizes, and they would get stuck, and the test tubes were made of glass, so half of them broke…anyway…

I’m going to try and get a lot more consistent awarding points to the “houses,” and I’m hopeful that these glasses will hold the marbles much easier.

And this quote about the library...how PERFECT to put above MY classroom library!

And speaking of the classroom library...here's another look at one part of it.  The statues on top were randomly in the Media Center, so our media center specialist generously donated them to my classroom.  They're better on display here than gathering dust in Media Center workroom anyway.

I got this mirror randomly at an antique store, just because it looked cool.  It's been sitting on the floor in the guest room for a good few years.  And then I was like..."The Mirror of Erised!"  Of course!  I just used a Sharpie to write the inscription on the outside. (Bonus:  I have this mirror around to put on lipstick for days I feel like looking nice...like Open House, or Currirulum Night, or the first day of school, or...well, that's about it). 

Just a few bulletin boards..."Wand"erful Work is for displaying student work, and I staple random important papers (like our recess schedule) to The Daily Prophet as needed.

Another bulletin board, this one devoted to my “House Elves,” or classroom jobs.  I have since updated the jobs to fit the Harry Potter theme.  Some of my favorites include:

-Silence Charmer - in charge of starting the quiet game 

-Gringott’s Goblins – they are in charge of bringing money down to the office

-Head House Elves – they are in charge of sweeping up at the end of the day…as a bonus (because, seriously, who’s excited to sweep up the classroom?), I’ve told them that they can keep whatever is left on the floor…within reason, of course.  It’s s great way to take care of those random pencils that always somehow litter the ground.

-Lumos/Nox – In charge of turning off the lights when we leave the classroom, and turning the lights on and off for the projector

-Time Turner – changes the date (last year, kids would ask if they could change the date pretty much every day.  I got tired of saying “____ is doing it today, ______ is doing it tomorrow, ______ is doing it the day after that….how about if you change it the day after that?”  So one day, I ripped a piece of paper from a Steno pad, and just wrote the kids’ names down, and I would go down the list to see who would write the date that day.  Assigning this as a job has taken care of all of that for me.)

Ah, the sorting hat.  Mostly because I don’t want lice spread around my classroom (have you have had to DEAL with those evil little bugs???  Uggghhhh, I don’t wish that on my worst enemy!), I kiboshed the idea of an actual hat, and compromised with a piece of woodwork shaped like a hat.  I then of course painted it, and attached bags to the back.  One bag contains little wooden stars with the students’ names, which I use for random grouping, or to decide who will be my first 7 for Heads Up 7 Up.  The other bag contains little wooden stars with table numbers (G1, G2, R1, R2, etc.).  I use this to “sort” my students into their “houses,” and thus the job of assigning table groups is out of my hands (though sometimes I have to override the Sorting Hat’s decision, as some students just CAN’T sit together).  Each table is labeled…Gryffindor 1, Gryffindor 2, Ravenclaw 1, Ravenclaw 2, etc. etc.  So, if a student pulls out “R4,” then they will be sitting at the Ravenclaw table, seat 4.  It’s worked thus far with minimal complaints.  I of course was worried that everyone would want to sit at Gryffindor, and no one would like Slytherin, but I haven’t had to deal with any unhappiness with that….yet, anyway.

I had all these random stuffed animals from my childhood (hence, why the toys in that bin look like the 80s threw up on it) that I didn’t really know what to do with….so now they are reading buddies!  I slapped a Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures label on there, and now they are MAGICAL reading buddies.

Just a shot of the temporary name tags I gave my kiddos before their official name tags were assigned.

And finally, just some overall shots of the classroom.

And that’s it.  Thank you for reading my longest blog post EVER!!!  Hopefully you can use some of these ideas as you get your own Harry Potter-themed classroom, and feel free to share any other ideas, tips, or tricks with me.

What it meant then...and what it means now...

I know this is going to be hard to believe, but there was a time that I would actually get UPSET if I got clothes or jewelry or gift cards as birthday presents.  Crazy, right??  I remember the excitement on my face when I would see that fun wrapping paper, rip it off without abandon…and then see a gift box with the Limited Too brand blazing across the front.  I would of course emit the appropriate “oh this is great, thank you”s as I saw fit, but I didn't really MEAN it.  Oh no.  I would have much rather ripped off that wrapping paper to find a Toys R Us gift box, or the New Kids on the Block board game (yes, that was actually a thing, and yes, I received it as a present one year, to which I was rather excited).

I’m not quite sure when that all changed.  I want to say maybe my 9th or 10th birthday?  But much like my perspective on several other topics has changed over the years (Nickelodeon, MTV, The Real World (and the Real World/Road Rules Challenge), short shorts, tanning, cute boys without real jobs still trying to “find themselves”…oh, I could go on and on, but I won’t bore you), the items that caused excitement and happiness when I was 7 didn't offer up the same pizzazz in my later years.

And then I realized that the teacher me ALSO now has a totally different outlook on certain things.  Here’s just a small sampling…

Rain

What it meant to 8-year-old me:  Water that falls from the sky.  Sometimes slight disappointment, as being a Florida child, it meant that pool time might be delayed a bit (but being a Florida child, I knew that the monsoon-like thunderstorm would last for the whole of 5 minutes, and then give way to sunny skies).

