Bonjour mes amis, bonjour

So I went to school today, which seems like a logical place to start my first post on this, my shiny! new! blog! Due to some expansion at This School (S-E-V-E-N preschool classes, God help us, everyone), my kindergarten classroom has been moved to a different wing. Okay, let's work on accuracy here: my kindergarten BELONGINGS have been moved to a different classroom, in a different wing. The room itself, with its very own bathroom and abundance of cupboards, has, sadly, remained in its original location.

MOVING ON: The new classroom is lovely indeed, and it is Standard Operating Procedure at This School that if you are moving to a new classroom, you get to choose yourself some brand new furniture from shiny catalogues. My brand new furniture is all solid wood and yellow trim and includes an entire shelving unit dedicated to storing paper of various sizes and colours, and also a new custom-built (read: deep enough for poster board) cabinet that fills up a weird gap in the counter that lines 2 walls. Altogether, it is GORGEOUS, and almost enough to make up for the lack of bathroom. My rugrats will have to find their way across the hall to the multi-stall restrooms that we share with the rest of our wing. I am sure this will be more difficult for me than for them.

Of course, I neglected to take "before" photos of my classroom setup today, because forgetting to take photos is particular gift of mine. I basically managed to figure out my furniture placement, wrangle an extension cord (pays to be friends with the tech guy!), round up the 6 chairs that somehow did not make the transition from old room to new room, and cover my hallway bulletin boards. (Sidebar: I could happily strangle whatever teacher decided that covered bulletin boards and cutesy borders were evidence of being a Dedicated Teacher.) I actually really hate bulletin boards and my cheater solution is to cover them in brightly coloured broadcloth and trim them with theme-neutral borders that can stay up all year. Then I had to go home because there was no more work for me to do because....

There is a big drama surrounding the installation of carpet in my room (again, accuracy: the drama is actually around the failure of carpet to be installed) but I will spare you the details. Punchline is this: tomorrow is apparently a surprise! day off! for me, in the hopes that the carpet elves will come in my absence. I think I will pick up the school credit card and go shopping. FOR CLASSROOM SUPPLIES, I PROMISE. Ikea, anyone?

In other news, I have started a particularly geeky first draft of a new Kindergarten Report Card. The current version requires cutting and pasting WITH ACTUAL SCISSORS AND ACTUAL GLUE to insert the comments. Although I see the retro-charm of this, I do not feel any need to live like it was 1983, and so am creating an excel document that may send some of my colleagues into full-blown anxiety attacks.I will keep you all posted. Anyone interested in sharing the content of your kinder report cards?