 Hey you guys. So guess where I am? I'm here at school. It is July 1st and today is my official first day back at school. My camera's crooked so I apologize but this is gonna be day one of classroom setup so let's get started. Okay so immediately as I walk in the room there are a few things that have changed since I've been here. First of all there's a cute little hole in the wall here so I am sure that will be repaired because I reported absolutely no damage before I left. So that's definitely not mine. And then all of my things have been moved to this side of the room. They used to be over here so I'm assuming that's because of waxing purposes. So this is the current state of the room. Also I still have desks but I have asked for tables so today I'm gonna probably move all of those desks into the middle of the room where they would normally be so that it's easier for them to remove them and then bring tables to replace them. Because once I get all the tables out of the way and in the center where there will normally be I can start working on the perimeter of the room. Also I think that it's really important to tell you guys a little bit about me if you are new here. My name is Charlotte and I am a fourth grade science and social studies teacher in Arizona. I am in the east valley of Arizona so in the Phoenix area. I'm in the the eastern Queen Creek, Sandhand Valley area. So that's where I teach. I am departmentalized. I absolutely love it and you might be thinking Charlotte why the heck are you there? It's July 1st. Well my first official contract today back at work is July 13th and looking at the schedule there are quite a few meetings that fall between July 13th and July 21st which is the first day of school and so being a psychopath like I am I just want to have as much time as possible because I have a lot in my classroom and everything has a specific place and if I don't have my classroom absolutely ready before I have to start planning I will panic so I have started planning at home a little bit just like picking activities things I want to do getting my power points and slides for procedures and meet the teacher and all that stuff getting that all situated but today is all about classroom setup so if you're interested in seeing the metamorphosis that is this classroom then keep on watching. So one of the things that I've been pondering over the summer and before I left was where things are going to go this school year. So this school year is going to be a lot different than last school year all of our students are returning to campus majority of them are returning to campus masks are no longer mandatory mandatory and social distancing is very minimum so we are bringing tables back we are bringing small groups back we are bringing collaboration back as in the words of our principal and our district things are going back to normal so with that said I just want to start this out by just saying this is not like my decision this is all about my district's decision and I am really glad to be able to get kids collaborating again and do our best to just keep things clean and sanitized and safe for our students so I do plan on having tables I am a science teacher and so tables are kind of a little bit better for teaching science just because of the amount of space I do a lot of hands on I do a lot of STEM and I just need more room and honestly collaboration in a science classroom is a lot cheaper too I mean you have to think about this I have 60 or more students and last year I had to provide enough materials for every student to do every hands-on activity rather than them sharing so it was very expensive and broke my wallet for sure so I'm excited to have kids collaborating for that reason not only that but collaboration is definitely essential for children's growth and development so I am very excited to have collaboration back in the classroom so that's just a little bit of information about me school starts July 21st meet the teacher night is July 19th so things are going to be moving very quickly I'm going to be out of town all next week so today I'm coming in I'm going to try to get as much done in here as possible the goal is to get everything that is stacked or put on the side back to where it belongs and have a layout kind of situated so I'm going to put you guys down and we're going to speed this up student desks put in the middle of the room as you can see here and then this is all like the other furniture I have a lot of furniture but like I said before it all has a place and it all has a rhyme and a reason my thinking is black furniture mistelt as is you don't touch it white furniture student you may touch whatever's in it I mean obviously they're not like going for it free for all but like you get it like if it's black furniture you should not even be near it all the white furniture has things that are student friendly in it books supplies all our good stuff so that's my thinking okay so now that the desks are in the middle I'm going to attempt to think of a layout I kind of want to keep it the same as last year however my desk this big metal desk I didn't really like having it in this back corner because I felt like this back corner could have been used for something way better and so I think what I'm going to do is put my desk in the front somewhere either that or I thought about putting it here and not using it as my desk but instead using it as like a counter space um because I don't really like sitting at the desk it's really big and obnoxious and yeah I just don't know um I need to have plugs wherever I'm going to be situated because obviously I'm at my computer um but I think I might put myself up front like over here because I find that when my computer dies I have to bring everything to the back of the room and it just might be better to park myself in the front and have bare minimum stuff because that's just how I work better um I've even thought about putting myself like right here in front of this little thing because I can store things there I don't really know yet I kind of need to like think about it the setup I had last year was great but I just want the room to be more of like a student-centered space and have less room for my junk so I do have a refrigerator that needs to be plugged in a coffee pot and that's what I had back here in this corner before but I feel like I could easily put that somewhere else and then I really want to put the computer cart in this corner um because there is a plug back here and it just kind of sits perfectly in this little spot and it's kind of out of the way um so I don't know yet and I usually put these little bookshelves these two like square bookshelves together but I think I might separate them I might put one there and put like a lamp on it because there is a plug right there and make it like a welcome area and I can put like the pencil sharpener there I can put hall passes there and I could put my inbox there and then that way if students are coming from other homerooms like let's say somebody finishes something during their study hall time they can just come in turn it into the inbox right here and then they don't have to walk through the whole room