Can I just start by saying that I heart Jill!! I know I helped her out a lot last year getting her classroom and materials ready, but technically it was my job and I was getting paid (although not very much). She has been the most wonderful help to me these past few weeks. Good friends are hard to find and she is a gem! Thanks Jill!
Today was all about getting ready for Back to School Night, cleaning up the room, organizing, getting the bus lists ready, copying letters and calendars, laminating, figuring out scheduling, trying to read the specials schedule and getting to know some of my new staffers. I had a very long conversation with the music teacher and he is so nice! Overall it was quite a productive day and I think the room is ready for kids (ready for them to come for a brief visit with their parents at least...ready for me to actually teach is another story!)
I thought I would take a chance and send out an email asking if anyone had a big book stand they weren't using and one of the third grade teachers replied saying that yes, she does have one and that I can use it this year. SCORE! I was going to use my funds from the PSO to get one, but they are not cheap, so I am really thrilled at her generosity. Now, I won't have to struggle when I do read alouds with the big books and I can have a big book work station during rotation time.
Tomorrow we an all district meeting and we get to hear about the insurance options and all that good stuff and then there is a meeting with our union and contract negotiation team. It is a lot of hard work to get that done and I don't envy anyone who is on that team. Lots of long nights and head butting over wording and any/all proposed changes. We also get some more time for training with our new math curriculum and then it's time to meet my kiddos. I now have 21 in each session and I got two IEP's today for kiddos who will both be in my AM session. I am excited to have them as part of the group and eager to speak with the Learning Specialist about meeting their needs. Hopefully those numbers will stay where they are! 21 is a good number even if the boy/girl ratios are off.
My computer battery is about to die, so I am going to head upstairs to plug in and hit the sack! I deserve a good night sleep. Hubby is heading back to Germany after a week in New York for the US Open and I am crossing my fingers that maybe his boss has decided to send him here to visit the US office (and me!)
The New Kid
For the second year in a row, I joined the ranks of the newbies on a teaching staff. I don't consider myself super shy or anything and often I actually really like attention :0), yet being the new kid on the block is always weird. I was actually not the only new person joining the staff, but I am the only new classroom teacher. The PE teacher is new and there is a new ELL teacher in addition to some other non-teacher staff members. We did a few ice breaker activities so that the newbies could "get to know" the staff, but remembering more than 30 new names after playing a simple game is hard! I have the second grade team down, so I will consider that a victory.
The principal is nice and all business. Well, not all business, but the woman knows how to stick to an agenda which I can appreciate. She mentioned that one of her professional goals this year is to do more observations, but very brief visits followed by brief conversations about instruction so that she can visit each classroom more frequently. I am all for having the principal drop in because I am happy to share what I am doing and I am never afraid to get feedback on my teaching/lessons.
After we did the in-service/get reacquainted thing, we met with our teams to review reading data and then we had the rest of the day to work in our rooms. My room is looking pretty ready. I started to label a few things, but I want to at least wait until after our Back to School night this Wednesday to really put the finishing touches on because my classes may change and I may find out that certain kids have nicknames. Speaking of my classes, I now have 21 in my AM session and 22 in my PM session. The boy/girl ratios are really funky. There are 13 boys/8 girls in one group and then 14 girls/8 boys in the other group (or something close to that). I am not too sure how that is going to work out, but I know that many families request to have either the AM or PM session (whichever works best with their schedule) so they are having a tough time honoring those requests and keeping the classes even. I realize that I need to view my classes as separate entities and I may need to be more active in the afternoon versus the morning or I may need to structure activities differently when I have more boys versus more girls. It will be interesting to meet them on Wednesday and see what they are like! My teaching partner said I have some cuties and she mentioned a few "pistols."
Now, for some pictures!!
The principal is nice and all business. Well, not all business, but the woman knows how to stick to an agenda which I can appreciate. She mentioned that one of her professional goals this year is to do more observations, but very brief visits followed by brief conversations about instruction so that she can visit each classroom more frequently. I am all for having the principal drop in because I am happy to share what I am doing and I am never afraid to get feedback on my teaching/lessons.
After we did the in-service/get reacquainted thing, we met with our teams to review reading data and then we had the rest of the day to work in our rooms. My room is looking pretty ready. I started to label a few things, but I want to at least wait until after our Back to School night this Wednesday to really put the finishing touches on because my classes may change and I may find out that certain kids have nicknames. Speaking of my classes, I now have 21 in my AM session and 22 in my PM session. The boy/girl ratios are really funky. There are 13 boys/8 girls in one group and then 14 girls/8 boys in the other group (or something close to that). I am not too sure how that is going to work out, but I know that many families request to have either the AM or PM session (whichever works best with their schedule) so they are having a tough time honoring those requests and keeping the classes even. I realize that I need to view my classes as separate entities and I may need to be more active in the afternoon versus the morning or I may need to structure activities differently when I have more boys versus more girls. It will be interesting to meet them on Wednesday and see what they are like! My teaching partner said I have some cuties and she mentioned a few "pistols."
Now, for some pictures!!
I added the color words to my rainbow train
I changed up my instructional wall a bit to include the stuff from the new math adoption. I had fish number cards 1-30 along the bottom before, but we are supposed to have the 120 chart and the "number parade" for our daily math routine. I actually really liked the daily practice routine we were taught during training and I think it will be great! The flip chart on the little table is also for the new math adoption.
The 120 chart uses a different approach than most number charts because 1) it goes to 120 so kids know how to transition beyond 100 (the trainer said kids tend to go from 100 to 200) and 2) the numbers go vertically instead of horizontally. Even though we are using this in Kinder to practice counting, it is building the foundation for place value because we make vertical tens.
I found some good things in my storage unit, like these plastic drawers, that add some extra storage. I am not using all of my teaching materials from first grade so I am trying not to unpack everything since it will just take up space. I am trying to keep my stuff really organized so I have some extra math supplies, stuffed animals, and stickers in these drawers.
I doubt my desk will ever be this clean once school starts! I set up the computer that was already in the room, but apparently we are all getting new laptops this week. Exciting, yet I wish those funds could be spent on teachers or full day Kindergarten...I know they come from different budgets, but still....
Tomorrow I am going to work on my attendance chart and my station labels. I decided to change my idea about having the kids put shells and starfish in buckets for attendance so it will look a bit different than I originally planned. Stay tuned for more pics!
Where Did The Summer Go?
I feel like the summer has been a whirlwind of fun and I can't believe that I am officially going back to work tomorrow. Monday starts our week of in-service and then the kiddos return to school on Wednesday September 8th. This coming Wednesday I will get to meet my students at Back to School Night and I am kinda freaking out that Wednesday is coming so soon! I know my room is almost ready, yet there are still little things to be done like arranging, cleaning, and labeling, so I am 100% ready for kids.
I visited my storage unit again today and found my calendar and math items after some digging. I also found some stuff that was from our house that I think will be great for my classroom like a small fan, small portable heater, and a paper shredded. Since they are not currently in use at home, why not take them to school?! I didn't drop that stuff off yet since I set the alarm off the last time I tried to gain access to school on a weekend. We have plenty of time tomorrow for working in our rooms, so I can get it all situated mañana. My roomie wants to start the day bright and early with a spin class and I agreed to it. Crazy? Definitely. We did a 26 mile bike ride on Saturday which was awesome, so I am honing my biking skills for sure.
