This week's post marks our first ever BubbleUp Classroom Take10. We are super excited to bring this new feature to our BubbleUp Classroom readers. As you know, we believe to our core that when teachers share great ideas bubbleup. In that spirit, we'll be doing a
​Q and A every month with one educator. We'll ask each educator the same TEN questions and see what amazing things we learn on along the way.

We're beginning our Take10 journey with educator Jes McCutchen. She's also the creator of Planner Flotsam (Instragram: @PlannerFlotsam). At the end of this post, she's offering a fantastic free give-away for teachers. Here's sneak peak of the charming planner stickers she's designed just for our BubbleUp readers.

Walking around schools, I still see rows and rows of desks. What? It's not every classroom, but it shows that some of us are still teaching in the 21st century using 20th century design. So if you are one of those row people (I used to be one too), this post is for you. Some of us are willing to jump in and change everything all at once. But perhaps you want to redesign your classroom in more manageable chunks; dip your toe in the water with one or two changes.

​Whatever changes  you hope to implement, I highly recommend thinking them through before students set foot in the door. Classroom design should support learning; it needs to be planned and implemented before the school year begins so that your focus can then shift to building relationships with students, teaching content, creating your classroom community, and fine-tuning your classroom design. Here is checklist of sorts for establishing a more flexible space. You can do all of them, one, or a combination of a few. So bust up the rows and make the 2018-2019 a year of positive change for you and your students.

We're in the midst of summer and I've been thinking about how to ensure I am ready to jump into the new school year refreshed and full of energy to bring out the best in myself and my students. I love summer for the time it offers me with my own children, for its slower pace, for spending long days out in the sunshine. I also like that in the education profession, summer gives us a reset. This week's Take5 focuses on ways teachers can use summer to its fullest.

Happy Fourth of July to our BubbleUp Classroom readers! In the spirit of all things summer, we hope you'll check out one of our favorite past posts: Summer recharge: reflect, reach out, reimagine. We'll be back next week with a new post. Until then, we hope you find yourselves reenergized by sunshine and the company of friends and family this week and all summer long. 

-Corey and Gretchen