School is almost out! Just one more week of “enrichment” lessons!

I went this morning to prep my room for summer. We were given a 4 hour window. I completed everything in 1 hour! I signed in at the office at 8:55 am and signed out at 9:58 am. I assume the 3 minutes was walking to and from my classroom.

I normally do everything the last day of school while my homeroom students are watching a movie while the 8th graders are having their promotion ceremony. Here’s most of what I accomplished in an hour.

• Took down all my bulletin boards and stuff on the walls and put stuff into cabinet
• Threw away graded papers that didn’t get handed back to students
• Put all the recyclable bottles into the large trash bag for recycling. Moved them next door to the teacher who handles that for the department.
• Defrosted my mini frig freezer (with a little help from my hair dryer!)
• Put away all the pencil boxes and letter trays
• Moved the butcher paper roll to the closet
• Moved the printer paper and graph paper to the closet
• Put the desk top stuff in the drawers.
• Moved my teacher editions into the cupboard.
• Brought home to recycle all the extra copies of assignments.
• Brought home the stack of one-sided paper for use at home.
• Put the DVD player into the closet.
• Unplugged the TV and frig. Totally forgot to unplug my document reader and projector – oops!
• Brought home my sweatshirt and coffee mug for cleaning.
• Gathered up a few resources for reference for next year planning.

I’m sure I forgot something on this list! I am so glad I started decluttering the stuff in my classroom a few years ago. It gave me more space in my closet and cupboards so when I have to prep for the end of the year, it goes quickly and smoothly.

Grades were submitted this afternoon. It sure is easy when every student gets Credit/No Credit as a grade. Only 10 No Credit students! Not a single one of them did any of the “enrichment” activities to earn extra credit for their failing class grade.

I’ve also become very minimalistic in my class decor. Have you?