Now that I have had some training for our new math curriculum, I am excited to get my main wall all set up with the calendar and elements for math. With a little more work everything should be in order! I am just about ready to curl up with some of my new teaching texts because I have not done as much reading as I would have liked to get ready for the start of the new year. I still have not even started The First Six Weeks and I am happily reading my way through Debbie Diller's book about Literacy Work Stations. I made signs for each station I want to have and tomorrow I need to laminate them. I also need to make labels for the coat hangers and the desks, but I want to check in and see how close my classes are to being full. I think families are still registering and those kiddos are being placed in my class.
Also, I was so excited to find out today that my donor's choose project was eligible for a match offer from Nickelodeon. There is a special Dora The Explorer Beyond The Backpack program that supports projects that will benefit kids who are starting Kindergarten. Awesome! I am now only 128 dollars away from being funded! It will be awesome if I can actually get a hold of all those great books for Literacy Bags closer to the beginning of the school year. Wahoo!
I visited my storage unit again today and found my calendar and math items after some digging. I also found some stuff that was from our house that I think will be great for my classroom like a small fan, small portable heater, and a paper shredded. Since they are not currently in use at home, why not take them to school?! I didn't drop that stuff off yet since I set the alarm off the last time I tried to gain access to school on a weekend. We have plenty of time tomorrow for working in our rooms, so I can get it all situated mañana. My roomie wants to start the day bright and early with a spin class and I agreed to it. Crazy? Definitely. We did a 26 mile bike ride on Saturday which was awesome, so I am honing my biking skills for sure.
Now that I have had some training for our new math curriculum, I am excited to get my main wall all set up with the calendar and elements for math. With a little more work everything should be in order! I am just about ready to curl up with some of my new teaching texts because I have not done as much reading as I would have liked to get ready for the start of the new year. I still have not even started The First Six Weeks and I am happily reading my way through Debbie Diller's book about Literacy Work Stations. I made signs for each station I want to have and tomorrow I need to laminate them. I also need to make labels for the coat hangers and the desks, but I want to check in and see how close my classes are to being full. I think families are still registering and those kiddos are being placed in my class.
Also, I was so excited to find out today that my donor's choose project was eligible for a match offer from Nickelodeon. There is a special Dora The Explorer Beyond The Backpack program that supports projects that will benefit kids who are starting Kindergarten. Awesome! I am now only 128 dollars away from being funded! It will be awesome if I can actually get a hold of all those great books for Literacy Bags closer to the beginning of the school year. Wahoo!
Standards, Curriculum and Icebreakers...oh my!
Today was the first day of training for our new math adoption. Cool surprise of the day is that we get paid for attending the two-day training. Nice! That helps with some of the spending I have done putting my classroom together. :0)
Certain parts of the training were fantastic. When we broke out into grade level teams to go over the first edition of the teacher's manual, I really got a lot out of it. It was great to meet some of the other Kinder teachers in the district and to get their take on teaching math to the little ones. Everyone was really nice and we had a good discussion going about how to incorporate the changes that come with the new adoption.
Other parts of the training were not so great. I know they include ice breakers and "fun" activities to break up the day and make sure we are not completely bored, yet I signed up because I wanted to become familiar with the new curriculum, not because I wanted to get to know people better. If it's a long day filled with lots of information--I can take it! I can see starting the day off with something fun or silly, but I felt like there were too many switches taking us from the larger group to our grade level teams which interrupted the flow of what we were really there to accomplish. All of the additional activities were interesting and fun, yet ultimately I feel like we could have gotten more out of the day if we had just skipped over those... I know...party pooper in the house...
I got to see a few other teachers from my former school which was nice and I feel more comfortable about teaching the curriculum now that I had the chance to look through the teacher manual and get some guidance on what to expect. When I am done posting this, I am going to take a look at youtube because I was told there are some sample lessons posted on there. It's always nice to see a new curriculum in action to help wrap my mind around what I will be doing. Fortunately, they have specifically stated that half day Kinder sessions are expected to get through unit 4 instead of unit 6 and they have put together separate pacing guides for full day and half day Kinder. They also expressed that this is kind of an action research year so we are really encouraged to try out the curriculum even if we are doubtful certain things will work with our grade levels and the district wants our feedback. We were a little skeptical of the little notes in the margin recommending that we look ahead to notice that we should cut out the paper manipulatives ahead of time and that we might want to print them on card stock, but we will give it a go. There are some daily practice activities that are important to the curriculum and even though they require us to do calendar and some math activities in a different way than we are used to, they actually seem to be fun and I think the kids will do great. We can already tell it will take a lot of time to train the kids to do the daily routine/practice activities, but in the end I think it will become pretty simple.
I have another day of training tomorrow and then I am planning to try out a spin class at my new gym with my roomie. I got a pair of those super padded bike shorts today, so hopefully I will make out ok with spinning. I have done it before and it's not a favorite of mine, but I know it's a great workout and it will be fun to do together.
Certain parts of the training were fantastic. When we broke out into grade level teams to go over the first edition of the teacher's manual, I really got a lot out of it. It was great to meet some of the other Kinder teachers in the district and to get their take on teaching math to the little ones. Everyone was really nice and we had a good discussion going about how to incorporate the changes that come with the new adoption.
Other parts of the training were not so great. I know they include ice breakers and "fun" activities to break up the day and make sure we are not completely bored, yet I signed up because I wanted to become familiar with the new curriculum, not because I wanted to get to know people better. If it's a long day filled with lots of information--I can take it! I can see starting the day off with something fun or silly, but I felt like there were too many switches taking us from the larger group to our grade level teams which interrupted the flow of what we were really there to accomplish. All of the additional activities were interesting and fun, yet ultimately I feel like we could have gotten more out of the day if we had just skipped over those... I know...party pooper in the house...
I got to see a few other teachers from my former school which was nice and I feel more comfortable about teaching the curriculum now that I had the chance to look through the teacher manual and get some guidance on what to expect. When I am done posting this, I am going to take a look at youtube because I was told there are some sample lessons posted on there. It's always nice to see a new curriculum in action to help wrap my mind around what I will be doing. Fortunately, they have specifically stated that half day Kinder sessions are expected to get through unit 4 instead of unit 6 and they have put together separate pacing guides for full day and half day Kinder. They also expressed that this is kind of an action research year so we are really encouraged to try out the curriculum even if we are doubtful certain things will work with our grade levels and the district wants our feedback. We were a little skeptical of the little notes in the margin recommending that we look ahead to notice that we should cut out the paper manipulatives ahead of time and that we might want to print them on card stock, but we will give it a go. There are some daily practice activities that are important to the curriculum and even though they require us to do calendar and some math activities in a different way than we are used to, they actually seem to be fun and I think the kids will do great. We can already tell it will take a lot of time to train the kids to do the daily routine/practice activities, but in the end I think it will become pretty simple.
I have another day of training tomorrow and then I am planning to try out a spin class at my new gym with my roomie. I got a pair of those super padded bike shorts today, so hopefully I will make out ok with spinning. I have done it before and it's not a favorite of mine, but I know it's a great workout and it will be fun to do together.
Another busy day
I had an excellent morning planning with my new teammates. I got to spend some time with them and got to know them a little bit better. I was feeling pretty nervous about how I would fit in as part of the team. They are extremely organized and have systems down pat for pretty much everything they do. The good thing is that they made me feel very comfortable about doing things in a different way if I want to. They kind of expressed the attitude that they want to do it their way (it seems like they like the consistency of how they have done things) yet they were open to my ideas and were enthusiastic about my suggestions to do things differently with my own classes. We talked and planned all morning and then went out to lunch together which was fun.
