Flamingo Fabulous: Home Office Tour

Since I haven't been able to get into my classroom yet, I decided to give you a tour of the room where I spend about 95% of my waking hours. This is my teacher home office. Now, you will have to ignore the awful paint color... That came with the house. Every summer I plan to paint over it, but I look at all the stuff in here and decide that I am too lazy to move it all out and then hold my arm up long enough to paint. Did I mention that I am lazy? Also, I probably should have vacuumed before taking these photos but I also hate vacuuming. And the vacuum was all the way down in the basement. L-A-Z-Y. Since it's just me and the cats in this lil' old house I am also lucky enough to have a separate sewing/craft room so I don't have to worry about that stuff junking up the office. Although it often does anyway. Here goes!

Just for fun, see if you can figure out how many flamingos are hiding in this room. I'll give you a hint. There's ALOT.

Welcome! Come on in (and feel free to ignore the dust bunnies)

View from the door.

I love the carpet. I'm pretty sure it's had a turn in every room of my house. I think I finally found the permanent home.

This is what I'm using for math manipulatives. It's here instead of at school because at the end of the year I laminated about a million yards of math materials for a new program we adopted. I've been slowly but steadily cutting out all those little pieces and putting them here so they will be ready to go in the fall.

I have two of these great shelves from Target. I love them! They are sturdy, affordable, and still somewhat decorative. This shelf has mostly math resources and a few other random things. Most of it is stuff I purchased on my own, but a few things (like the math teaching guides) I brought home to help me plan at home. If I ever leave my school I'll have a grand ol' time trucking it all back into my room but for now it's where I use it the most.

Bottom shelf - books my kids weren't interested in but that I can't bear to part with.

Middle shelf - Math Resources

Top shelf - Random supplies and materials I don't use often enough to warrant the space they would take up in my classroom.

This little drawer holds random things I may need for projects at home.

My aunt made this as a tribute to my grandmother when we had to move her out of her house and into an assisted living facility. She had been living in the house (originally a log cabin) since she was a child and she was definitely a hoarder. My aunt found enough of these hankies, watches, sewing scissors, and jewelry to make one of these for each of my girl cousins. There are 5 of us, and each was made using a different color scheme. I had it in my guest bedroom, but after my grandmother passed away last Easter, I decided to move it to a place I would see it more often. Just so you don't think they were left out, the boy cousins each got their own shadow box with items my grandfather collected--pocket watches, Swiss army knives, and cloth hankies.

I'm not sure if you can tell, but the bracelet in the bottom left corner has silhouettes of both my brothers. It must have been given to her before I came along.

Moving on! This little shelf sometimes lives in my classroom and sometimes lives here depending on where I need it the most. Can you see all my "If you give a..." friends on the middle shelf?

These are scrapbooks from my childhood that my mom recently gave me because she ~~is sick of storing them at her house~~ wanted to pass them on to me. I found three dead bugs in them. Thanks mom.

No seriously though, they are a treasure trove of quintessential 80's pictures that I can use to embarass family members when needed. Like these little gems:

I'm the youngest of my cousins so I am using these photos to get back at them for years of picking on me. I am the little one smack in the middle with the pigtails and purple skirt.

I don't remember white shorts being that popular but apparently they were the "little black dress" of my childhood wardrobe. And that haircut! Thankfully I'm not in this one.

OK back to the tour! This is where my kitties curl up when they sense that I will not be moving my tush from the computer for a very long time. I couldn't get one to sit still for the photo shoot but that's a cat for you.

This painting was done by my best childhood friend who now lives in ALASKA of all places. She made it for me when we were in middle school I think.

Here's the second of my bookshelves.

The top is a little flamingo shrine of gifts I've received over the years. I love the big wood flamingo from a former student. Notice the slide whistle? My preschool teacher gave it to me when I got my first teaching job.

Stupid professional development books I will probably never read. Most of these were required summer reading from my principal. Since we never discussed the books at staff meetings, and because she picks the most BORING and USELESS books, I just don't even pretend to read them. Take this year's book for example. Why read it when Heather at The Meek Moose has already done the work for me? Thanks teamie!

These are the books and resources I use the most often. Most of these live at school during the school year and I bring them home over the summer. Or they may be things I have multiple copies of so one can stay at each location.

More books I don't use in the classroom but can't part with. See my Britannica Young Children's Encyclopedia? Good times.

SNORE boring files and such.

Anytime I loose my slippers I look here first. Blogging makes my feet warm I guess.

This is what I'm looking at right now! OOOOOoooOOOOoooOOOoo freaky.

Must haves - post-its, lip gloss, flamingo friends, and pens to stick in my eye when I get frustrated with Microsoft auto-formatting. Happens a lot.

I recently cleared off this space for the Cameo I just ordered. Right now its occupied with random junk I need to stuff in the boring file thingy or put somewhere else.

This is my trash can--er cup. I always have itty bitty things to throw away so I just keep a solo cup handy for such occasions. I don't know why I don't just get a trashcan for this room... oh yeah, L-A-Z-Y.

I guess this my inspiration board. Not really sure what to call it.

This is a former student of mine who passed away due to a rare blood cancer. I keep it close by to remind me how precious time can be with my students each year. You may have noticed from the picture that he was a HUGE Redskins fan :)

Another 80's photo. This is me and my brothers. There's a big age difference between us.

Jan Brett's signature. I can't bring myself to put it in a book.

I went to the Inaugural Concert when President Obama was elected. No matter what your political standings are, it was a historical event worth remembering in my opinion.

Nieces and nephews! The nephews are moving to VA from Kentucky. So excited to be close to them!

Here's my finished family birthday board. I'm still missing a few birthdays and the letter J for July but you get the idea.

Post-its, reminders, to-do lists. I've gotten rid of TONS of these notes in the past week as I have been busy crossing things off the list.

Radial symmetry. I saw this idea on an episode of Arthur and decided to try it out. I think I may do it with my students this year.

One of my favorite teachers gifts from a student. Little Elizabeth gave this to me on the last day of school and I shamelessly put it on and wore it the whole day.