this is where my library was last year I think I might keep it back here either that or I could put my desk here facing the wall I would have all the plugs and then it's not in a corner it's more back here but I also really like using this backspace as like my community spot where we do like circle stuff and like you know what I mean so I don't know yet I need to ponder and Mandy's also here she's downstairs in her classroom if you guys don't remember Mandy but you've been here a long time Mandy and I taught together in Prescott she was a sixth grade science social studies teacher and I was a fourth grade teacher I taught her son Aiden we worked together there for two years and then we both moved on to new schools I moved to Lincoln which is my previous school and I taught there for a year and then she joined me there for a year and then we both moved again and now she's joining me here at my new school and I absolutely love it she's teaching first grade though so she is actually right below me and then like one over so she's like texting me I can hear your desk's moving and I'm like oh sorry but anyway she is here so if I need her you know two cents then I can call her up and she would be more than happy to assist me so anyway I'm gonna sit and ponder where things are gonna go at this point because honestly I could get all of the furniture put in its spot today because it's only 10 30 and my son is with Scott today um he's just having a daddy day he's gonna take a nap so he won't even be awake till like three or four so I really just have all day here so I'm gonna sit and ponder if you guys have any ideas as to where I should put things I'm hoping to get this vlog posted by this weekend um the 4th of July so you guys please comment down below if you have any ideas on where I should put things like oh your desk would look great in this spot or oh you should put your library here just give me some feedback I'm gonna just do a quick pan around the room you guys can just drop your ideas down in the comments because that would be really helpful because I just have too many ideas okay here we go ready okay so this is what I've done so far don't know if it's gonna stay like this but this is my current idea so I put my library shelves back under the little library section okay like that I'll probably put my little stripe chair right here up against this little empty space and then over here I put one of the white shelves like I was mentioning and I'm thinking about making this like a student center so what I thought was I have the pencil sharpener here and then what I could do is take these bins out put them somewhere else and put inboxes so like block one block two block three and then a space for notebooks I don't know yet we'll see or I could just leave this alone and put my inboxes here where the supplies goes but I also thought I could put other supplies up here because I do have I mean realistically I don't like this is everything and then I could put my inboxes on top of here um I know that it's not centered but kind of like that but for now I kind of like this little setup in the back what I like about it is it's all very flush to the wall nothing is really sticking out so I have room to like make circle time back here which is what I would really like to do um and then yeah so this area right here is actually set up to be like my corner so I might take this bulletin board down and center it better otherwise I might make this corner kind of like a station corner so put like one of these big tables here with stools around it and make it either like a small group space or a place where I can do demonstrations or a place where I can pull table groups and they can do their lab back here with me or it can be a station place so a lot of what I want to do this year now that stations are allowed I want to do more station days where I have like stem station and then I have like the actual lab that we're doing for our class like whatever it is that we're doing um and I use Generation Genius a lot and Generation Genius has a ton of stations so I think that I really want to be able to have like permanent station areas in the room that are preset that I don't have to change like I can always have station a b c and d and then the fifth station is at their seat so I really want to do that so I'm thinking maybe this could be one of the big stations like this could be the station where I kind of would hang out and then I have these Ikea tables that I can plop around the room and make other stations so I'm really pondering that idea um this thing I think I'm gonna put back where it started last year which is right here on this little blank space and then I need a place to put my rats and they have a much bigger cage this time um so they're either gonna go here on this wall I'll probably move Elsa or they can go on this wall but that wall gets really hot and I don't want them to ever overheat so I might probably I'll probably end up putting them here and just move Elsa and put her somewhere else so yeah that's what's going on um we're gonna keep trucking through hello another update for you it is 248 I'm probably gonna leave here in about 30 minutes maybe make my goal 330 um but I wanted to just update you guys on what I've done so far I honestly can't remember what I showed you last time so I'm just gonna take you around um so I moved all of the stools from right here to over there I'm planning on putting Tina and Peach's cage right here in this open space next to my desk just because it is a nice cool wall and it has the most space so I will probably put their cage right here it will most likely take up this whole area um it is about five feet tall and it's about three feet wide so it should fit right there and then um over here I just stuck this black table here for now I might take this black table and join it with that black table and then this can be like a small group space but that just means I would need to relocate that so I could potentially relocate this put it there put the cage next to it move that chair somewhere else I could probably put it there and just move that bookshelf somewhere else um or I can figure something out with the fridge and put this over there somewhere like in the corner in the deep corner not positive yet so it depends on what tables I get so if I get circle tables that's going to be a game changer if I get long rectangles it really just depends I am planning for the worst and I'm planning for classes of 30 I know that the third grade teams last year had about 24 to 27 per class so I'm gonna plan for 30 just in case um and I just put a note here for the janitor if that I do definitely need 14 stools if I have a class of 30 if I have big if they bring me big rectangle tables I can put five at each or I can get five and put six at each table because I could put two two five six and then circle tables I would want six tables so I could put five at each small rectangles I would want seven or eight I would want to see what size they are first because depending on what size they are I could potentially put four at each or five at each so I'm not sure it all just kind of depends on the size of the tables and