My Classroom: Set-Up & Organization

As many of you know I started my first "official" year of teaching this year, and I'm super excited about it. So I thought I'd share pictures of my classroom. Obviously it is a work in progress but it's at least a start. I teach high school English. 

Here's my desk arrangement, I don't like rows but this room doesn't allow for groupings, this allows for easy movement into groups and accessibility to students. Which is great, plus it is not traditional which works really well for me. 

Another teacher in the building gave me this beautiful couch for the room, I'm hoping to find a slip cover on sale somewhere for it, the kids love it though.  I of course have a gigantic Little Mermaid poster, she's my fav. I also got these two fancy desks for free from another teacher who switched schools and didn't want to take them. They are really nice!

Our school is really far out from any food places so I have mini-kitchen in my classroom, the students call it my "mini-bar." I love coffee! Plus I use the cabinets to store all my food, mostly soup and oatmeal. haha.

My Mom and I have been collecting books for as long as I can remember, roughly 5 years. So far there is about 400 books on this wall, I let students check them out and so far I have only lost one. They usually bring them back when I explain that my Mom and I used our money to buy them and not the school. They all have my name on them too. It's a lot of books:

For their projects they can choose to paint ceiling tiles, a box of them is $30.00 at Lowe's so I just buy a box and will switch em around at the end of the year and keep the really cool ones up.

I spray painted some random scrap 2"x4"s that were in my shed with gold and chalkboard paint so I could make some labels for my room. I try to be crafty, I have a big chalkboard "M" also. 

Teacher corner!

I'm starting a gallery wall. Theme: Little Mermaid and Colorado paintings. hehehehe.

Here's my angle from the teacher desk!

I have plans to use the school color (maroon, grey, white) grey to paint stripes around the room like those in my office. I think it will look cool and there's enough cabinets that it wouldn't take that much time. Plus it's different and quirky, like me! I tell my students that the reason I teach is because I LOVE it and because I'm too weird for any other job.

Easy & Cheap: DIY TV Console

Good news! The website that had been stealing my content finally removed all of it! No longer have to put up that tacky warning sign at the beginning of my posts! Much thanks to Crystal at Mobile Home Living for advocating for our little trailer trash niche!

For Christmas my parents got me a brand spankin' new 32" TV! The old monster was a 60" but it was broken and I never got around to fixing it. It was just too massive for the space anyway. Forever ago I found this old dresser at Salvation Army for $20.00 and thought it would make an excellent TV stand. I originally was going to paint it white but found I liked the honey wood color much better, sometimes less white is more.

My parents came for Christmas and my dad purchased hole saw adapters for my drill (even though he put it on my rug hot and it burned it. sad face.) The center of the dresser was perfect for the electronic components. I only have a cable box, Xbox, and Super NES game console from when we were kids. He drilled 6 holes for wires and ventilation. Electronics get HOT so they need that breathing room.

Running the wires was easy, I just slid them through the top holes. I didn't get a picture of it but I just bought a plate shelf from the thrift store (its a wire one that you can get easily at WalMart) and stacked the components on that. I learned from working at Circuit City years ago that it is better for the components not to be on top of each other, so I made sure to keep them separate, plus it increases ventilation.

And voila! No more cluttered up TV stand! All the ugly electronics are out of sight! I'd mount the TV but the walls aren't quite sturdy enough for me to be wanting to actually do that.

A reminder of the before:

The overall effect and another beautiful view of my new door:

Not too bad right? Looks all grow-ed up!

Total cost for my TV stand:

•  Dresser from Salvation Army thrift shop: $20.00
• Wire rack from thrift store (or WalMart): $2.00
• Hole saw from Harbor Freight: $11.00

Total cost for upgrade: $33.00

Way better than the $300.00 dollar set up I originally wanted from IKEA!

Doorable!

Way back in December I posted about the most obvious remaining ghettofabulous thing in my house... the doors. (Find that post {here})

Well! For once instead of just making a list of crap to do and then not ever doing it... I have for you my lovely readers... PROGRESS!

Okay so here it is. The old ugly door. Well... it fell out in the night. Truly terrible. Luckily I have a protector, he may be small but he's fierce. Just kidding. He hid under the blankets and barked from there. 

Anyway. My door! It had a hole in the front that the previous owners had simply covered with contact paper (like shelf liner) which had begun to peel because well. That's not really what it is for.

Here's the old:

I didn't think it'd be a huge deal to fix the door and for my first one I suppose it wasn't but I went ahead and a bought just a slab door instead of one that was prehung... there was definitely some damage done on this particular frame...

Yup. Totally blown out at multiple points. Perhaps why it fell? Hmm.

So I patched and filled those holes (I didn't take pictures because that is not exciting) and brought my new baby door home! I purchased it at Lowe's for $32.00 and brought it home in my Honda Civic. Oh heck yes. It fit! It is just an interior door so I was able to move it myself pretty easily.

Originally I was going to paint the doors all white but I thought "hey! I'm not going to recoup any of my costs on this when I go sell my house so why not give it some sass and character?" I'm glad I did! I'm sure it would have been easier to spray the door but I hand painted it using paint I already had, a mistint from Lowe's for $7.00 that I used on my stools and front door already. Reduce, reuse, right?

The paint I used was a Paint+Primer by Valspar so it only took two coats for full coverage. Now that the easy part was over... I had to manage to fit the dumb thing into the spot.

The previous owners were rather... well... crafty? with their improvisation and doctoring on the house. For instance instead of using solid shims that they sell mega cheap at the store, they used chunks of wainscoting from the rest of the house. #notsturdy #notconsistentthickness

Meaning essentially that when I measured the top and bottom of the frame and got 30" the middle was actually 29 3/4" which sucked. It took me many swear words and destruction of the frame (as you can see below) in order to get the entire thing one even 30" measurement. I'm still considering taking out the one side and replacing it with a more solid piece and using REAL shims. Maybe when my parents come back in the summer. Hi Dad!

I had to replace the casings, which I planned to do anyway, but when I tried to remove the old stuff it snapped into multiple pieces. So. That's great But here is the door finally hung! Looking beautiful and wonderful!

I put my door mirror back on because I have to be able to look at my outfits you know but hopefully I can get a mirror somewhere else and lose this one so you can just see the awesome door. I even replaced the handle ($10.00 at Lowe's) with a cool Oil-Rubbed Bronze look, which coordinates with the handles and chandelier in the kitchen and dining room. Plus it is actually a bedroom lock rather than a keyed entry lock like the old one.

Here's one last look at the awesome new door. How's that for detrashing the trailer?

So the total cost for this project:

• Slab door: $32.00
• Door knob: $10.00
• New casing (not installed/shown): $14.00
• New hinges (x3): $9.00

Total Cost: $65.00

One door down. Three to go.

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