First week of school

So I know this is only like a month late...but some shots of the first few days of school!

You better believe I have a Colorado flag hanging on my wall...right where everyone can see it!

 Thanks to TP for helping make it (it's a bulletin board!)

All the first day of school materials laid out...OCD much?

Alright....so this picture.  My classes made lab safety posters and this one was for "Handle all animals with care".....

Honestly this month has flown by so incredibly fast it's not even funny.  I've been pretty busy just trying to stay ahead of my classes.  Someday I'll get on top of my posting...

Summary of my week...

Kill all the cockroaches!

You know when you're not really sure of something, but you're pretty sure you're better off not knowing?

That's how I was with cockroach poo.

I was pretty sure it was cockroach poo, but I decided to pretend it was soil. I mean, there used to be a lot of plants in my classroom.  It made sense.  And being from Colorado, I really had no idea what a wild cockroach looked like, much less its poo.

But HOLY CRAP (pun intended), it was everywhere. Every. Single. Cabinet. Every. Single. Drawer.

Don't even get me started on the number of living and dead cockroaches that were are lurking in my cabinets.

And then, being the brilliant person I am, I decided to do a little research on the stupid things. Terrible, terrible idea.

You better believe I Lysol-ed the shit out of my room.  Now I just have to figure out if "bug extermination" falls under acceptable teaching expenses.

My first classroom

All right, so life has been a little crazy.  Between moving, car buying, AP Training, and then not having internet (or cell service!) for over a week I haven't had the chance to sit down and write a proper blog post.

Which is still in the works.

I thought I'd share a before and after of my new classroom.  The awesome thing is that I inherited A LOT of stuff.  Which I am incredibly thankful for, because I know many new teachers who can't say the same thing. It's a freaking Godsend for a new science teacher!

Unfortunately all of this stuff got unceremoniously dumped in my room.  Which has meant 15+ hours going through it all, getting rid of stuff, and figuring out where it all needed to go.  But we're getting there!

Enough writing, let's see some pictures!

The before. Made me want to cry. 

The after. Made me want to bathe in Lysol.

It's still a work in progress...but a HUGE improvement over the before. 

I won't even get into my OCD labeling, the cockroach poo or The Specimen Cabinet.  Those are all stories to come.