Classroom Setup Vlog Day 1 | Unpacking & Desk Arrangements

we have officially three weeks before teachers head back to school and it is about time that i come into this classroom and start getting it ready for the 2021-2022 school year three weeks guys that's where we're at today is my official first day back inside of my classroom since last year and so the focus for today is going to just be putting all of the furniture pieces back where it needs to go and start emptying out and unpacking all of my belongings so that i can start making this classroom actually feel like a classroom again unfortunately one of the unknowns that we have with this school year is that we don't truly know if it's going to be a completely normal year obviously there are so many different factors that are kind of happening so for me trying to figure out exactly what my classroom is going to look like is it going to be pre-covered or is it going to be a coveted classroom i think i need to find a little in between so as i'm taking out desks i instead of putting them in rows i'm going to start putting them into groups it'll be easy for me to just go ahead and put them into rows if i need to so i'm trying to think of ways to create a classroom environment that can go both i can at the drop of a hat be able to put them back into rows if i need to be able to social distance but i can also move them together in order to social to collaborate so that's going to be my game plan for today is just bringing down my desks and figuring out a way to combine them to make them feel cozy i've never been a desk teacher i don't love them um i don't like how they shift and move i prefer tables but i don't think that tables are going to be the best solution right now i can always take my tables out which are hiding in a little corner over here i can always take those out and put them up if i want to if i feel like things are starting to go back to normal but with just so many unknowns and with everything being so fluid right now i think this is going to be my best solution see this is what i hate look at that high differences guys how do people who have desks all the time deal with this uh hopefully i can just change the legs and make it match oh yeah yeah so pre-covered i used to have my teacher area back here in this little nook area i love being back here because i feel like i'm in a spot that i can see my entire class then last year because of the restrictions we had i was actually right underneath this tv over here in the corner in the front of my classroom i didn't like that because i felt like i was too far away from all of my kids especially the ones who were all the way in the back the dilemma right now is do i plan to have my teacher area here or do i plan to have my teacher area here i think it would be a bigger pain in the butt to have to move myself if something was to happen but here we go again i'm playing the what if monster and that's the struggle with this school year it's the what if monster if you haven't read that book definitely go and check it out i think i'm gonna ask my instagram people guys i'm honestly gonna call it quits on the desks i can't handle it i i just can't like what is this why can't they move together and i have so many heights like bless this little group right here like what what how does anyone if you guys have a trick uh to help with desks that don't want to come together like are they just the legs are not the same but they look the same i i don't know so i think i'm gonna just end up calling it quits on these desks for the moment i'm gonna leave them and just start putting other things out and i guess worry about desks at the last minute oh i don't know it's such a struggle ugh so okay mission furniture out and off of my countertops complete everything is where it needs to go kind of i mean it's still subject to move i know that but it's somewhere where i feel happy-ish it's just key here but one of the things that i did decide to do is instead of actually putting all of the chairs with each of the individual desks because i know for a fact i'm going to end up changing them that's just who i am as we're kind of prepping and getting ready for the beginning of the school year i'm just stacking them so i put five because that's the way i have them group for each of the different groups and i have them right in front makes it easy for me to be able to rearrange so i'm not having to fight the desk in the chair at the exact same time so those are going to stay there i did end up putting the little round table in the center i felt like it looked really cool um so that's the setup as of right now the other thing that i ended up doing is i have this really cool little feature that was given to me by a teacher who left her building this past year and she gave me this cute little stand how adorable is that guys so i moved that here right into the front of my classroom so that way i can have checklists whatever i need putting maybe even band-aids slips whatever i need to put there but so far i like it this here does not stay in my classroom that is the art teachers because we had specials in my classroom last year that needs to go away so she needs i'm gonna go put that in front of her classroom this desk does not match and neither does the chair with all of the other ones that i have so i have black chairs the black desks so i need to find a new place for that to go i also went around and took off all of the plastic sheets that i had covering my bulletin boards my books and it's amazing how big of a difference something that small just removing that makes it feel like okay things are starting to come back together if you're wondering are you really making any changes this year to your classroom i don't think so i really don't think i'm going to make a ton of changes as far as decor i love the brick in front of my classroom that is wallpaper by the way i know i get a lot of people who ask me about it and it's a really nice wallpaper because it's kind of it's got a little 3d effect to it let me show you so you can see here like that's texture on that wallpaper which is so cool um i love it we've had it up for i want to say it's been like two three years maybe i really like it so i love the wallpaper mac the dragon is still staying there he was paper mached back when we first started the mac team and i love him he's so pretty look at that the kids love them it's just a big wow factor it keeps all of the read-alouds that we have for the school year up there so i need to remove those so that i can start fresh this year and then we have the tail in the background so it kind of looks like that's his body there's his head and then his tail comes out from the back so i did go to instagram asking about where i should