Mr. Hough's Fantabulous Array of Classrooms and Contractual Obligations

I inherited a new room in the Media Center. . . 

Hi kids.

It's 'Back to School' season and everything, and if you know any teachers out there, I'm sure they're keeping you pretty up to date with their 'setting up my classroom' reports.  God knows I used to do that. . . back when I had one, single, solitary classroom to prep before the onslaught of students.

That was before I ascended into full-blown multi-tasking juggernaut mode and inherited three classrooms to rule over.

Home away from home. . . 

Yes, readers, Yours Truly owns three classrooms.  Or, as I like to call it, an Educational Fiefdom.

Not sure if I mentioned this before or not, but I inherited our school's Student Announcements last spring, and when our new principal came in this summer, he made it known that the course would soon be a full-fledged STEM program.  This meant, of course, that I had to become certified in Technology Education (more to come on that later).

Now, as you may or may not recall, I'm somewhat a 'big fan' of Ancient History.  I find the subject ridiculously under-appreciated.  Considering my passion for the subject, the new administration decided to split my workload this upcoming school year between Advanced/Honors-level Ancient History and my new course, which is called Media Productions and Design.

Alayna finds some treasure in my room

Double planning, yes, but I'm looking forward to the chaos.  I've been teaching Social Studies for nigh on seven years now, so the small change may just be a breath of fresh air.  Who knows.

Anyway, the real reason for this post was so that I could show off my fancy new digs.

Check it out:

I generally head back to work the first week of August - about a week before other teachers start to come back, and two weeks before we're officially supposed to start back.  This allows me more time to set up my room and start lesson planning without feeling rushed.

Before I could move all my crap into my new room (the other teacher hadn't moved out yet), I had to temporarily store it in my Studio. . .

The lighting rig. . .

The 'Control Room' (the door to the left leads into the A/V Room, the doors at right out into the Media Center)

. . . I have a lot of crap.

The A/V Room - that big, black tower of outdated crap in the center is being removed - eventually I want to set up a series of tables and computers and turn this room into an editing room (and no, that's not peanut butter smeared onto the wall in the background - someone ripped down a whiteboard and left the glue)

I have a few tripods.

The A/V Room, opposite angle (you can see the Media Center through those windows)

Looking back towards the Studio

Sixteen unused and unopened 23" LCD Monitors and their wall mounts.  Nobody's using them, so guess who gets them?  Booya.

The Cannonball came along with me one day while I was setting up my room to help out watch Alvin and the Chipmunks via my SMART Board.

My Ancient History Classroom (opposite the Media Center from the Studio and A/V Room)

Mr. Hough's Command Center.  I snagged the desk hutch from a teacher who didn't want it over the summer, which was an awesome find 'cause there are only two or three on campus.

You can't really see it, but I hooked up an LCD Monitor to a CPU (on the floor.) I also inherited a black mini-fridge (next to the CPU, behind the chair), which is AWESOME to have.

The door to the left leads into my closet. The random blue lines on the white board are what we in the educational field refer to as a 'board configuration.'  It is meant to please administrators.

That window behind my podium is an emergency exit - me and the guys at work use it frequently whenever we want to exit out of the Media Center without running into annoying teachers.

Student Computer Center.  Coming soon: the computers.  NOTE: The poster at top right is a Demotivational poster - I'm not that lame as to have a real one of those.

Student Resources and a Nintendo.  The usual.

Eventually this will be where I post grades, as well as my Student Data Wall

I use the ELMO Projector whenever I want to draw something for the class to check out.  I run the laptop and the SMART Board run through it, so it makes the whole technology-in-the-classroom thing a breeze.

I rigged my projector on a rolling cart underneath a table, and adjusted the keystone setting so it doesn't project all skewed.  This way it's not sitting in front of the room, blocking students' view.  I was pretty impressed with myself.

My Closet

This isn't my classroom library - these are the spill-overs from my Home Library (each shelf is at least two or three rows of books deep.)  I can't store these at home without Kris killing me.

Tea Station.

View from the closet door

Professional Development.

- Brian