Go through my classroom books and gear and deal with it all

I mark this job as finished. Not sure how many boxes of books I started with, but there are now 12. 5 have been donated, and 1 is for Brenda (as well as whatever she wants of the listening centers) All sorted and clearly labeled (and still in the garage next door.) Lovely, aren’t they?

Today I went through all the small drawers and remaining science boxes in our garage and got rid of more than half of that. Then I took it all to the elementary school before they closed for summer break.

I’m going to use the small drawer units to organize my art stuff into – but that’s another project.

It feels good to be done with this. If I do decide at some point to teach, I have the core best stuff to reconstruct what was best about my classroom, but I’m not keeping just to keep.

Today I took the wagon over to the garage, loaded up the five boxes that contained my non-fiction books, and pulled them back here.

Sorted by curriculum area and did my best to pare down. The picture is of the unculled piles.

I went from 4 1/2 boxes to 3 and a tiny bit. And now they’re all sorted by subject so I can actually find books when the chum and I want to learn about the moon or fall leaves or whatever.

Nearly a full box for Brenda now and a big hunk for donation. I didn’t expect much more than that to go out. I need to hold onto the good nf books since they’re the core of how I would teach these things. Plus, they’re harder to find.

Only 2 boxes left of fiction to go through in the garage still – and one here to read.

I have now gone through all the games. Thrown away many of the boring ones and continuing to bring the interesting and appropriate ones over here for chum review. The recycling can is already full. Total consolidation- from 8+ boxes to 4.

Today I went through all the teaching books and cut it back to the absolute essentials. Total consolidation- from 3 boxes to 1.

Asking her for detail as to what she might want so I can save it for her.

Another 45 minutes in the garage, sorting books (2 boxes worth ready for departure now) and looking in games and all. Threw out several boxes and boring games and the boring junk boxes.

Oh my god! Brenda!

Anyway, she’ll be down here quite a bit this summer so I can pass a lot of it on to her. Will rebox with that in mind then see about donating the rest to Oak Grove or some place that needs kids books.

That it’s very unlikely that I’m going back to teaching. It’s been 5 years since I was in the classroom and the situation, both political and financial in California make it unlikely that I’d want to be going back any time soon.

I’ve been through the classroom stuff once and even kind of twice, but things are starting to degrade – even in the garage with a floor.

It’s time to cut it all down by at least a half – and ideally 2/3.

My goal is to have it there by the end of the summer.