Now I am in the midst of Open Court Training, which means that I get up and drive to a fancy hotel in downtown San Jose every day and learn how to teach reading the Open Court way. So far it’s been pretty useful, but the best part is that all of the second grade teachers from my school are taking the training together, so we are getting to know each other. We found out that our keys were ready and we could go get into our classrooms for real this time, so yesterday after the training we went to our school to pick everything up.

I took pictures of what my classroom looks like before I touch anything so that I can document its changes throughout the year.

In those cabinets to the left of the first picture is a bunch of stuff from the previous teacher. It used to be a first grade class, so some of that stuff will have to go. And quite a bit of it is just plain trash (there were about 4 decrepit Easter baskets in there. Why? I have no idea). It still needs a lot of work. Those filing cabinets randomly in the middle of the floor will have to be moved and all the old stuff will have to be reorganized so that I can fit my new stuff and know where everything is. And I have a little over one week to clean everything up and put in all my stuff as well. And three of those days are consumed by Open Court training. Sigh. Now comes time for prioritizing what needs to be up first thing and what can wait.