Going Deskless and Letters

As promised back in a mid-March Five for Friday link-up, here is my post about going deskless...

I am also linking up with Five for Friday today :)

I am also linking up with Friday Freebie. You'll find a letter writing freebie on number 3.

I've wanted to go deskless for a while. Last year, I felt my desk area took up too much space and this year it was my "dump off zone." I used to sit at my desk last year because every teacher had a desktop and my desktop was on my desk. This year, each teacher has a laptop (I have my personal laptop hooked up to everything because it's easier to have everything in one place) so I NEVER sit at my desk. My reading table is so much roomier, and after a couple months I even moved my comfy desk chair to my reading table.

Here is my desk before the year started. I didn't even have my beloved mac set up on the school network yet...

In a pretty small room, my desk just took up way too much space. So, after much reorganizing, and my new easel holding our meeting area supplies instead of my rolling drawers, going deskless was possible!

Here's what the area looks like now... I'm thinking I have lots of possibilities when I rearrange my room for next year!

Wondering what I did with all the stuff in and on my desk? Well the drawers in the background of the above picture as well as the drawers near my reading table pictured below. The drawers used to be by our meeting/rug area, but with my new easel I didn't need the drawers.

I also found that rearranging the closet in our coat room opened A LOT of space for the things I didn't use on a daily basis/extra supplies.

I am LOVING the deskless-ness of my room! The room feels more open and I don't miss the desk at all, I mean honestly, I NEVER sat at it. When I use my reading table, I just put my laptop on the back counter and boom, we have a reading table!

If you aren't a facebook follower, you probably didn't get to hear about the April Fool's prank one of my grade level partners pulled on me. We had our common planning time and he decided while going to drop something off, he'd stop in my room and hide my new and beloved easel in the teacher's room across the hall. Those third graders played it off SO well when I came around asking where the easel was (it was hidden in their coat closet!)

Sorry for the terrible quality, I was probably shaking with anger when I took it ;) Did I mention I reallllly don't like April Fool's Day!?

We started our letter unit in writing and we are reading Dear Mr. Henshaw in reading so we are all about letters! Here's a fun anchor chart I modeled off one I found somewhere in the world of pinterest.

Check out a letter writing freebie I created for one of my grade level partners here.

I downloaded the Daily 5 book to my iPad to read over April vacation while we're flying to our cruise launch destination! I couldn't help myself and read a couple chapters and am HOOKED... I might end up having to download the CAFE book for the flight because I'll be done with the Daily 5!

One of the teachers in my grade program brought in Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson for our weekly book review. I loved it so much I bought it at our book fair.

In the story, a new girl moves into a school and the main character and the other students are unkind to her because she is different than them. The girl then leaves to go to another school and the teacher demonstrates the "ripple effect" with a bucket of water and a stone, telling students that each kind thing we do ripples into the world. The main character then realized the missed opportunity in having not been kind to the new girl because she could never take the unkindness back.

This week we had conferences and I must admit I am very happy for it to be Friday. And in even better news, I get to meet my new niece tonight :)