Are we there yet?

No, not quite yet. But we are getting there. I moved all of the miscellaneous furniture out of the room- a few long tables, a few square tables, a circle table from the roman era, and study desks that belong in a 1970's college library. In addition, I received some desks that I have put into table groups. As much as I looooove tables, the predominant culture seems to be that desks are the way. I will use the desks, but be creative in how I arrange kiddos and how I group them.

I also moved some of the computers I have in the room. There were a bank of computers facing each other, and I moved them to the outer walls. The result is that I can see what kiddos are doing, and I have a clear space in the "front" of the room to teach from when needed (or have kids come up, etc etc). I'll confess to being giddy about my computer situation. I am at a near 1:1 ratio. I've got 15 computers to 20-24 kids, so I will need to come up with a rotation for who buddies up (when that time comes).

Now that my space feels better, I can start to turn my attention to a few other issues. I need to think about my walls and the culture that I want students to walk into (ie what do students think when they walk into the room, what do my walls and setup say to students, what appears valued?). I need to start thinking about what my first week is going to look like- what are we going to do, how are we going to build community etc..