I also met up with my old first grade team for some appetizers later on and it was so nice to catch up with them and chit chat for awhile. I did get some sad news from them though...One of the students I taught during my first year had a mom that was sick with Cancer. She had brain Cancer and because of that she didn't make too many appearances at school. She called to check in often though, and she was one of the sweetest women. She was so nice and cared so much for her daughter. She had been battling Cancer for awhile and earlier this year she passed away. I hadn't thought about this family in awhile, but they were always so sweet and I was really upset to hear this news. I just can't imagine what they are all going through and how hard it must be for young kids to lose their mom. My current roomie actually taught this student last year when she was in 4th grade and she said it was just a horribly sad situation. The youngest child in the family was in my previous team member's first grade class this past year and she said she actually had two students' mothers pass away during the school year. Such a difficult thing to deal with, especially when the kids are at such a young, fragile age. Even though this didn't just happen super recently, I know the family is still mourning and my heart goes out to them.
After returning home from seeing those friends, I hit up the gym for a good sweat session on the bike and started reading the book I just received from amazon today.
I have only read the first two chapters, but so far I LOVE it. I am so excited to try out the ideas! Here is a little excerpt for you:
It's the end of summer. School begins in just a few weeks. At night as you sleep, you find yourself dreaming about your new classroom, how it will be different this year. You see yourself sitting at the guided reading table with five young students gathered around you ready to read a new book. As you introduce the new text, no one interrupts you. There is no "Teacher, I need help with this paper," "The headset at the listening station doesn't work," or "He hit me." You glance around the room and see the rest of the class working cheerfully and intently at reading and writing tasks that the children find purposeful and fully engaging. Two boys stand beside the overhead, which is projecting a poem onto a nearby screen. Together they read this poem, which had been introduced to the class during shared reading. Then the pair take a dry-erase marker and circle the rhyming words. They read the rhyming words together and use magnetic letters to make other words that rhyme with those from the poem. They copy their rhyming words onto strips of paper, which they put in their literacy work station folders. You smile and return your gaze to the small group you're sitting with. You observe which children are using the strategies you've been modeling. You guide their reading and prompt when necessary, watching your students in the process of becoming independent problem solvers. At the end of your guided reading group, students move to different work stations and the learning continues. Is this just a dream? It doesn't need to be...
I am looking forward to reading the rest and getting ideas for great literacy work stations that I can use in my room. I love how the author, Debbie Diller, emphasizes the importance of creating work stations using materials that have already been used for instruction, the importance of modeling what to do in each station, and having the children demonstrate they understand what to do before they are released to work independently. She also stresses the importance of teaching the work stations one at a time and not overwhelming the children with too much stuff too soon. I like her reminders to take it slow!
Tomorrow I will be in a training for our new math curriculum adoption. I am really intrigued to see what it's all about. From what I have seen so far, it does not look at all developmentally appropriate for Kinder students, especially since the manipulatives were not purchased. There are pages in the workbook that have very small paper "manipulatives" that have to be cut out. As if I would waste precious time having my five-year-old students cut out these paper pieces. No thanks! We are supposed to give the program a try, but I suspect we will be making some adjustments as we go along. In any event, it is always good to receive training and become more familiar with a program instead of just complaining about it, so I will give it a go and hope for the best!
I also met up with my old first grade team for some appetizers later on and it was so nice to catch up with them and chit chat for awhile. I did get some sad news from them though...One of the students I taught during my first year had a mom that was sick with Cancer. She had brain Cancer and because of that she didn't make too many appearances at school. She called to check in often though, and she was one of the sweetest women. She was so nice and cared so much for her daughter. She had been battling Cancer for awhile and earlier this year she passed away. I hadn't thought about this family in awhile, but they were always so sweet and I was really upset to hear this news. I just can't imagine what they are all going through and how hard it must be for young kids to lose their mom. My current roomie actually taught this student last year when she was in 4th grade and she said it was just a horribly sad situation. The youngest child in the family was in my previous team member's first grade class this past year and she said she actually had two students' mothers pass away during the school year. Such a difficult thing to deal with, especially when the kids are at such a young, fragile age. Even though this didn't just happen super recently, I know the family is still mourning and my heart goes out to them.
After returning home from seeing those friends, I hit up the gym for a good sweat session on the bike and started reading the book I just received from amazon today.
I have only read the first two chapters, but so far I LOVE it. I am so excited to try out the ideas! Here is a little excerpt for you:
It's the end of summer. School begins in just a few weeks. At night as you sleep, you find yourself dreaming about your new classroom, how it will be different this year. You see yourself sitting at the guided reading table with five young students gathered around you ready to read a new book. As you introduce the new text, no one interrupts you. There is no "Teacher, I need help with this paper," "The headset at the listening station doesn't work," or "He hit me." You glance around the room and see the rest of the class working cheerfully and intently at reading and writing tasks that the children find purposeful and fully engaging. Two boys stand beside the overhead, which is projecting a poem onto a nearby screen. Together they read this poem, which had been introduced to the class during shared reading. Then the pair take a dry-erase marker and circle the rhyming words. They read the rhyming words together and use magnetic letters to make other words that rhyme with those from the poem. They copy their rhyming words onto strips of paper, which they put in their literacy work station folders. You smile and return your gaze to the small group you're sitting with. You observe which children are using the strategies you've been modeling. You guide their reading and prompt when necessary, watching your students in the process of becoming independent problem solvers. At the end of your guided reading group, students move to different work stations and the learning continues. Is this just a dream? It doesn't need to be...
I am looking forward to reading the rest and getting ideas for great literacy work stations that I can use in my room. I love how the author, Debbie Diller, emphasizes the importance of creating work stations using materials that have already been used for instruction, the importance of modeling what to do in each station, and having the children demonstrate they understand what to do before they are released to work independently. She also stresses the importance of teaching the work stations one at a time and not overwhelming the children with too much stuff too soon. I like her reminders to take it slow!
Tomorrow I will be in a training for our new math curriculum adoption. I am really intrigued to see what it's all about. From what I have seen so far, it does not look at all developmentally appropriate for Kinder students, especially since the manipulatives were not purchased. There are pages in the workbook that have very small paper "manipulatives" that have to be cut out. As if I would waste precious time having my five-year-old students cut out these paper pieces. No thanks! We are supposed to give the program a try, but I suspect we will be making some adjustments as we go along. In any event, it is always good to receive training and become more familiar with a program instead of just complaining about it, so I will give it a go and hope for the best!
Year Long Plan
Sorry, I don't have any more fun photos to post today. I took a day off from the classroom and went walking with some friends this morning and then went on a river float with my roomie and two other teachers from my previous school. It was a nice, relaxing day.
Tomorrow, I am heading to school bright and early to do some year long planning with my new team. I have never put together a year long plan before, how about you guys? Apparently it is required at my new school and must be submitted to the principal. I will definitely be relying on my teammates to guide me through this process. I can see why it is important to think in terms of the entire year, but at the same time, I think that so many things change as you go and I hope this plan is viewed with some flexibility in mind.
I received the schedule for our in-service week and we actually have a significant amount of time to work in our classrooms. I am excited to meet the staff, but I am mostly concerned with making sure I am ready for the kiddos. We have Back to School Night one week from tomorrow, so there is still a lot to be done. Once we get our year long plan, hopefully we will also do some planning for the first week. I already have some ideas in mind, but of course I am interested to know what the other teachers are thinking since they have done it all before.
