I got an email from a reader the other day. In her email she said “…but I bet everything is always cute and your classroom always looks perfect.”
Woah.
Not even close.
My room is generally clean. My rule is kids can eat in class as long as it’s not a disruption and the room is clean. So, I NEVER have trash on my floor or anything like that, because my kids want to eat. My desk is usually cleaned off. That’s only because I don’t collect much work and keep things in folders. HOWEVER, things aren’t always cute.
Real teaching isn’t always clean and cute and blog worthy. Not even close. I like when things are typed in cute fonts or have a nice border, but I have three preps at a new school. I don’t have time for that mess everyday! My goal is student learning.
I used these stations the other day. Sharpie and computer paper. I wrote the answers in pencil on the back. They worked great and I’m going to use them again next year.
Or how about these stations I made from cut up worksheets? I went fancy ya’ll and busted out the colored paper.
I made a trashketball game for multi-step equations (variables on one side) for this week. I didn’t even bother typing it. It’ll work out fine. I have a post on how to play trashketball.
Yeah, I have a blog and sell on TpT. My classroom doesn’t always look fancy like it does in pictures. Don’t sell yourself short if you do lots of things in your classroom that aren’t “pinterest worthy”. First, no one is perfect all the time. Second, um, people only share their good days. No one wants to share the crappy stuff.
Are your kids learning? Are you doing a decent job at keeping the mound of paperwork tamed? That’s what matters. Don’t compare your “normal” to someone else’s best.
