On the Move

I can't imagine what my classroom would look like if I stayed in one place for more than 4 years.  That's because I never have. It seems that every couple of years I find myself either changing grade levels, schools, or classrooms. Sometimes it is by choice and sometimes it is out of necessity.
This year is unique in that everyone in our building is relocating to a different school a few blocks away.


Not only did we wrap up another school year with all the paperwork and closing details as usual, but we were provided with tons of boxes, packing tape, and yellow labels to pack up our entire school.  In August, the students and staff that have attended and worked at Pauline Jones will make their home at Walker-Spivey.  In fact, three school buildings are being re-purposed in order to meet the needs of a growing elementary population of students in the downtown area.

The good thing about moving is that it gives me a push to purge items that aren't being used.  It was like watching an episode of "Clean Sweep" on HGTV.  I had my piles of boxes for the district to move, boxes to take home and sort over the summer, boxes to put directly into a storage unit for safe keeping, and of course the area of things to give away and a throw away pile.

The day after students were dismissed for summer vacation, staff members from all over the district descended on the 3 buildings.  By the end of the first day, the following tasks had been accomplished:

• computer lab equipment moved 
• discarded furniture removed
• discarded instructional materials and computers were removed
• boxes from 6 classrooms taken to warehouse storage to await move into "new" building
• computer equipment from a different school arrived and was placed in cafeteria for temporary storage

By the end of day 4 the only areas with boxes remaining to move are the media center, about 3 classrooms, and the offices.  I'm guessing this is typical of all 3 buildings.

I left about 90 boxes for the movers from my room alone. (They weren't the biggest boxes I've ever packed.) That is still a lot of stuff that I really hope returns in good shape.  We kept hearing stories of moves gone bad.  This move definitely made me more nervous than if I was doing it myself.  I even labeled all of the boxes with some basic contents and numbered them before taking a picture of each label.  At least I will have an idea of what to look for if a box goes missing.


Fortunately, I will be in professional development all week next week.  This should keep my mind off of the move and give me someplace to work while waiting to get into my new space. Unlike most teachers, I spend a lot of my summer at the school right now as a result of the career award I won last year. (Yes, I am compensated for it.)  That leaves me returning to the school the same day that they are moving the office employees into the new building.  So, hopefully I will be able to start getting to know my way around and making myself at home. Then I'll be gone for a couple of weeks on family vacation.  By the time I return from that I am hoping that most of the work will be done and I can start really moving into my room.

If you're still reading, thanks for hanging in there with my ramblings.  I hope to be sharing more soon and plan on being more concise in my posts.