November means holidays are JUST around the corner!
Ugh!
Bring on the rush.
The busyness.
The craziness of weekends and counting down until Christmas.
Christmas!
Okay.
Let's pump the brakes a little bit.
Before I flip the calendar into November, let me take a moment to reflect on these past two months. Starting another school year and all the resources I've been working on, while trying to FIND MY BALANCE along the way.
Okay, here goes!
End of August... I started by COMPLETELY clearing out and reorganizing my PE office. Literally pulled EV-ER-Y-THING out of the office and onto the gym floor.
Yes.
It was A LOT!
Right?
A LOT!
I couldn't just rearrange all the equipment and make sense of ALL the stuff until it was OUT and I had a clean slate to work with.
It was A LOT of work, but work and sweat well spent! I'm so glad I bit the bullet so to speak and just rolled up my sleeves and got to work.
Now I know EXACTLY what equipment I have, and where it is. As I've been teaching for a couple months now, I can honestly say that it makes my heart super happy and content walking into my space and seeing it all organized. Plus it helps save me SO MUCH TIME when planning my lessons and getting supplies organized.
It looks like this now:
Doesn't that just give you a sense of... calm?
Like take a breath.
Ahhhhh.
As weird as it sounds, when things get crazy at school or behaviors with students start to bubble, I CLEAN.
I start to organize and clean.
Therefore, starting the school year with a clean slate helps me to find balance.
Currently I'm working to organize and label these shelves. I just printed the last of the labels I need and will put them on tomorrow when I'm back to work.
As I cleared the gym of ALL the equipment it was then time to update the WALLS! I had already cleared all the old posters and banners at the end of the school year in June.
Again.
Blank slate.
Being in the classroom I've learned that the more things I hang and have plastered on the wall, simply become camouflage over time.
Knowing that, I wanted to go with LESS IS MORE in the gym space, and BIGGER is BETTER!
So I started to create big blocks of space that would be used for bulletin boards of information. I wanted to incorporate some of the resources I'd been creating for TpT and that I thought I'd need for the school year.
Remember, this is my FIRST year being at ONE school and teaching ALL grade levels! I knew I was going to be doing a little bit of 'building the plane while I fly'!
It's still a work in progress, but I get that happy heart feeling each day I walk into my gym and I LOVE IT!
Two months in, and I STILL find myself feeling happy when I walk in AND leave the gym each day.
I really am blessed to be back at my 'home' school teaching PE! Cheers to Year 14 being a fresh start and the beginning of my Health & Fitness journey!
Phew!
Thanks for continuing this far... it was a lot.
More to come in another post! I've been working on my PE resources for TpT and want to be able to share with others!
As always, remember to FIND YOUR BALANCE friends,
Shelby
