The Tower

So my classroom is a ghetto pile. In fact, I even refer to it as The Tower (as in the Tower of London). In fact, all day today had an overwhelming stench of bug spray because I complained of the 3.5 inch cockroaches....while the kids complained at first....strangely after about fifteen minutes they were all giggles.

But back to the room itself. It has nasty blue carpet that is pieced together but not stretched or nailed down. I have puke yellow book cabinets, which offset the shaded blue cupboards nicely, note sarcasm here. The walls are barren because they are solid cinderblocks and impossible to hang anything from. None of the cupboards close and everything has a dirty old apartment look to them. However, the greatest disaster of the room is the ceiling. Giant tiles around 4 feet by 3.5 feet make up the majority of the ceiling with dangling florescent bulbs.



When I first saw the room three weeks ago, I asked maintenance to fix the dangerously hanging water damaged ceiling tiles in the middle of the room. The response (as evident the next morning) was to simply remove the offending tiles and let the cement; insulation and bending pipes hang for all to see. The tile, of course, was not removed from the room but placed in the middle of the floor. Since that time I have added three more written requests as well as several mentions to both the superintendent and my principle....who also put in written requests.



To make a long story more interesting, today in third period art class a large chunk of cement and insulation finally gave way and came crashing down. Incredibly, the one seat and section that the materials fell on was uncharacteristically empty. No one was hurt. I was freaked out (though no students could tell...oh yeah, I totally did the "Shake it off" bit) and had to notify maintenance right away. I then had to evacuate the area and move all of my kids around. Then I had to find a place to have class for the rest of the day. Library ended up being booked and we have a shortage of classes anyway. So I went and pleaded my case to the elementary art teacher (who is wonderful) if I could use that incredible art room which I first thought was mine. So with 23 junior high kids on one side of the room and 21 third graders on the other, we taught our lessons.

The maintenance guys were able to tack the tile back up to the ceiling but I have no confidence in the environment anymore. Yeah, I am demanding an entire new roof and asking for the carpet to be replaced with tile while I am at it. I expect it will move like molasses but at least I have something to look forward to.

I already convinced my principle to let me have the kids paint all of the walls and cupboards. I think I will go with a universal jungle/water/space theme. Hopefully, by Christmas the room will look respectable. I can’t say the same for my kids' artwork...but one thing at a time. Got to focus on the priorities.