Bulletin Board Blues and an Announcement

Well, my first giveaway was short and sweet.  Rachel was the first to comment AND she had the correct answer!  Congratulations, Rachel!  I will be emailing you soon.

The mystery item was....

this owl wall hook at Target for $2.50.  I plan to spray paint it lime and hang our Boy's and Girl's Hallway/Bathroom Passes on it.  Loooovvee it!

I stopped at Lakeshore today and picked up some new bulletin board paper and borders.  I was so excited.  If you recall, I mentioned that my colors were going to be tangerine and lime.  Muy tropical, no?  When I got there, I decided to add teal. 

Now I am by no means a "decorator."  My mom, however, was an interior designer before retiring.  She always said to follow the rule of 3:  3 colors repeated at least 3 times in a space.  So, obviously, teal was missing from the party.

I was so excited after leaving the store.  My 11 year old daughter and I headed over to my classroom.  I knew I only wanted to spend 2-3 hours there, but knew I could at least hang all my paper and borders.

Well, that is....until I walked into my classroom and saw this....

DISASTER and CHAOS

EVERYWHERE!

It took everything I had to walk into that room, and face my enemy.  You can see the bulletin paper in the bottom picture.  Happy, right? 

I don't like it.  I don't like it at all.  The colors are not what I thought they would be.  The "teal" is more easter egg blue.  The "tangerine" is just plain orange.  The worst is the "lime".  I envisioned a vibrant lime saturated with color.  But, this paper, when you get it on the wall, looks more neon yellow.  Sniff, sniff...

I was devastated and deflated.  To add insult to injury, in the 3 hours that my daughter and I were in my classroom, all we managed to do was:

1) Put up 1 and 1/2 bulletin boards (I ran out of border.  Aargh!)

2)  Stuff 24 out of 27 pencil boxes.

Now that I brought it up, does anyone else hate putting up bulletin board paper?  It is pure torture.  You would think after 18 years of teaching, that it would get easier.  It doesn't .  My only tip for new teachers, or those of you changing rooms, is to leave whatever paper is up on the walls alone.  Don't take it down.  Seriously contemplate taping and patching it until you decide that it is good enough to use for one more year. 

Ok, if you can't bring yourself to do that, then at least keep the old paper up for these reasons:  1)  it will make the paper you put on top of it lay smoother (nicer?) and 2)  it will help make sure you lay the paper straight (especially if you just have empty walls like I do without any framing).  I probably have 8 layers (one for each year in my room) of paper on each of my walls.  Ssshhhh, don't tell the fire department.

I was so close to taking the paper down.  But, after the 3 hour time investment, and plopping some $20+ on fadeless paper, I decided to let it "grow" on me.

Anyway, I will keep you posted on my progress.

I do have a bit of an exciting announcement!  I have managed to put up a Facebook page for Mrs. Rios Teaches Second Grade!  I hope you will pop over and say "Hi!"  

Well, I am exhausted....Geez, and my official prep days haven't even started yet.  Scary!

Have a great night everyone.

Nicole