Extreme Makeover Classroom Edition: Cambodian Style

In this post you will find some visual aids as I regale the transformation of my classroom. This first picture is the view from where I live, the dorms of Life University. The small building with the red roof is Life International School. The larger building is Life School (a public primary and secondary school) and also house Life University Language Institute:

This is a close up of Life International School. My door is just left of center on the bottom level. Nursery, preschool, and Kindergarten are housed on the lower level, and Grades 1 through 4 are on the upper level.

Here are the "before" pictures of my Kindergarten classroom. I have to be honest, a few tears were shed at the prospect of having to completely redo and set up a classroom, especially since I spent the last 3 years at Center Point perfecting my classroom. Also, I made the mistake of looking in a lot of the other rooms of the school before looking in mine, and mine definitely needed the biggest face lift. The biggest obstacle was the large white circular desks, which we call offices. They were designed for the students to take tests in, but my room seemed to have become the dumping ground for all of the left over ones. It seemed like there were hundreds of them in there. I didn't foresee using them, but there was no way to get them out. I had to get super creative, as you will see in the after photos.

The above shots were taken this past Monday. After five days of moving furniture, and with the help of a pack of construction paper, a laminating machine, and $10 spent at the local book/office supply store, here are the results. I am pretty pleased with how things turned out. More importantly, I realized that there was no need to get worked up about being planted in a classroom with little to no materials and that isn't organized the way I want it to be. I've made it work twice now, and I can do it again if I have to. God is good, all the time, and I just need to remember that he will never ever give me anything I can't handle, as long as I am relying on Him.

Enjoy the after shots!

This is the view from the door. The "offices" pushed together on the right have hooks stuck to them and will be where the kids hang their backpacks. Notice the lovely birthday balloons on the back wall.

The front of the room and my desk. The desk in the other picture belongs to my partner teacher, who will be teaching the kids the Khmer language and will help me with translating, etc.

Renovated teaching area. More mats to come soon to create a large area where the kids can sit.

More renovated teaching area. Days of the week, months, and numbers were all made by hand. Other stuff is just bits and pieces I found in the room.

This piece of furniture, which was trapped behind a bunch of the offices, will be cubbies for the students to keep their books, home of the future classroom library (once it gets shipped from the states), and storage for materials.

Word wall (above) and behavior management system (below). Both mounted on the wall space that I created by pushing the white offices together. One bonus to this set up is that everything will be at the kids' eye level, which is ideal.

It's a definite improvement in my mind, but there are still several things I want to do. This will take patience though... but as I'm here for the next 2 years, I will have plenty of time to exercise that gift! I truly am excited about what the Lord will do in this room over the next two years.