Building A Mystery, Part 1

It's a good news/bad news thing.....At the end of the school year, there was a rumor that our ratty carpeting would be replaced by tile.  Good news: the carpetsNew Tilesare gone!  Bad news: the replacement required some serious sanding before the new tiles could be laid.  Everything in my classroom is covered with a fine, white dust.The new floor, however, looks outstanding.  No more wheezing - I hope!From the doorHere's what the classroom looked like after being packed away for the summer and after the custodians removed and replaced all the furniture - including my 5 bookcases full of classroom library books. I don't envy them having to do this each summer.Yesterday was spent surveying what needs to be done so the room can be put back in order before students arrive on September 1.  The dust is hopeless -- a wet towel just created cement and didn't really clean off the surfaces, so next trip back I'll bring my shop vac from home.  I did manage to wipe down my desk, replace my desktop shelf unit and wipe down the bookshelves.I had left a map of where I wanted furniture replaced after the summMore mess!er cleaning and Kevin, Delores and Mark did a great job of following my map!  I'm still playing with the desk arrangements; however.  I've always had students sit in cooperative groupings; the U-shape that I mapped just seems strange to me -- so I'll probably revisit the desk configurations.  And I will have a student with a motorized wheelchair so I need to rethink the room spacing to accommodate.I'm hoping 2 days will be enough time to get all the classroom layout completed, computers reconnected and dusting completed.