Let me be honest.  My classroom rarely ever looks like this: Except for the first millisecond of the first day of school.  When the desks are glue and crayon-free, the floors are freshly polished, every pocket chart hangs perfectly, and I have yet to realize that Student X needs a seat all. by. himself. Once the school year is underway, it’s hard to find the time and/or motivation to maintain that squeaky clean look, as we all have many, many, many more important things to concentrate on.  Like data binders, assessments, interventions, assessments, craftivities, assessments, new standards and timelines, etc.  And, of course, just what we’re going to do with a half dozen Student X’s who all somehow managed to be in our classroom.  Right when you’re getting your groove on, Madame S.(martboard) moves in and shakes things up.  In a good way, but a mid-year shake up can only add to the chaos of the pre-holiday crazies.  So, really, all of that to say that I’ve had to rearrange my room to accommodate Madame S – whom I love and dearly adore – but she’s presented quite the arrangement challenge in my room.  I want her to be a central focus during our whole group time, so I spent the large part of yesterday after school and before school this morning attempting a new layout.  Here’s the room all catawampus… This morning the room was mostly functional.  But I need to live in it a little longer before I decide if it’s going to work.  And, yes, as many of you have noted: I have a *big* classroom.  It was the old art room, so the space was originally meant to accommodate big, honkin’ art tables and benches.  The space is a blessing and a curse, as I often don’t know what to do with it all!  A great problem to have, I know 🙂 PS.  Thanks for all the love and support for my presentation last week!  It went well and the prof only asked questions I knew the answers to.  Shoo!  I researched the effect looping has on reading achievement.  PSS.  I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry for the errors in the Short E packet on TpT.  A corrected version is available now, so if you’ve already purchased it go back and redownload the new version.  Sorry about that!  And for the delay in getting the updates made!!!!! PSSS.  I’m so excited about January in my classroom!  Watch for my newest TpT units to go up over the next week or so!  Yay!!!!!