Teacher Fashion!

Well dear blog friends, with my husband being out of the country, I made my way down to SD to visit my mom. Very fun, but it does inhibit me from living in my classroom as the new school year looms closer and closer on the horizon... So, I decided to get some back to school CLOTHING shopping done instead and I'm linking up with Jess at From Blood To Books for her Teacher's Fashion Linky Party! Super fun, right?

Here are the guidelines...

1. Tell me your favorite store(s) that you like to get your "teacher's fashion".

2. What are some of your favorite accessories?

3. What type of shoes do you teach in? (i.e. heels, flats, wedges, etc.)

4. Do you have a "go-to" item in your closet? (i.e. sweater you wear weekly, shoes you wear daily, etc.)

5. Have you ever had a fashion "uh-oh" at school? (i.e. heel broke, button popped off of blouse)

Ok, so here's a peek into my teacher fashion:

1. Most of my teacher clothing comes from the Limited.

Admittedly the full price of most of their clothing items is a little silly, but they have the best sales! AND!!!! If you don't already know this blogging friends, they have a TEACHER DISCOUNT! All you have to do is show your teacher ID card.

I also really enjoy shopping for my teacher fashion at The Loft and New York and Company.

I don't think The Loft has a teacher discount (that I know of, if anyone knows differently, I'm all ears!), but NY&CO has the same discount as The Limited :).

2. I used to have jewelry to match every outfit in high school and college, but I've gotten kind of slack since I started teaching... probably my favorite accessories now are scarves. However, I am having a Premier Designs Jewelry party at my house next Monday and I am excited to start building up my jewelry again!

3. I mostly teach in flats (which I've realized is going to make most of my 6th graders taller than me this year in all of my 5 feet and 2 inches!). If I'm feeling really snappy, I'll put on wedges. My first day of teaching I wore some stellar heels, and I went home barefoot with extremely blistered feet. I save the heels for special occasions now :).

4. I don't have any one item, but I love cardigan sweaters! There are so many cute cardigans out there right now, and they look super cute with skirts, pants, shorts, and capris! AND you can add fun camis and scarves to make different outfits! Here are some of my new purchases for the school year that I'm just loving:

   

5. I haven't really had any big "oops" moments, but my school has a pretty liberal dress policy, and there has been a time or two that I've been leaning over working with a student and decided to take a certain top out of my school clothing options if you know what I mean!

So that's a little window into my back-to-school teacher fashion! Make sure to hop on over, link up, and look at lots of other fun school fashion if you haven't yet!

The VERY MUCH "BEFORE" Pictures

Do you know that feeling when you work, work, work, all day at school and then feel like you got nothing done?

I went into my classroom yesterday as I said I was going to (yay me for following through!) and worked for about seven hours straight. And even though I worked for what seemed liked forever, when I went to flip off the lights as I walked out at the end of the day, I couldn't help feeling a bit defeated at not quite seeing the progress I had hoped for :(... I really DID get a lot done, there was just so much left behind by the teacher who worked in the room before me, that I haven't gotten to any of the fun stuff yet! I took some "before" pictures so you could all see what I was dealing with when I moved in...

Ok so here it is. Believe it or not, the only things I have actually brought into this classroom are the boxes on the round table, the box of stacking cubes sitting against that desk in the middle of the room, and the computer and papers sitting on the desk. Seriously. Otherwise, this how the room was left. It really is a great room, and the teacher who was in here was really ver organized, but she hadn't originally planned on retiring and didn't take much of anything with her when she left. If you stick with me for the after pictures, I PROMISE it will look really super cute when I'm done! All the chairs, desks, and tables are moved to their proper places for starters...

That cubbie area in the back is quickly turning into my cozy little reading nook and space for my CAFE board. That giant file cabinet is not gone and replaced with much smaller and neater cabinet that sits next to my desk (which by the way, is now on the other side of the room). The circular table is now gone and replaced with a kidney-like table that I dragged in from the room I had last year and the rectangular table sitting in the back cubby area has been moved out and put along the side wall to be used in our writing center. 

I do love all the windows and the big beautiful tree outside my room!

Did you notice all the fabric covering the bulletin boards and shelves and all the posters on the walls? Those are all gone now, too. Just taking all those down (and then the papers, borders, etc.) behind the fabric and organizing the materials on the shelves took me a few hours in itself. But I did find some treasures! The teacher left behind 30 matching clear shoebox containers!!!! It's like Christmas, right? She also left behind some fun games and things to used for indoor recess, so that was kind of exciting. I also started going through everything left in the two closets in the back of the room and got rid of all the containers that didn't match and old manipulatives and activities that I knew I didn't need or wouldn't use. 

So what does that leave me with you might ask? Well... completely blank walls and bulletin boards, empty closets and shelves, and a few books, boxes, and files sitting on the ground. So not much. But better than what I started with, I'm at least super happy to have a blank slate because I am SO DETERMINED to stay organized all year. OH! I do at least have my classroom arrangement done :). I should have taken a picture as I was leaving to show the improvement, but I forgot. I'm hoping to have it organized by the end of next week, so I guess you will have to wait until then :).

The one thing I can brag about is all my beautiful window and this view!! Look past that tree, and that is Lake Minnetonka! Not sure how familiar any of you are with Minnesota, but around here Lake Minnetonka is a pretty big deal. 

What's your favorite part about your classroom?