then I put this table here um this would be a station table so I just have a couple of my little stools there's another one over there I plan on putting a plant I have plants that go everywhere um but I put a plant right there and then a child can sit here in the morning during reach to like read and then I also organized this again um just moved some things around and I was able to make this like a little reading nook my jenga fell over so I'm just going to leave it there for now I don't really hear at the moment um but I figured that would be a cute little reading spot if a kid wanted to sit there during reach or if they purchase flexible seating from the dojo store they could potentially sit there um and then I organized this thing this I want to be kind of like stem and lab stuff because I do a lot of hands on and I just don't have a lot of room for all of my lab stuff so I'm going to be putting a lot of it here um so that's kind of that I need to fix this area this is all going to be hidden by a curtain as you guys know and then all of this is stuff that goes on the table groups so each table will have a big book bin so that kids can keep their notebooks in there and also a ketchup folder so anything that they miss will go in a red ketchup folder for apps and kids and then supplies will go in these I always put a little plant at each table and then I also put classroom rules on each table so this is everything that's going to go on each table group and then panning this way just a cute little space I can't really say anything else this is probably going to be our vocab wall um and then my lab cart I haven't set up and ready for bulletin boards so I can just roll it around with me and I have like cleaning supplies and stuff so this is going to be reserved for the next time I come in because I will probably be doing bulletin boards the next time I come in since that's kind of all that's left at this point I did reorganize the top of this um because it was kind of cluttered and it really annoyed me so this is a little bit more appealing to the eye I do have a space projector thing that I'm getting in the mail that I'm going to be plugging in and putting right here and it should project stars onto the entire room on the ceiling so hopefully if it works out it'll go right here and then I did sneak a cord down to plug in a lamp um and then I did reorganize this a little bit sorry I have this table I don't know what's to do with it yet I might let my teammate borrow it um just because I don't know I think I have too much space or too much furniture and not enough space for it so I did reorganize this and put the bins there and I had to organize the bins by color because that would drive me crazy so it is kind of more spread out now um so this is mostly lab stuff um so I have like marshmallows and like paint and toothpicks and paper cups and um beans and rice and just all the things that I would use for labs and hands-on activities are it's mostly here some of it's in there and then like I said some of it's going to go there this is I'm trying to make this one more like stem so like Legos blocks Play-Doh stuff like that and then this over here be more like labs and explore activity stuff so a little bit less stem and more hands-on crafting project stuff this is crooked I need to fix it um I like to keep this space completely cleared off and make this a station area so that kids can just stand here and work um and then if I have an antsy kid they can stand here and do their assignment instead of sitting out I usually have this this is um very tall I usually have bar stools here but I just don't think I'm going to use it this year I think I might let my teammate borrow it she's looking to do some flexible seating so if she can get stools then she can borrow this and just give it back when she's done and then I reserve this space for my computer cart obviously Helen will scoot over and the cart will fit right there and plug in right there so this is a perfect spot Darth Vader gets to stay and then over here is kind of a clustering mess at the moment so I plan on making this kind of like a student station having my three inboxes I probably won't use those I think I'm going to put um lined paper white paper and graph paper there so that if kids need it for any reason it's there and then these are all my supplies um so if kids forget their highlighter they can come and get a highlighter if they forget a glue stick they have glue sticks scissors everything is kind of here for them to use we didn't use this last year for obvious reasons so that will be there and then um I'll put something else here like tissues sanitizer band-aids all of that kind of is already here like I've got band-aids and first aid stuff there and then pencils and other stuff that they generally ask for are here next to the hall passes and the pencil sharpener and then there's just like random storage in these so nothing special this is going to be another student station so this whole like area is going to be geared towards like things that students reach for regularly so that it's in the back of the room it's not disruptive if a kid needs to borrow something from another class they can just come and get what they need and then the library is going to stay in the same place I don't know what I'm going to do with these two chairs yet I might put one on either side I might just pull them up and flip them so they're facing the library I might fold them up and put them away for the beginning because I do like to let kids sit here if they purchase flexible seating from the dojo store they can sit here but I think it might be fun to move them to the front so that they get like front row seating I don't know yet like I said I'm kind of still in limbo so yeah that is kind of how everything is looking and then my desk space is always a mess until things get situated but this is kind of the layout like I said I might move that but all the desks are in the middle and so those are going to be removed at some point probably next week hopefully um and then yeah so pretty much what's going on in here it's almost done like honestly all I need left is the curtain to go there the tables make the bulletin boards and just put like this stuff away and that's pretty much all I have left to do um and then obviously plan but yeah it's kind of nice not moving classrooms and having to completely unpack which takes so much longer like this took me I've been here since 10 o'clock and it's almost three so not too bad I'm gonna be way way way ahead I'll be able to actually plan plan um when school starts so I think I'm going to end this part of classroom setup here and thank you guys for watching if you stayed till the end you stuck it out congratulations I know this one was kind of long but I know you guys really love these classroom setup blogs and I really love making them so stay tuned for part two of classroom setup if you guys are not following me on instagram make sure that you do so my instagram is apples n tiaras that's my twitch account my um my tiktok account everything is apples and tiaras I will have all of that linked down below and I will catch you guys in the next one bye