When I woke up this morning I was what you would call a pretty scary Mrs. Bear – grumpy, grouchy, growling at everything. My mom tried to talk me out of my bad mood, but I told her to take her sunshine elsewhere while I wallowed under my dark gray cloud of hate.
My bad mood stemmed from stress, anxiety, and knowing I was going to have to spend my day in the Arctic Room 158. I dragged my sorry butt to Training… moaning and groaning the whole way to my classroom… and walked in to discover a GINORMOUS TABLE OF FOOD! Muffins, pastries, D&D coffee, orange juice, bananas, grapes, oh my. It was glorious.
Most of the time, food is the way to my heart, so after a couple bites of blueberry muffin I felt the evilness lifting. THEN I received an email from my principal saying I could come visit my classroom when I got out of training. HIP HIP HOORAY!!!
I just came from my school and I can’t stop wiggling and giggling with excitement. My first grade classroom SCREAMS first grade – each wall is a different color! There is a ton of furniture there already, and I have four computers! I have a good sized library, desks, and a huge TV. The teacher’s lounge has a laminating machine and printers. I am beyond thrilled right now.
**FYI: I am teaching first grade at a Title I school in the inner city, where almost all of our students receive free or reduced price lunches. Most city schools do not have the funding to provide teachers or students with the basic materials they need for their classroom (pencils, crayons, paper), so we are pretty much on our own for supplies, decorations, etc. If you know of any companies that would like to donate supplies to my classroom, PLEASE let me know!**
YAY!!!! I am so glad that your day turned around and that your classroom is adorable! 🙂
Good luck finding companies to help out! I know the neighborhood that my parents companies are located in always run a back to school drive to get people/businesses in the area to donate money and supplies (the neighborhood is an inner city neighborhood as well). I don’t know if there are a lot of businesses in your school’s area but maybe your school or even a couple teachers could consider running a back to school drive.
Also, my mom is stellar when it comes to sales. She always seems to find the sales on school supplies and ends up paying pennies on the dollar for school supplies (which she then donates to the back to school drive). Maybe check with any of the local Targets, Walmarts, Office Depots, etc and see if they would be willing to contribute or at least sell it for next to nothing. Sorry, I wish I had better suggestions! But good luck and have a great weekend!
Hey girl,
My dad used to work for a company called School Specialty…since he has recently passed away he could not be of any help but my close family friend Mike Alber works there…something to think about – xoxo
Taylor
Congrats! Your excitemen is contagious! You’ll make such a great teacher! I’ll mention this post and your need for supplies on my SMH and twitter page, I doubt it will help, but it’s worth a shot! 🙂
You might want to just draft a letter stating who you are and what you need and why, put in lots of emotions, a touching story or two and some of that passion you have for kids and teaching and send it out to some local businesses and some retail giants like wal mart and see if they can help! 🙂 good luck! 🙂
My mom and sister BOTH teach 1st grade at a Title 1 School. You will love it!
My best friend taught in an inner city school last year (and is doing it again this year in DC but with an actual program) and she would tell me how hard it is to keep her room fully stocked. I’ll talk to her and see if she has any tips.
I am glad that the cloud lifted and you were feeling a little better after awhile… I seem to be waking up a lot like that lately… I hate that!!
I hope you’re able to find some help as far as supply donations. That’s just crazy that these things are not provided you know? Hard to wrap your brain around. I am way over here in Canada… but what kind of things are you looking for??