What it means to me as a teacher: 

 F&$@!-in’ indoor recess!  When all I want is for kids to have the opportunity to run around and get some of their pent up energy out (sans Fidget Spinners), their recess time is instead spent in my classroom.  The ones that choose run-around time  get a stern verbal warning from me (“Do NOT run in the classroom!”), and then sulk away to play a half-hearted game of CandyLand or Chutes and Ladders.  My classroom, while it did not start as the epitome of cleanliness, is left immensely messier, what with misfit glue stick caps, random playing pieces from board games (where IS the little dog from Monopoly?!), and tiny pieces of paper in odd spots (because why wouldn't you want to see just how many times you can cut up one piece of paper?).
[On a “I’m not totally heartless” note…I do enjoy seeing kids getting to express their creative side.  One of my favorite things to watch is kids using whiteboards, paper, and clipboards to play school.]

Mini-pencil sharpeners

What it meant to 8-year old me:  Now I don't need to raise my hand to ask to use the pencil sharpener!   I can just use this handy little thing shaped like a unicorn to sharpen my pencil into a little nub.  This is also something to keep my hands busy instead of paying attention to the teacher.

What it means to me as a teacher:  Kids randomly getting up to empty pencil shavings into the trash.  Loud noises as kids accidentally knock their pencil sharpeners off their desks, prompting the rest of the class to look over to see what made that little ping…ping…pinging noise.  Did I mention pencil shavings everywhere?
And more crappy little toys that will either end up on the floor to be swept up by the custodian into oblivion, or get taken by me to never be seen or heard from again.

The Scholastic Book Fair

What it meant to 8-year-old me:

Could there BE a better time of the year???  Oh, I loved nothing more than bringing in my dollars saved from my weekly allowance (or, begging my mom for just a few dollars that morning) to buy the funnest things EVER!  Of COURSE I needed a poster of a cat that said “Hang in there,” a bookmark with a cupcake that said “So many books, so little time,” and a journal with a lock and key with a rainbow on the front.  And books?  Yeah, if I had any money left after purchasing the above-named necessities, I suppose I could buy a book or two.  There MUST be a new Sweet Valley Twins or Babysitter’s Club out by now.  And oh, how grown-up did I feel, walking around wth money to spend.  I suppose Scholastic Book Fairs are the precursor to getting dropped off at the mall with $20 and spending it all on crap in Claire’s, Spencer’s Gifts, or Hot Topic.

What it means to me as a teacher:  *Groan*  I know Book Fairs are meant to bring money into the school.  So yeah, that’s a good thing.  But for a second, I just want to be “complainy” teacher and explain how it’s just one more thing for teachers to worry about…

8:03 am
Student hurries into the classroom.  Throws backpack on desk and runs over.  “Can I go to the Book Fair?”
Me:  “Yes, once you get unpacked, that would be fine.  But you MUST be back when the bell
        rings at 8:15.”
Student:  Throwing backpack into a cubby.  “Ok, yeah, I’ll be back at 8:15.”

8:46am
Student strolls in, carrying a poster and a bag of other purchases (later revealed to be 3 erasers, an invisible ink pen, a tiny notebook, and the latest Captain Underpants book).  “I’m sorry I’m late, but the line was really really long.”
Me:  “That’s fine.  I understand.  So long as you understand that you are no longer allowed to go
        to the Book Fair before school.”
(OMG, I am just the meanest teacher EVER!!!)
Student then proceeds to try every which way to fit his poster into his backpack, until I ask if he’d like for me to hold onto it until the end of the day.

8:51am
Back to teaching.

11:14am (1 minute before we’re supposed to leave for recess)
Student:  “Can I bring my notebook and pen out to recess??”
Me:  “That’s fine,  as long as you are aware that it’s your responsibility.”
Student: “Ok, yes, my responsibility.”

11:26am (6 minutes after recess begins)
Student: “Can I leave my notebook here with you?”
Me: (invisible eye roll) “That’s fine, but you need to remember to take it in.  I’m not carrying it for you.”

2:16 (recess has been over for 2 hours and 26 minutes; I am currently in the middle of a math lesson on rounding)
Student:  (waving hand frantically in the air)  Mrs! Mrs!
Me: (after a few moments) “Yes?”
Student: “I left my notebook and pen outside.  Can I pleeeeaaaaaasssseee go out and get it.”
Me: (frustrated sigh) “I will send you once this lesson is complete and we are ready to pack up.”
(Again, like I said, meanest teacher EVER!!)

Summer

What it meant to 8-year-old me:  The best time of the year!!  So much time to go to the pool, and stay up late, and wake up late, and go to camp, and see movies at the actual movie theatre, and make pancakes for breakfast…and oh so much MORE!!  Could there BE a better time of the year??

What it means to me as a teacher:  SLEEP.  And not lesson planning.  And not grading.  And pretending I don’t know my students when I see them at the pool.  Could there BE a better time of the year??