put my little teacher station and i mentioned to you guys that i'm just really conflicted and i i am still very conflicted but the majority of you on instagram is saying go back to the neck so i'm going back to the nook it's i'm doing it am i going to probably regret it i don't know we're going to find out um so i am now back here we'll see how long that lasts but now what i need to do is just start focusing on clearing out um the countertop items that needed to be packed away at the end of the school year because they want our countertops to be cleared so i need to don't judge me i need to unpack that and put it back up so that's now the second goal for today i'm feeling really really good actually so let's i'm just gonna keep going while i'm while i have the momentum one of the biggest questions i get asked is where did i get my giant letters that spells choice in the front of my classroom i got these at hobby lobby and i was very strategic guys because you can use a 40 off coupon and basically i went every single week until i had every single letter that i needed i am almost certain that they still have these letters and i love them i would not change them for the world these are probably my favorite feature that i have is having the word choice in the front of the classroom because we have choices we have choices in our books we have choices and how we demonstrate learning we have choices in how we act or react so choice is a big word in my classroom and i wanted some really big letters to go with it one of the things that i'm the happiest that i took the time to do at the very end of the last of last year is organizing my board games i am so happy with how this all looks now the only thing that i would probably say is that i wish it was in rainbow order but that is not going to be the thing that i tackle right now so everything has been emptied minus those little doors they go to those cabinets right there so those are actually cabinets am i going to be replacing and putting some of them on i think so i think i might i haven't quite decided to be honest but i have to vacuum in here get out all the little dust and nasties but i'm very happy with that piece the other thing that i started doing is as i took things out i tried to put them into categories um because i'm not going to put everything away today that's just that's really hopeful that's me reaching for the stars so i have bins that are just they don't really have a home at the moment i have um the bouncing balls just the little yoga balls that i can blow up and put away so those will get put away this is like a container of just stuff and i gotta figure out and just sort through it um these are items that i'm not sure i'm gonna end up keeping and then all this stuff over here has a home so this is going to be the stuff that i focus on putting away today so the only other closet that i have to tackle is this one oh my gosh there are things falling out i probably should have looked before i open the door um and a lot of this i think does have a home but i'm going to follow the same procedure that i did i'm going to put the thing take everything out put the things that have a home for sure that i know i can put away easily put them in that pile and then kind of stick everything else in like a random pile we'll see but i'm gonna tackle this one now so i started putting everything away got the second closet cleared out and then putting the things that i know for a fact like where exactly they're gonna go so some really good examples of this are like my teacher area i know for a fact the items that are gonna go in that area i also have like a student area where they have their assignments their papers things that they submit all of that stuff is going to still go in the exact same spot keep in mind i've been in this classroom for five years so i have really learned what works best for me in the space that i have i am very fortunate in the fact that i have been in this room because there's no guesswork at the beginning of the year anymore there's no but where am i going to put this now how is this going to work for me the only thing that i really have as my unknown this year is desks or tables am i going to be doing you know um isolated classroom or are we going to go back to a mac team those are kind of my big unknowns but my space and what it how it works for me i know how that's going to happen i know what it's supposed to look like so i have officially um put up my choice letters and i think i'm gonna end the vlog here uh this has basically been me putting back my furniture unpacking my classroom and then in the next one we'll do a little bit more of like working on the countertops and putting things away and starting to kind of make it look and feel more like a classroom i just remembered like i still have stuff like text stuff bulletin boards like all these other things that i still need to put away so we're gonna leave that for another vlog but i hope you guys have enjoyed this little snippet leave some comments down below are you feeling the exact same way that i'm feeling as far as just the unknown i'm playing the what-if monster are you playing the what-if monster as well this year because it's a struggle it really is um i think i'm just gonna like take it one day at a time and make changes where i need to make changes luckily i know you know the pre-covet situation and i know the covet situation so i can always very quickly make adjustments where i need to make adjustments so i just kind of keep thinking of that but now it's going to be making everything look like a real classroom so i hope that you guys enjoyed this give the video a thumbs up it really does help to make sure that my video is performing well and it helps to support this channel and allows me to keep doing the things that i'm doing so please give the video a thumbs up um also subscribe if you are new to this channel um i would love to have you and then also make sure to hit the notification bell so that you can get notified every time i go live or i upload a new video so thank you guys i look forward to seeing you in the comments i'll talk to you later bye

Channel: The Lettered Classroom

Views: 9,740

Rating: 4.9748955 out of 5

Keywords: teacher tips, The Lettered Classroom, classroom decor, first year teacher, classroom setup, classroom organization, a day in the life of a teacher, elementary teacher, middle school teacher, education, how to be a teacher, how to teach, new teacher, teacher youtuber, teacher vlog, weekly teacher vlog, classroom ideas, elementary teacher, classroom inspirations, teacher organization, upper elementary teacher, teacher life

Id: px6b5S3QesY

Length: 15min 13sec (913 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 01 2021