I am still working my way (slowly but surely since I have been so busy) through The First Six Weeks of School. It seems like it will be a great source of guidance regarding what should be accomplished at first. It is easy to get swayed by the powers that be who insist on the immediate start of content instruction, so I always appreciate a good resource to back up my own personal beliefs about what should be happening in the classroom to make the children feel welcome, comfortable, and part of a community that needs to work together to learn together.
I know many teachers have already started back and I hope everything is going smoothly for you! The first week back is always exciting, yet incredibly exhausting at the same time!!
Tomorrow, I am heading to school bright and early to do some year long planning with my new team. I have never put together a year long plan before, how about you guys? Apparently it is required at my new school and must be submitted to the principal. I will definitely be relying on my teammates to guide me through this process. I can see why it is important to think in terms of the entire year, but at the same time, I think that so many things change as you go and I hope this plan is viewed with some flexibility in mind.
I received the schedule for our in-service week and we actually have a significant amount of time to work in our classrooms. I am excited to meet the staff, but I am mostly concerned with making sure I am ready for the kiddos. We have Back to School Night one week from tomorrow, so there is still a lot to be done. Once we get our year long plan, hopefully we will also do some planning for the first week. I already have some ideas in mind, but of course I am interested to know what the other teachers are thinking since they have done it all before.
I am still working my way (slowly but surely since I have been so busy) through The First Six Weeks of School. It seems like it will be a great source of guidance regarding what should be accomplished at first. It is easy to get swayed by the powers that be who insist on the immediate start of content instruction, so I always appreciate a good resource to back up my own personal beliefs about what should be happening in the classroom to make the children feel welcome, comfortable, and part of a community that needs to work together to learn together.
I know many teachers have already started back and I hope everything is going smoothly for you! The first week back is always exciting, yet incredibly exhausting at the same time!!
Getting it Done
Another productive day in the classroom!
Take a look...
Take a look...
My masterpiece of the day. The idea is that as we learn about the colors, the children will find/bring in small items in various colors and place them in the bags. Then I will tape/staple them to the train car of the matching color. I want to write a little poem or something to explain that and post it above. I am also going to add the color words of course. I got this idea from Jessica Meacham's page, but I made it myself.
We put up the letter/picture cards for the phonics program and the number cards along the bottom.
I am still trying to figure out where I want the rest of the stuff on the big wall and I have to get my calendar supplies out of storage. I don't want to have this wall be too busy so I have to think some more about placement. I also have a little easel that I will bring out and use for instruction as well when I really need the kiddos to focus on one particular thing.
Since I don't have a bulletin board outside my room (they are designated for student work instead of a welcome to the class type board), I decided to just add the swimsuits as decoration. Originally I was going to write the students' names on them, but I decided against it. I think they look cute just as a little additional decoration above the main wall.
I added another set of alphabet cards on the cabinets near the "house" area. I figure the kids can never have enough exposure to the letters!
The room doesn't look that different, but a few more things are checked off the list.
Speaking of lists, I got my preliminary class lists today. They are interesting. I only have 14 kids in the PM class (so far) and there are 3 boys and 11 girls. Weird, right? The AM class has 18 kiddos (10 boys, 8 girls). I am fairly certain the classes will change between now and the first day and that most likely both classes will be larger, yet right now they seem unbalanced in a few ways. A few more boys should definitely be added to the PM class. I have a mixture of kids classified as both Hispanic and non-Hispanic, but that is the extent of the diversity in my classes. The morning class has a much larger percentage of non-Hispanic children than the afternoon class. I don't really care how the classes are made up or who I teach and when, but I do know that the morning session is preferable and I question why I have twice the number of Hispanic children in the afternoon class. It may be nothing, but it seems odd to me. That also leaves me with very few kiddos when children leave for English Language Development. That could be quite nice, but it just seems unbalanced between the AM and PM sessions.
I won't be working in the classroom tomorrow, but I am meeting a few friends to walk in the morning and I am going to take them in and show them my space. They are both teachers in the same district that I went through my master's program with.
P.S. I just got an email from a rep at Oriental Trading who quoted my recent post where I mentioned that I was disappointed in some of the items that I purchased there and encouraged me to provide some feedback because customer satisfaction is important to them. One the one hand, I was thinking...that's creepy and totally random...how did they come across my post..yet, they sure are on top of their customer service if one of their reps is actively seeking out websites/blogs that mention their products and takes the initiative to contact customers who are not satisfied. I feel bad now like I hurt Oriental Trading's feelings! I will say that some of the things I ordered from there are great.
The balloon lanterns are absolutely adorable and I think they are one of the cutest decorations in the entire classroom. I have not yet figured out how to assemble the beach ball lights, but they look pretty cute as well.
The took a risk on the stampers I got because some of the reviews were iffy, but I was happy with the size, bright colors, and easy to grasp handles on the stampers. I will see how they hold up once the kids start using them, but so far I am happy. Now that I was contacted, I feel like I should return what I was not happy with or at least provide feedback rather than just saying something negative on my blog space. Although, it is my blog and I can say what I want. hehe. But seriously, go OT for being interested in customer satisfaction. Bonus points have been awarded!
P.S. I just got an email from a rep at Oriental Trading who quoted my recent post where I mentioned that I was disappointed in some of the items that I purchased there and encouraged me to provide some feedback because customer satisfaction is important to them. One the one hand, I was thinking...that's creepy and totally random...how did they come across my post..yet, they sure are on top of their customer service if one of their reps is actively seeking out websites/blogs that mention their products and takes the initiative to contact customers who are not satisfied. I feel bad now like I hurt Oriental Trading's feelings! I will say that some of the things I ordered from there are great.
The balloon lanterns are absolutely adorable and I think they are one of the cutest decorations in the entire classroom. I have not yet figured out how to assemble the beach ball lights, but they look pretty cute as well.
The took a risk on the stampers I got because some of the reviews were iffy, but I was happy with the size, bright colors, and easy to grasp handles on the stampers. I will see how they hold up once the kids start using them, but so far I am happy. Now that I was contacted, I feel like I should return what I was not happy with or at least provide feedback rather than just saying something negative on my blog space. Although, it is my blog and I can say what I want. hehe. But seriously, go OT for being interested in customer satisfaction. Bonus points have been awarded!
Have you ever been randomly contacted through your blog?
Another Bag of Loot
I started out the day with a nice run through a local park with Jill and then we enjoyed some coffee and a trip to Lakeshore.
I heart Lakeshore.
I could spend my entire teacher salary there in a heartbeat and I definitely found some great things today! I am officially over my allotted spending money from my district, but I am okay with that. I appreciate every penny that doesn't come from my personal funds, but I recognize that teachers do end up spending a lot of their money on materials for the kids and the classroom.
I wasn't planning to go work at school today, but I was so excited about my purchases that Jill and I decided to head over and get some stuff done. Unfortunately, I set off the school's alarm! How awful! I was told when the principal and secretary left on Friday afternoon that the alarm was not on and that I could swipe my badge to gain access. Unfortunately, the badge was not linked correctly to my new school and when I tried my key, it worked, but that set the alarm off. Luckily, the number for the alarm company is printed right on the badge, but they were not too helpful. They told me they could not shut the alarm off and I would have to call my administrator or someone in maintenance, yet I did not have any of those contact numbers. The guy told me would try to call the head of maintenance and would call me right back. After waiting 30 minutes without anyone coming or anyone calling, we decided to just leave, but by that time the alarm had gone off. So, I didn't get to do any work and I am so embarrassed! When I got home I emailed the principal and she was understanding, but that is not exactly the impression I wanted to make! We were always allowed into my other building on the weekends and our ID badge gave us access. We only had to swipe once to turn the alarm off and then swipe once again upon leaving to turn it on again. I guess each school is different!
