“Seymour Butts is a taxidermied turtle that I received as a gift from a former student named Leah Dane. Leah was cleaning her attic and found this turtle in her attic, she wrapped it up for me and gave it to me for Christmas. He’s cool because sawdust is continually falling out of him, and no one can quite figure out where his eyes are.”

“I got this from a student that I’m very fond of, and the student gave it to me because they’re been practicing their crocheting, and it’s just super cute so I keep it on my desk.”

“The fish lamp is something I got from my dad. My dad frequents garage sales a lot and he bought it for me because it’s a fish and I used to be a fisheries biologist, and I thought it was cool. So I brought it into school.”

“This is a treasure chest that I’ve had since I was a kid. I’ve always thought it’s the coolest-looking box ever. When I was a kid, I made this file cabinet out of matchboxes, and I taped the matchboxes together. In the top drawer, I would keep teeth, in the middle drawer I kept toenails, and I would collect other people’s toenails, and in the bottom drawer I had warts, and I think the warts were all mine. I kept that filing cabinet in this treasure chest, and now I just brought it here to keep things in. It’s probably being underutilized but it’s honestly magical.”

“In my forum, every year, each new forum member gets to add their handprint to the wall. I think it makes the classroom look fun, and then it memorializes all the kids who are in my forum every year. Every day I see them, and I see their handprints.”