The Answer to the Summer's Most Popular Question Has Come!

For many school teachers, one of the milestones to which they look forward is when they can get into their classrooms during the summer to begin setting up for the new school year.  Some begin asking as early as the first week of summer.  Others have the routine down very well and wait a little longer.  New teachers to the school want to get in them to plan as soon as possible.  Then there are those who put a roller and brush in their (or their family's) hand and want to paint before setting up the room for day one with kids.

Regardless, the magic moment has come at Corner Middle School.  The floors are waxed and ready to go.  If you saw the earlier blog on the chaos of summer, you saw pictures of the hall floors piled high with furniture, computers, equipment, textbooks, materials, and boxes.  Now the halls look like this . . .


These pictures are the answer to the question that administrators and teachers across Jefferson County ask one another in the month of June.  "Are the floors done yet?"  The completion of the floors usually signal for us a midpoint in the summer and that the teachers and kids will return sooner than we think.

We are blessed with great teachers here at Corner Middle who want things to be just right for the first day of school.  So now, the teachers (and once again, teacher families), administrators, and custodial staff begin the process of sorting through stacks of furniture, boxes, and other materials that are in the wrong place, painting, purging unnecessary items, bringing in new textbooks and workbooks, creating bulletin boards and systems of organization, and planning.

Something that most folks find hard to believe is that getting a classroom ready for the opening of school and setting up the classroom environment is something that teachers put a great deal of thought and time into.  Each year, most teachers start with a fresh theme specific for that year.  They hit Wal Mart, Target, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Fred's looking for those things that will fit just right into classroom for the day one in August.

I had a personal routine as a teacher that I followed each summer prior to the opening of school in order to get the room ready.  When I taught English, I would sit in every desk in my classroom to see what the student would or would not see.  Then I rearranged and did it again until I thought I had it.  I needed to see it from their point of view.

And it isn't just the classrooms.  Several have asked to see what the office looks like after the stained and ancient carpet had been removed and the new floor put down.  Well.  Here it is!

 

  

The floors look SO GOOD!  We are still working to get everything moved back into the school office so that we can conduct normal business such as interviews, student enrollment, and welcoming guests.  That work is coming along well.

The administration, faculty, and staff would like to thank Royce Ingram and his team of workers with Perfection Commercial Floor Refinishing for the hard work and great service they provide to our school each year in helping us bring our teachers and kids back to school with shiny floors and this year, a great new office floor!

So teachers . . . the answer is you can have your classrooms back on Monday, June 25th.  We will see you soon!