I heart Lakeshore.
I could spend my entire teacher salary there in a heartbeat and I definitely found some great things today! I am officially over my allotted spending money from my district, but I am okay with that. I appreciate every penny that doesn't come from my personal funds, but I recognize that teachers do end up spending a lot of their money on materials for the kids and the classroom.
These will be great for literacy stations!
I printed a smaller version of these, but purchased the big ones for name tags on the tables. Since I printed on regular paper, even after laminating, the small ones were too thin. I don't think the kiddos will be able to grasp them to move for the attendance daily check in. I want to try reprinting on card stock if my printer will take it.
SO excited about this Letter of the Day chart and accessories. We will do a letter of the week, so this is a great way to get extra exposure to words that start with the letter, how to write the letter etc. I think this will be prominently displayed on my huge blue wall.
I'm not sure where I want to hang these number cards yet, but I love how they go with the beachy theme and include the numeral, written word, picture, and tally marks for each number!
I adore all of the "Kid Drawn" items and I was excited to come across these nursery rhyme posters. I definitely want to incorporate rhymes into our day and these will be great!
I already have alphabet cards that go along with the Fast Track Phonics program that I will be teaching, but these were too cute to pass on and it's always good to have the alphabet posted in more than one location.
I wasn't planning to go work at school today, but I was so excited about my purchases that Jill and I decided to head over and get some stuff done. Unfortunately, I set off the school's alarm! How awful! I was told when the principal and secretary left on Friday afternoon that the alarm was not on and that I could swipe my badge to gain access. Unfortunately, the badge was not linked correctly to my new school and when I tried my key, it worked, but that set the alarm off. Luckily, the number for the alarm company is printed right on the badge, but they were not too helpful. They told me they could not shut the alarm off and I would have to call my administrator or someone in maintenance, yet I did not have any of those contact numbers. The guy told me would try to call the head of maintenance and would call me right back. After waiting 30 minutes without anyone coming or anyone calling, we decided to just leave, but by that time the alarm had gone off. So, I didn't get to do any work and I am so embarrassed! When I got home I emailed the principal and she was understanding, but that is not exactly the impression I wanted to make! We were always allowed into my other building on the weekends and our ID badge gave us access. We only had to swipe once to turn the alarm off and then swipe once again upon leaving to turn it on again. I guess each school is different!
So, Jill and I are going back in tomorrow to put in a full day and hopefully we can finish the rest of the projects on my list. I've got some laminating to do, some letters to hang, a train to make, a number line to find a home for and lots more! Hopefully the alarm incident will not be the running joke of the school because I really don't want to be "that person." I realized that because of all the budget issues, I will be the only new teacher at my school this year. Both last year when I joined the international school and my first year of teaching I had other new teachers to bond with. Hopefully it will be okay!
So excited to continue arranging, organizing, and creating in my home away from home tomorrow!! Stay tuned for more pictures :0)
Current Reads
Even though I still have lots to do in my classroom, I decided to take the weekend off. It seems silly to take time of from getting stuff done considering I have only really spent one full day going at it, but for some reason I really have an aversion to being in the school when it's not officially open. I was always afraid of setting off the alarm at my old school and I just prefer to be there when there are other people around in case I need to ask for assistance or get some information. I am planning another full day on Monday, but then pretty much every other day next week is busy, so hopefully Monday allows me to finish up.
Today was somewhat of a lazy day. I went to the gym, did some grocery shopping at Trader Joes, played with my roomie's dog, and did some reading.
I think I mentioned in a previous post that I was asked to be a peer reviewer for the International Reading Association. People submit book ideas and they have other professionals review the ideas and sample chapters and provide feedback. I have to read what was submitted and then say whether or not I think the book should actually be published. I completed a form online indicating what literacy areas I am most interested in, so a few days ago I was offered an opportunity to review a proposed book on comprehension. I read a few sample chapters today and it was really good! I was very interested and felt the author did a good job balancing the research based information with actual example and vignettes in order to illustrate how to make it work. I hope the book gets published because I want a copy! I still need to complete the actual review which involves providing comments to the author and answering some specific questions that were provided to me, but I think the actual reading part is the most time consuming.
I also finished reading the book I recently got on morning meeting and afternoon wrap-up. Overall I would say that it was a pretty good read. I particularly liked the author's suggestions for games to play at the end of the day to provide a review and wrap-up of the day. There were many creative fun ways to get the kiddos thinking about what they learned in interactive ways that I know would be engaging for young learners. She created these ideas to combat the typical child's response of "nothing" when a parents asks what he/she learned at school that day because kids need some opportunities to think about and process what took place during the day. One suggestion she has is incorporating the senses. Instead of just asking kids what they did, she recommends asking them what they saw, what they heard, what they did with their hands, etc. That gives them the opportunity to be a bit more focused and specific in their answer.
I also appreciated how the author included lots of black line masters of the forms/letters/sheets she mentions so that it is quite simple to take her ideas and run with them. Sometimes I like to tweak and make an idea my own, yet sometimes it's really nice to have easy access to something that can just be copied and distributed or put to use without any adjustments.
The main message I got from this book is the importance of building community and taking time at the beginning and the end of the day to meet as a group. Kids should know what to expect throughout the day prior to beginning the activities and they benefit from having a little bit of time to reflect on what they accomplished or what they learned during the day. I know I will be very tight for time, but I would like to do my best to incorporate some of her games and community building ideas so that we are not always on the go. She really does a good job giving examples of how community meeting times can be used for instruction and assessment affirming that time is definitely not wasted when these practices are put into effect.
Next on my reading list is The First Six Weeks of School, which many of you said is a terrific resource and then I would also like to start Bright Beginnings for Boys. And, I ordered one of Debbie Dillers books from amazon regarding literacy spaces and stations. The other Kinder teacher I met said she does everything whole group and that was not at all what I was picturing to do with my groups, so I want a resource that dives into setting up stations, particularly ones that focus on literacy activities kids can do independently or explore with one other student. I have heard great things about Debbie's books, so hopefully it will be a good resource. It's possible that the other half day Kinder teacher does stations, but this could be one aspect of my classroom that is different and I am okay with that. I know I have to do what I feel is right for my teaching practice and my students. I want to be able to work with small groups which means the other kids need activities and different areas to access that won't require a significant amount of monitoring or adult help. Now that I have the basic room arrangement ready to go, I am not super stressed about getting each area 100% perfect because I want to know the kids and get into the year a bit before I introduce certain stations/areas. I have lots of work to do, but I realize not everything has to be done before the first day of school. Once the kids are actually in the room I always have some realizations about what I imagined in my perfect world scenario classroom and I end up putting certain materials in different locations and making other adjustments.
Time for some reading in bed before I go to sleep!
Today was somewhat of a lazy day. I went to the gym, did some grocery shopping at Trader Joes, played with my roomie's dog, and did some reading.
