Before and After (mostly after)

I got all my work done tonight, and I promised myself some gratification if I did. I never do things like that. I always just do the fun stuff until it's suddenly midnight and I haven't even started what I need to get done. But that's a whole 'nother thing to blog about.

What I have been wanting to post about is my classroom (which is at the junior high, where I am every-other day. It is so nice to have a classroom. At the high school, I run between two floors and three different rooms--one of which has only chairs, no desks--to teach...but, that's a whole 'nother thing to blog about).

Did you know new teachers in Utah only get about $150 of state funds to do things like buy supplies and decorate their rooms with each year? And after three years of experience (because you accumulate stuff) that number goes down. Anyway, last year I by the time I bought a set of white boards, those teacher-y bulletin board boarders I thought I was supposed to have, and a couple reams of colored copy paper, there was no money left. So I cut up a calendar I had, and that, pretty much, was my classroom decoration for the year. It looked like this:

This year, I decided to suck it up and sink some money into making my room look more like I wanted it to. I'm pleased with the results.

The beautiful plant and stand (the latter made by my grandpa) until recently lived at my grandparents'. My parents took care of it over the summer while I was gone. It's a family effort. Since classes started, one student has insisted that he's afraid it's going to eat him.

The "found French" bulletin board is for students to pin up things they find in French. (Things they find outside of the classroom, I have to keep reminding them, as happy as I am that they realize how all those handouts and worksheets I've been making them are, in fact, in French.) And those are brooms from the dollar store on top of the cabinet. For broom hockey (go Canada), not so much for Quidditch as some have suggested...though, you know, you never know what will happen.

Yes, these are all flags from French-speaking countries. If you don't know which country, I challenge you to figure it out! (Imagine I said that in my teacher voice.)

Times in different French-speaking cities. This took like a million years to set up. Maybe part of that was because I wanted to synchronize the second hands.

And the rug. A lot why this started was because I wanted a story-telling rug (which I found for 30 bucks at Ikea). I learned from my professor Cherice Montgomery that even high school students enjoy coming to sit on the floor while you read to them. Boy was she right.

If you would like to see my whole list of reasons to study another language, click here to find the Word file.