Readying my classroom

I had a busy day at my new school today. I met two teachers I'll be working with, the 3/4 teacher and the other new Grade 5 teachers. Both seem great and I know that all that I've heard about how supportive this staff is will turn out to be true. I also had a great conversation with our principal. Turns out he grew up in the same area as my dad and probably knows some relatives. My preliminary class list and schedule look great. Getting very excited to meet my new class.

A new classroom is like a blank slate; it's very difficult at first to decide where to start and what to do with it. In Intensive French we are encouraged to populate our walls with student work, more than store bought posters so I resisted the urge to buy a lot of posters. I found a few I wanted though, one of the Canadian anthem in French that I thought was important to have for instance.

I also set up my Birthday bulletin board with stuff I found at a dollar store in Tracadie-Sheila.

What took me the longest was the bulletin board out in the hallway. I decided to use my new die cut letters to write a message. I forgot how hard die cut letters were to get out of the sheets. I'm planning to add some pictures to the the board. Now it looks a little... menacing with the black on red? Or maybe that's just me. Any ideas for what sorts of pictures I could put around?

Next week we're back to school all week. Some days we have professional development meetings but we'll also get more time to work in our classrooms so I can get everything more organized before my students come. 

*update* One of my friends pointed out that I left an 'e' out of 'bienvenue'. That explains why I had an 'e' left over when I was done.