I think I mentioned in a previous post that I was asked to be a peer reviewer for the International Reading Association. People submit book ideas and they have other professionals review the ideas and sample chapters and provide feedback. I have to read what was submitted and then say whether or not I think the book should actually be published. I completed a form online indicating what literacy areas I am most interested in, so a few days ago I was offered an opportunity to review a proposed book on comprehension. I read a few sample chapters today and it was really good! I was very interested and felt the author did a good job balancing the research based information with actual example and vignettes in order to illustrate how to make it work. I hope the book gets published because I want a copy! I still need to complete the actual review which involves providing comments to the author and answering some specific questions that were provided to me, but I think the actual reading part is the most time consuming.
I also finished reading the book I recently got on morning meeting and afternoon wrap-up. Overall I would say that it was a pretty good read. I particularly liked the author's suggestions for games to play at the end of the day to provide a review and wrap-up of the day. There were many creative fun ways to get the kiddos thinking about what they learned in interactive ways that I know would be engaging for young learners. She created these ideas to combat the typical child's response of "nothing" when a parents asks what he/she learned at school that day because kids need some opportunities to think about and process what took place during the day. One suggestion she has is incorporating the senses. Instead of just asking kids what they did, she recommends asking them what they saw, what they heard, what they did with their hands, etc. That gives them the opportunity to be a bit more focused and specific in their answer.
I also appreciated how the author included lots of black line masters of the forms/letters/sheets she mentions so that it is quite simple to take her ideas and run with them. Sometimes I like to tweak and make an idea my own, yet sometimes it's really nice to have easy access to something that can just be copied and distributed or put to use without any adjustments.
The main message I got from this book is the importance of building community and taking time at the beginning and the end of the day to meet as a group. Kids should know what to expect throughout the day prior to beginning the activities and they benefit from having a little bit of time to reflect on what they accomplished or what they learned during the day. I know I will be very tight for time, but I would like to do my best to incorporate some of her games and community building ideas so that we are not always on the go. She really does a good job giving examples of how community meeting times can be used for instruction and assessment affirming that time is definitely not wasted when these practices are put into effect.
Next on my reading list is The First Six Weeks of School, which many of you said is a terrific resource and then I would also like to start Bright Beginnings for Boys. And, I ordered one of Debbie Dillers books from amazon regarding literacy spaces and stations. The other Kinder teacher I met said she does everything whole group and that was not at all what I was picturing to do with my groups, so I want a resource that dives into setting up stations, particularly ones that focus on literacy activities kids can do independently or explore with one other student. I have heard great things about Debbie's books, so hopefully it will be a good resource. It's possible that the other half day Kinder teacher does stations, but this could be one aspect of my classroom that is different and I am okay with that. I know I have to do what I feel is right for my teaching practice and my students. I want to be able to work with small groups which means the other kids need activities and different areas to access that won't require a significant amount of monitoring or adult help. Now that I have the basic room arrangement ready to go, I am not super stressed about getting each area 100% perfect because I want to know the kids and get into the year a bit before I introduce certain stations/areas. I have lots of work to do, but I realize not everything has to be done before the first day of school. Once the kids are actually in the room I always have some realizations about what I imagined in my perfect world scenario classroom and I end up putting certain materials in different locations and making other adjustments.
Time for some reading in bed before I go to sleep!
Finally!
I finally spent a good amount of time in my classroom today with the help of my good friend Jill (thanks Jill, you rock!) and I am very pleased with how it looks so far. I still have lots to do, but I am feeling much better than I was when I first saw the room. Yes, it's big and there is a lot of empty wall space that needs to look inviting for the little kiddos who are getting their first taste of school, but it now looks pretty fun and inviting! If I were 5, I would feel right at home! The beach theme is not totally evident everywhere you look. In fact, if you didn't know that I intended to have a beach theme, you might not even catch it, but there are cute little touches here and there that give it a little pizazz! I don't think my room looks like the other Kinder rooms, but I am really happy with what I have chosen to do and I know I will feel happy and at home in my space. A classroom is a home away from home--in fact, we spend more time in our classrooms each day than we do in our homes--so it needs to feel just right!
What we did today:
What we did today:
- retrieved all my teaching stuff from our storage unit
- rearranged furniture to create distinct areas
- put up paper and borders for main focus wall/calendar wall and word wall
- hung balloon lanterns and beach banner
- laminated
- sorted through all the stuff that was left in the room and organized it
I didn't think all the stuff was going to fit in my new Yaris, but it did!
This will be the whole group instruction area. Obviously there will be some learning aids on the blue paper, but we didn't get that far today..I am thinking of dividing the large wall into a few different sections for Fast Track Phonics, Calendar, and my attendance check in pails.
Word Wall
Close up of the pops
Storage shelves to the right of the carpet area. The rainbow buckets are empty still, but I just set them out to see how it looks. There is so much room to store things, I can't possibly fill it all up! We have TVs to go along with our Fast Track Phonics program because there is a video element.
Free choice/Play area. There are shelves on both sides of this mat with bins of materials the kids can use during choice time. I am not planning on too much choice time, but kids may get 10 minutes while I work with another small group on literacy activities and then they will switch.
I put away the containers that were in the room and sorted through the materials, getting rid of stuff I don't want. I want the kids to be able to have smaller quantities of materials to take out and to understand that they can use one box at a time. I will label both sides with a picture of what kind of material is inside. I prefer to have everything look uniform rather than in all different containers that are old and gross looking.
Kitchen area. This is on the other side of the alphabet puzzle carpet. I want to use a lot of labeling in this area and environmental print by including empty food containers/boxes. Again, they won't have a ton of time to play here, but it will be a choice when I am rotating groups and kiddos are not working with me.
View from the alphabet puzzle mat.
I still want to make a large train that goes all along the wall to the right of where I was standing when I took this photo (ala Jessica Meacham's idea to go along with the book Freight Train), but we worked all day and just couldn't get to everything. I am really excited to get that done and I think it will be super cute. I just wish I had an overhead so I didn't have to free draw the train. I found some great pictures online that I want to copy and hopefully that will be a success.
Still to come:
- Focus Wall/Calendar setup
- Welcome to Kindergarten banner above whiteboard
- Rainbow Train
- Attendance beach pails with starfish and shells
- Figure out beach ball lanterns (another sketchy item from Oriental Trading, yet the order was worth it just for the balloon lanterns which I LOVE)
- Purchase a pocket chart for my daily schedule cards
- Come Hang With Us in Kindergarten bulletin board with bathing suits and swim trunks
- Get some type of stand for big books
- Convince someone to give me a kidney table to replace my round table
- And then there's trying to figure out how to teach Kindergartners as well!!!
And now, I am heading to my bed to watch Project Runway--if I don't fall asleep!
Good Finds
After my disappointment in the stuff I received from Oriental Trading, I decided to head over to Michael's just to take a peek. $75.00 later....
They had some good sales and deals and I found some really good beachy stuff. I was disappointed to be reminded once I reached the register that teachers get an additional 10% the total purchase on FRIDAYS. I collected so much random stuff from so many different aisles that I did not have the desire to put it all back and go again tomorrow.
I also got some nice little bags in each color of the rainbow that I will use for keeping materials for certain activities that I don't want the kids touching until after directions are given. Each table in the room will be one of the colors in the rainbow (marked by one of the balloon lanterns I got that will hang from the ceiling). I got two of the same bags in white too for my birthday take home bag and my I lost a tooth take home bag.
I cannot wait to get into the classroom tomorrow and get to some organizing!
