It's finally coming together!!!

I have wanted to post pictures of my classroom ever since school started, but it has really taken me until tonight - Open House Night - to get the classroom all put together.

When I first got to my classroom this summer, I found that the teacher before me had left all of her things in my room. So, my first three days were spent cleaning and sorting through her things and unloading a lot of boxes from my car. Take a look at the before shot below:It doesn't really look too bad, because I forgot to take pictures of the other side of the room where all of Mrs. Santos's things were piled. But it does look pretty bare.

I spent countless hours in my room before school even started trying to get things organized and decorated so that when my students came the first day of school, they would be welcomed into a room that was "ready" for students. Over the next month, I continued to refine how I had organized things and now I am pretty pleased with the results.

Here are my teacher's center and calendar of events:Below you will see my desk, small group station, and standards board:Next, my technology center - complete with student profile pages hanging on the wall: My word wall and student writing wall:And finally, my content area bulletin boards in the front of my room:I really had a good time coming up with fun ways to display work and information around the room. I love bright rainbow colors and that has become a theme around my classroom. I think I managed to create an inviting place for students to learn. I know that I am happy here and enjoy going to work each day.