First post!

=-O My first blog!!! Not sure how well this is going to go considering it took me 2 hours (no seriously- two.hours.) to even make the blog in the first place. So, now that I have this adorable little blog, where do I start? *twiddling thumbs*

Well, let's begin with my motivation behind this blog life. Ever since I graduated, I have totally immersed myself in the world of teaching. Unfortunately, living in a county that was in a freeze when it came to hiring new teachers, my "world of teaching" turned out to be a series of long-term sub jobs, stalking teaching blogs and an unhealthy addiction to Pinterest. 

I have been dreaming of being a teacher ever since I was little. This is not an exaggeration- I had an imaginative classroom set up in my basement and my Christmas lists were made up of new glue sticks and chalkboards. Fast forward about 13 years and I was graduating from Towson University with a degree in Early Childhood Education. 

After four teaching internships (pre-k, kindergarten, first and third grades), I was MORE than ready to get myself into a classroom PRONTO. I ended up settling for three long-term sub jobs (second grade, third grade and kindergarten) before FINALLY landing a full time job in first grade! (On a side note- I cannot be more thankful for my experiences in my long-term jobs. I got SO much essential experience in different grades and got to pick up great ideas from each classroom. More importantly, it lead me to my full time position. My advice to anyone who is a frustrated job-seeker just out of college- grab those long-term jobs if you can! It's definitely your way in!)

So here I am... spending my summer counting down the minutes until I can start working on my very first classroom. The position I have been given is an added position (I will be the SIXTH first grade teacher in the school- crazy!). Good news is, I am not taking the place of a retiring teacher which means I can start fresh without feeling like I have to fill anyone's shoes..my very own position! Bad news- my classroom is c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y empty. Luckily, I got to take a sneak peek of my room a few weeks ago during the last week of school. There was no better feeling than driving to school knowing I will get my first look at MY very first classroom! 

The classroom that I will have was currently being used by a second grade teacher. She will be moving down the hall for next year. So, the pictures that I took obviously aren't how it will look once I get in there and get started.  But I was still SO excited to start envisioning my room. Here's a little sneak peek--try to look past the boxes and such!  

 This is the teacher desk corner. I'm loving that I will have a wall of windows- especially because there is NO air conditioning! Ahhhh I'm sweating just thinking about it!

 This is the other side of the windows wall. The door leads out into a courtyard area (the school is shaped like a U- so this is inside of the U area.) This is another part that I am loving because the teacher who had this room before said that she would often take her class outside to read and do activities on nice days. How fun!

 This is the entry door from the hallway.

After leaving that day, my mind was just RACING with all kinds of ideas. I had already collected tons of stuff from student teaching and my long-term jobs, but I was realizing I still had a long way to go. This is the point where I realized that my dream classroom wasn't quite cooperating with my bank account. So, I thought I would share my collections and DIY projects I have been working on for all you other first-year teachers on a budget out there.