Time for a brain dump

 This may sound a little strange, but I think that meditating has helped with my planning. Let me explain. I used to be the type of person that would spend hours planning something, anything really. Then, almost the minute I walked away it left my head. So I could spend hours and hours planning my curriculum, only to forget about it and not do it. Then I would be left scrambling thinking I had nothing prepared when in reality I did. Also, when I was planning, I felt like I had to finish it at that time or I would forget what I was thinking and basically have to start over. Yeah, this did not make life fun, let me tell you. But I've been planning this summer and it is very different. I can do something, walk away and come back days later and know exactly what I was thinking and pick up exactly where I left off. It is awesome. I can also keep from going off on tangents - though not entirely. I did get caught up in a tangent a few weeks ago about which curriculum I should use. But once I settled on which one, the modeling, things just started to fall into place. So I'm making progress in my planning and it's very different than it's ever been before. The curriculum is already written out step-by-step, so I'm just adding in the things I want to do. I'm working whole sheet instead of section by section. It's working out well. 

Which leads me to my brain dump. I did some thinking this morning about the layout of my classroom. Actually, I went into school yesterday and cleaned and organized my storeroom. I was so pleased with the way that turned out that I started looking hard at my classroom. One thing that happens with me is that I get new things and fit them in but don't really take time to plan out where they will go or how things will flow. Well, I did that this morning. I did some serious thinking about how I want my classroom to function. I need a place to store things that the students can use; expo markers, erasers, pencils, colored pencils, etc. Also, I have this little cubby in the back of my room that is kind of useless. It does fit a bookcase in it and I've just been using it to store the textbooks I don't use. Well, I got to thinking that maybe I could make that little cubby the item storage area. I could put a small bookcase I have in there and store all the things they will need on the shelves. I will have room to store my whiteboards next to the bookcase. I can put some posters or something up above the bookcase and just make it kind of cute. Then, on the far side of the room I have my American flag. The way that thing is mounted, I really can't put anything of any size under it and it makes for kind of wasted space. So I'm going to move the flag to behind my desk and then move the two bookcases I have behind my desk over to where the flag used to be. I just realized that I still have those big rolling shelves. Hmmm.....what to do with that? Anyway, I've been thinking this stuff through and not just going with the flow. It's a habit I have of getting things, adding them in, and then never taking a step back and see if there is a better way to do things. It's a little crazy. 

Next up I need to devote some brain space to procedures. How do I want things done in my classroom? How do I want to handle things like turning in work, asking questions, going to the bathroom, etc. I'm not ready to tackle them yet, but I do need to start thinking about them.