So...I was all prepared to let go of whatever angst I was harboring regarding my classroom after that last post. As Pigs says, bygones.
However, today, as I was trying to organize my desks and failing miserably, I remembered that her desks fit in the room easily. What am I doing wrong? I have 30 desks and they're just not fitting. What the hell?
So I come home and check the pictures I took when it was her room. They're different desks!
She took the "nice" desks to her new room and gave me all the ones that are missing screws and are insanely high for 4th graders! Did I mention I have 30 desks and 18 chairs!?
Oooooo, NOW I'm pissed.
I don't think there is much I can do but try to find a way to get rid of some of the desks. I have 6 more desks than she had, where on earth do I put them!? I figure based on the numbers I've been told, if I have 25 desks, I'll be more than safe.
Advice?
When I walked into my room filled with the former teacher's stuff, I almost had a panic attack. Everything was nicely organized but there was just so much stuff! There was no where to even put something down without losing it. Clutter and disorder make me anxious. I know you'd never guess that from the state of my house most of the time, but it's true. I left the room completely overwhelmed.
I checked in at school one day when she had come to move stuff. The principal suggested I go up and talk to her, so I did. Yeah. I don't think moving was her idea. Long story short, I didn't get a very friendly vibe from her, so I vacated post haste. I waited until she was done and then went back to see the room.
Everything was gone. Part of me was annoyed that she'd taken everything. However, like Carrie said, she probably bought a lot of it herself. I can understand. Heck, I would be doing the same thing.
That being said, taking the chalkboard erasers seems a little petty to me. The stuff she did leave in the room isn't all that helpful. The textbooks are in a pile on the counter. Not in nice, neat piles - just tossed on the counter. Along with the teaching manuals and whatever manipulatives come with the set. The computers are tossed on a card with cords strewn all over - no idea what cord goes to what computer or where they go. Figuring that out ought to be fun.
The one thing that makes me smile is thinking of the room that this teacher moved to. It's half the size of mine. Her new room is packed to the gills with stuff and she hasn't even gotten desks for the kids in there. Karma is a boomerang.
However, I have quite a bit of stuff myself. Not only do I have the things I've collected over the years while I was wishing for my own room, I've got stuff from teacher's I've worked with, and anything I wanted from my mom's room when she retired. Stuff, I got!
I just didn't know I should have gotten her erasers!
Silly me.
More pictures on Flickr.
On a scale of 1-10, (1 being "Whatever" and 10 being "I want to jab an ice pick in someone's eye I'm so pissed") how annoyed would you be if the teacher whose room you were moving into looked like this:
Considering said teacher waited 3 weeks to come clean it out when she was moving and then took everything.
Seriously. She even took the chalkboard erasers!
My opinion to follow.