I have 3 things I am sharing today. The first is one way to brighten up and hide some really ugly stuff in my classroom. 12 years ago, when the school was built, a teacher (who shall remain nameless and has since retired) covered the windows in my room with contact paper.
Have you ever seen 12 year old contact paper? Have you ever tried to get it off glass? It won’t come off. I tried many chemicals on it, and it won’t come off. It looks UGLY!
So I made curtains. I used extendable, friction fit curtain rods from Wal-Mart, cheap fabric in 2 styles (just to change it up) and sewed some curtains. It was easy and fun, and definitely brightened my room up a bit.
Okay, that is number 1, next I stole shamelessly from Sam Shah. I saw his post and thought to myself, “Hey, self, you have a package of unused business card blanks from when you were job hunting. They are 6 years old, and aren’t doing anything, you should do something like this!”
So, I did. I made 3 business cards for myself. I stole the first one completely from Sam. The next two I tweaked.
These are printed on the business card blanks on my laser printer at school and look nice. Many of our AP teachers hand out some kind of intrinsic reward for doing wonderful things in class. This is how I will use the second card, while the third card is for a learner who might struggle, but never gives up and keeps fighting.
Finally, the third thing. I have these indestructible metal organizers in my room. I got them free from our district “Crayons to Computers” Warehouse, but they are UGLY.
The two on the right are metal, 1950’s grey and brown. The left one is plastic and looks nicer. I hang them on the wall with Command Adhesive picture hanging strips.
So I took them down, brought them home, sanded them up and painted them a nice purple. Why purple, I like purple and it complements teal nicely. The labels on them were a bugger to get off, but goo gone, scraper and elbow grease worked in the end. Voila!
Much nicer! I can’t wait to hang them back up now.
Next week I am going to try to do the bulletin board in my room. It has been the same thing for a year and a half, and was made by a different teacher. It is time to make it my own.
Okay, seriously would have never thought to spray paint my tacky trays like those. Might have to steal them back out of my old classroom.
I would not have thought of it until DruinOK started #Made4Math Mondays! She has inspired me to be much more creative.
I loooove your curtains! I thought about trying for some this summer but I have too many big windows. And your trays look cute now! Nice job 🙂
i’m impressed that you sewed your own curtains! love the idea to spray paint the trays! always learning something new from you!
Wow- your classroom is going to look great with all of your work. It was great getting to know you at #TMC12.
Thank you all for your comments. I really did sew them myself. I even have a picture of me doing it as proof.
Very impressive!!! The curtains turned out so well! (and +1 for you for sewing them yourself!). I really love the transformation of the metal wall files though. IGreat job!
Thank you DruinOK. I appreciate the virtual love! Next … Well, I don’t want to spoil any surprises I might have.