Back to School

Hey gang.

Well, it's that time of year again: Back to School.

To say this process was an arduous one would be one hell of an understatement. . .

In years past, the last five years at least, I've been able to knock out my Back to School crap in a day or two. Since I've been on my current team and have been in the same classroom for the last five years, I've been able to set up my classroom so that it's ready for students on the First Day of School in a matter of hours. Nothing to it, just move the furniture around, set my desk back up, and unpack all the stored items from their summer lodging in my class cabinets.

Another angle (from the vantage of my desk.)

With the retirement of my old ELA teacher, at the end of last year, I inherited her much bigger - and much better - classroom. It's the same size as my old room from when I was on a different team, from 2016 to 2020, which I missed dearly. For the last five years I've been in a much smaller room, and the cramped space made maneuvering around the room with thirty or so students in it a total pain in the ass. Now I once again have some breathing room, and space to stretch out. I also replaced my old tables and chairs with individual desks, which contains kids better and suits my lecturing style.

The downside of this room change, of course, was that I had to set up everything from scratch. And it took FOREVER.

The view from my outside door.

My Command Center (and yes, the skull in the cabinet is real.)

I started setting my room up on July 28th, almost a full week before I usually start the annual process of heading back to work. I had to map out my room and hang up all my decor, figure out how I wanted to organize all my new furniture, and install new lights (two 100ft strands of those deluxe Govee lights I have all over my house.) Also had to purchase like five or six rolls of premium bulletin board paper (well, it's more like vinyl than paper) that was pricey but holds up better than standard, colored paper, and measuring all that to fit my boards took a ridiculous amount of time.

The end result of all this work, however, was one hell of a bad-ass classroom. It turned out so well that over the course of the first couple weeks staff returned to the building, I'd have other teachers - even from other grade-level buildings on campus - pop in to check it out. The way I look at it, since I spend more time during the work week in my classroom than I do at home, I want it to feel as cozy as humanly possible.

Anyway, when the First Day of School finally rolled around, we didn't get the traditional 'First Day' pics with the girls. Kris had to leave for work before they did, and so she tasked the girls with taking their own pictures this year. Didn't turn out as well as they would have if we would have taken them, but they were pretty hilarious so we didn't care too much.

So here you go, folks - the Houghs' annual Back to School post. Enjoy. . .

The Promethean Board (like a giant tablet) that serves as the board kids will look at to take notes from.

The board by my main classroom door (those maps are obligatory evacuation documentation for like fire and tornado drills, etc.)

Class bins for my students' Interactive Notebooks, my classroom library, etc.

Art supplies, teaching resources, etc.

Kris managed to get one pic of the girls as she was leaving for work and the girls were leaving to get some First Day of School coffees from Bigby. You can totally tell Abby is Hough'ing out here.

Alayna took this pic of Abby at the school. That's about the best we got of her this year.

Alayna doesn't have to go to school until noon each day, since she does online college courses all morning, so her boyfriend Sebastian managed to take a pic of her when she swung by his house at some point in the late morning.

Aaaaaand an MHS Varsity Pom Team pic at the beginning of their first practice of the regular school year (because of course they started practicing on the First Day of School. . .)

- Brian