When you change teaching positions, often you also change classrooms. Such was the case with me this year. I moved from THE perfect room, the classroom I always wanted, ironically, back to the classroom I was in many years ago. While the 2 rooms are identical in size, the new one doesn't have a window or a sink. It also doesn't have the premier location of being in the middle of the middle school. But all that proved minor in the move. The only bad part - I inherited individual student desks instead of the 2 person tables I had before and loved.

As the year has gone by, I've gotten used to the desks... until when 3 tables were abandoned in the classroom adjoining mine! The sight of those tables there, lonely, no home, no students, no books.... I HAD to rescue them. RIGHT?

I talked to my kids in Guided Study and asked how they felt about switching. They LOVED the idea and we were off, hauling, rearranging, shoving tables this way and that, until they got everything just how they wanted it. The girls all chose to sit around the square tables in the back, while my boys lined across the front set of tables. They chose who to sit next to, and argued over which of the mismatched chairs they would claim as their own.

For the first time all year, it feels like home :) The kids love the change, and for me, it's like a step back in time. Funny how a few mismatched pieces of furniture can change a room from a classroom to a home!