They had some good sales and deals and I found some really good beachy stuff. I was disappointed to be reminded once I reached the register that teachers get an additional 10% the total purchase on FRIDAYS. I collected so much random stuff from so many different aisles that I did not have the desire to put it all back and go again tomorrow.
Check out my finds!
 |
| adorable beachy banner for over the whiteboard or at the top of a bulletin board-- $9.99 |
 | |||||
| super cute musical instruments with fish on them! | --$5.00 each |
 | |
| Cute beachy wooden pieces for word finding pointers-- $ .59 each |
 |
| Cute drink cozies for holding pencils or markers--$1.00 bin |
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| beachy magnets--$1.00 bin |
 |
| games--$2.99 each |
 |
| foam letter stamps |
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| super cute dress up stuff (each was either 53 cents or 30 cents!!) |
I cannot wait to get into the classroom tomorrow and get to some organizing!
boxes of disappointment
Today I got my boxes from Oriental Trading and Amazon. I have to say, I am a little underwhelmed with the stuff from OT. Items that looked big and plentiful in their website photos come in very small packages and are a lot smaller than I imagined. I got a package of magnetic letters that cost $8.99 and there are not a lot of letters at all! I also got some foam letter beads that looked like they would be the size of quarters and they are closer to the size of very small buttons. And, I got glitter sticker letters that said they were a certain size and either they sent the wrong item or I messed up in ordering because they are really small as well. I thought there would be a lot more of those too, but no such luck! I recall seeing buckets of letters at stores like Michaels that come with LOTS of letters but these just don't seem to cut it.
I have to look up their return policy because I feel like I may have wasted some money which is not cool. I am at least happy that the beachy stuff I ordered came today because tomorrow Jill and I are heading to my storage unit first thing to pick up my boxes and then we are spending the day in my classroom and getting stuff done! I am excited to start making some progress in there.
I got some plastic shoe box size storage boxes today and I am hoping to put some materials like small blocks, shapes, and other items for play time in them so that I can have a shelf dedicated to things the kids can use during their free play time. I will probably store math manipulatives somewhere else (although I found out the district adopted a new math program but did not purchase the hands on manipulative!!!!! why???). I am thinking of putting one of my shelves in front of the foam alphabet mat to create a free play area. I would like to have some small group time during which some kids will have 10 minutes of play time while others work with me and then switch out the groups.
Hopefully tomorrow I will have some good pictures to post so stay tuned!!
I have to look up their return policy because I feel like I may have wasted some money which is not cool. I am at least happy that the beachy stuff I ordered came today because tomorrow Jill and I are heading to my storage unit first thing to pick up my boxes and then we are spending the day in my classroom and getting stuff done! I am excited to start making some progress in there.
I got some plastic shoe box size storage boxes today and I am hoping to put some materials like small blocks, shapes, and other items for play time in them so that I can have a shelf dedicated to things the kids can use during their free play time. I will probably store math manipulatives somewhere else (although I found out the district adopted a new math program but did not purchase the hands on manipulative!!!!! why???). I am thinking of putting one of my shelves in front of the foam alphabet mat to create a free play area. I would like to have some small group time during which some kids will have 10 minutes of play time while others work with me and then switch out the groups.
Hopefully tomorrow I will have some good pictures to post so stay tuned!!
Busy Bee
Wow! What a busy day. I am exhausted and a tad bit stressed (just a tad!). I met with one of my team members for a few hours to talk Kindergarten today and then I bought a car! I got a Toyota Yaris. It's silver and super cute. After attempting to absorb a ginormous amount of information from my team member, I cruised around with my friend Jill who helped me get the car and return my rental. Then she was my date for a pedicure and sushi dinner because today is my third wedding anniversary with Mr. Sneaker and he is a little too far away to be my dinner date right now. ::sniff sniff::
I have yet to do a single thing in my classroom besides bringing in some of my stuff. I got a super cute foam floor puzzle with the alphabet and numbers at Costco for $17.00! I have a really hard time with visual spatial tasks so I have difficulty imagining the furniture in the room in any other formation besides the way it is currently set up. I need to find a way to create some different areas like a writing center, a workspace for parent volunteers, and a small group area in addition to the tables where the kiddos will sit to do their seat work and a whole group instruction area. I have some ideas but I have yet to move anything around. My goal is to do that on Friday and get some areas mapped out on the walls for my word wall and calendar area etc. I am still overwhelmed with how much I have to do and just a tiny bit discouraged about all of the fun ideas I have been blogging about recently. I always find it difficult to join a team that already has everything figured out. I am currently trying to process my role and how I will function within the team. I don't want to be someone who is not a team player, yet I also want to incorporate my own ideas. I value the expertise of the people who have already taught Kinder for years since I have not, yet I want to be a thinker and try out my own ideas instead of just doing what has been done in the past. I am seeking a happy medium between learning from others and still maintaining my own spark and unique approach to teaching Kindergarten. I find this difficult and just feel like it is going to take some time to absorb everything. I got SO much information today that I need some processing time.
In other news, I am really excited about the books I just received in the mail today.
I was contacted by an editor at the International Reading Association who came across my blog and thought that I would be a good addition to their review board. She sent me these three texts, which I am really excited to read. I will review them here of course. I am also signed up now to review ideas and manuscripts that are submitted for publication through the IRA and I got my first review assignment today. I am excited to be part of that and I absolutely heart that I got some free books to take a look at! I feel like I have so much going on right now and I have been going a hundred miles a minute since I arrived back in the states, but I have several teaching texts that I am really looking forward to reading and trying to fit them in before school starts!!
I don't have any more photos of the classroom since nothing has changed so far, but hopefully I will have some new stuff to post this weekend!
I have yet to do a single thing in my classroom besides bringing in some of my stuff. I got a super cute foam floor puzzle with the alphabet and numbers at Costco for $17.00! I have a really hard time with visual spatial tasks so I have difficulty imagining the furniture in the room in any other formation besides the way it is currently set up. I need to find a way to create some different areas like a writing center, a workspace for parent volunteers, and a small group area in addition to the tables where the kiddos will sit to do their seat work and a whole group instruction area. I have some ideas but I have yet to move anything around. My goal is to do that on Friday and get some areas mapped out on the walls for my word wall and calendar area etc. I am still overwhelmed with how much I have to do and just a tiny bit discouraged about all of the fun ideas I have been blogging about recently. I always find it difficult to join a team that already has everything figured out. I am currently trying to process my role and how I will function within the team. I don't want to be someone who is not a team player, yet I also want to incorporate my own ideas. I value the expertise of the people who have already taught Kinder for years since I have not, yet I want to be a thinker and try out my own ideas instead of just doing what has been done in the past. I am seeking a happy medium between learning from others and still maintaining my own spark and unique approach to teaching Kindergarten. I find this difficult and just feel like it is going to take some time to absorb everything. I got SO much information today that I need some processing time.
In other news, I am really excited about the books I just received in the mail today.
I was contacted by an editor at the International Reading Association who came across my blog and thought that I would be a good addition to their review board. She sent me these three texts, which I am really excited to read. I will review them here of course. I am also signed up now to review ideas and manuscripts that are submitted for publication through the IRA and I got my first review assignment today. I am excited to be part of that and I absolutely heart that I got some free books to take a look at! I feel like I have so much going on right now and I have been going a hundred miles a minute since I arrived back in the states, but I have several teaching texts that I am really looking forward to reading and trying to fit them in before school starts!!
