Rainbows forever

My classroom has the potential to be a colossal chaotic mess.  There is dark brick on one wall, dingy metal panels that aren't really walls (you can pass pencils and all the sounds through the gaps) on the two sides.  On the fourth wall, there are the ugliest jankiest (the doors don't close) cupboards in the world.  The countertop is bowed from water damage.  There is also so much stuff in the room and (usually) so many children who are basically wild animals and destroy and clutter.  It's a real prize.

(And I love it and won't ever change my mind.)

My new principal paid me the best compliment she could.  She said, "Now is your classroom the one with the blue file cabinets?"

I said yes.

She said, "That classroom is beautiful!  It is so welcoming."

I work really hard to make it that way; I was grateful to her for noticing my efforts.  It is an uphill battle always to tame the beast that is all the books and papers and pencils and detritus.  

My modus operandi of late is to make a rainbow.  Who doesn't love a rainbow?

Yesterday I was organizing this bookshelf which is made up of the books I read aloud, the books we use for writing, their volume two math books use we won't start using until after Christmas and a lot of random other stuff.  It was chaotic, so I just made a rainbow.  It always makes me happy.