I don't have any more photos of the classroom since nothing has changed so far, but hopefully I will have some new stuff to post this weekend!
Classroom Reveal-Before
After a LONG day of traveling yesterday I am back in the states! It took about 9 hours or so to fly from Munich to Chicago, then another 4 hours from Chicago to Portland. It is so nice to be home! I slept a lot on the first leg of the trip and I was still able to get another 6 hours last night so I am doing well so far and not feeling too jet lagged. I was up bright and early at 6, but it was good to get the day started early. I got my rental car and went to see my new school. I talked with the principal for about 15 minutes and she showed me around. It is SO completely different than my old school within the same district. SO different. Change is good, but I have to get used to it. For starters, my classroom has a door frame but there is not an actual door. I am not sure how I feel about that. My classroom and the full day Kindergarten classroom are both at the end of the hall. Straight ahead where the hall comes to a dead end there is a bulletin board of sorts that the other teacher has already designed as a place to post the letter and word of the week. There isn't really a space for my own bulletin board which I was hoping to put up outside the classroom, but fortunately there is a lot of wall space in my classroom. The room is huge. I was completely overwhelmed walking into it because it just looks so incomplete! I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me, but I have no idea where to even start. There is only one window, which is not small, but that leaves all of the other walls designated as wall space and storage space.
It is hard to take over a classroom that someone else has moved out of because inevitably there is a lot of stuff left behind. To be honest, I don't want most of the stuff that's there. I want a fresh start and I am not looking forward to taking the time it will take to go through all of the stuff that is still in there. I am not quite sure if perhaps the other teacher is not entirely finished moving stuff out, but fortunately there is so much storage space (including cabinets that are so high I can't even reach high enough to open them or see what's inside) that I can probably just hide the stuff I don't want and forget about it.
The way the furniture is arranged is just the way I found it. I didn't do anything to the room today, but I just tried to take it all in and get some ideas of where I might want to put things. I don't think I will change too much about where the furniture is because it makes sense.
I realized that there isn't a projection screen in the room which means that I may not be able to use my document camera like I had hoped. I think it would work to project on the whiteboard, but I am not sure. I also don't have a cart because there isn't an overhead either. Weird. Most of the stuff I saw in the room seemed like stuff I would not want to use (like toys) and I didn't see many of the materials that I am used to having (like math manipulatives), but I didn't really take a lot of time to look through things because I was overwhelmed. We did adopt a new math curriculum so it's possible that the materials are just not there yet.
After visiting the school I headed to Target and got some stuff for school and lots of odds and ends for life. I came across the exact kind of folders that I was thinking of using for my word work folders (plastic with 3 prongs) and they were on sale for 15¢ each! I loaded 25 green ones and 25 yellow ones into my cart, but when I checked out, they all rang up as 75¢ each. I didn't even realize it until I got home because I had gotten so much other stuff and paid in two separate orders so I can get reimbursed for the school stuff. I actually ran into a good friend of mine while I was shopping, so we shopped together and caught up. I wasn't completely paying attention to the total. When I checked over the receipt I realized that they were not the same price as advertised so I went back to Target to check it out. Sure enough, the sign right below the folders was listed as 15¢ each, but it was actually referring to the paper version of the same folders, not the plastic kind. The guy at the returns counter called an associate who checked it out and he said that they would adjust the price for me since the sign was misleading. So I got two class sets of durable plastic 3 prong folders for $3.75 per set! What a deal! I can probably even reuse them since they are plastic. I also got some binders so I can start working on my UTOT binder, my sub binder and my word list binder.
I also went to Michael's today to get some scrapbook paper to use with my class welcome bulletin board. Even though I don't have much space outside the door in the hallway, I think I will still do a big bulletin board with all the kids' names on it inside the classroom somewhere relatively close to the hooks where they will hang their coats. I want it to say, "Come Hang With Us in Kindergarten" with a clothesline and bathing suits hanging from it. I found some cute patterned paper that I will use to cut out swim trunks for the boys and one piece bathing suits for the girls. I will write their first and last names on the bathing suits. Hopefully it will be cute!
When I go back tomorrow, I am hoping to put up some of the colored butcher paper to outline my word wall and maybe do some cutting/laminating of some of my other projects. I am meeting one of my teammates on Wednesday morning and I kind of want to go over things with her before I do too much. I don't want to waste tomorrow though, so maybe some smaller projects will work.
It is hard to take over a classroom that someone else has moved out of because inevitably there is a lot of stuff left behind. To be honest, I don't want most of the stuff that's there. I want a fresh start and I am not looking forward to taking the time it will take to go through all of the stuff that is still in there. I am not quite sure if perhaps the other teacher is not entirely finished moving stuff out, but fortunately there is so much storage space (including cabinets that are so high I can't even reach high enough to open them or see what's inside) that I can probably just hide the stuff I don't want and forget about it.
The way the furniture is arranged is just the way I found it. I didn't do anything to the room today, but I just tried to take it all in and get some ideas of where I might want to put things. I don't think I will change too much about where the furniture is because it makes sense.
I realized that there isn't a projection screen in the room which means that I may not be able to use my document camera like I had hoped. I think it would work to project on the whiteboard, but I am not sure. I also don't have a cart because there isn't an overhead either. Weird. Most of the stuff I saw in the room seemed like stuff I would not want to use (like toys) and I didn't see many of the materials that I am used to having (like math manipulatives), but I didn't really take a lot of time to look through things because I was overwhelmed. We did adopt a new math curriculum so it's possible that the materials are just not there yet.
After visiting the school I headed to Target and got some stuff for school and lots of odds and ends for life. I came across the exact kind of folders that I was thinking of using for my word work folders (plastic with 3 prongs) and they were on sale for 15¢ each! I loaded 25 green ones and 25 yellow ones into my cart, but when I checked out, they all rang up as 75¢ each. I didn't even realize it until I got home because I had gotten so much other stuff and paid in two separate orders so I can get reimbursed for the school stuff. I actually ran into a good friend of mine while I was shopping, so we shopped together and caught up. I wasn't completely paying attention to the total. When I checked over the receipt I realized that they were not the same price as advertised so I went back to Target to check it out. Sure enough, the sign right below the folders was listed as 15¢ each, but it was actually referring to the paper version of the same folders, not the plastic kind. The guy at the returns counter called an associate who checked it out and he said that they would adjust the price for me since the sign was misleading. So I got two class sets of durable plastic 3 prong folders for $3.75 per set! What a deal! I can probably even reuse them since they are plastic. I also got some binders so I can start working on my UTOT binder, my sub binder and my word list binder.
I also went to Michael's today to get some scrapbook paper to use with my class welcome bulletin board. Even though I don't have much space outside the door in the hallway, I think I will still do a big bulletin board with all the kids' names on it inside the classroom somewhere relatively close to the hooks where they will hang their coats. I want it to say, "Come Hang With Us in Kindergarten" with a clothesline and bathing suits hanging from it. I found some cute patterned paper that I will use to cut out swim trunks for the boys and one piece bathing suits for the girls. I will write their first and last names on the bathing suits. Hopefully it will be cute!
When I go back tomorrow, I am hoping to put up some of the colored butcher paper to outline my word wall and maybe do some cutting/laminating of some of my other projects. I am meeting one of my teammates on Wednesday morning and I kind of want to go over things with her before I do too much. I don't want to waste tomorrow though, so maybe some smaller projects will work.
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