One of those days...

Today was one of those days that made me very happy I was able to say goodbye to one class and start fresh with another at the midday mark. We have had some awesome days so far, but today was a challenge for me. Despite our short days, so far I am having success with getting everything done that is on my schedule. I created my own daily lesson plan pages and color coded them to match my class colors so I won't get them mixed up. I put them inside a page protector and so far I am referring to these pages constantly throughout the day to make sure that I am staying on track with time. Since our day is broken into so many small time segments, it's hard to remember when I need to transition to the next activity. We were a little bit more productive this afternoon, but that can definitely be attributed to the fact that I can make changes and fix problems that occurred the first time around.

I started a blog for my classroom as a way to communicate with parents and so far I have gotten really good feedback from two parents. I am not really sure how many parents will read it frequently, but I would love to read a classroom blog if I were a parent. Eventually I will start posting pictures of the children, but I am waiting to get a confirmation of which families have asked that their children not be photographed. I am using the blog as a platform to share more detailed information with the parents and I am trying to post once or twice each week. I am really hoping that this can substitute for weekly or monthly newsletters, but I have not decided yet. I sent home a paper letter last Friday just to talk about the first week, but I feel like it's so much easier to post on the blog and more exciting because I can add photos and more details. Not to mention I installed the Google translator on the blog so I don't have to translate the text for my families that speak languages other than English.

My roomie and I woke up at 5 am this morning and did a spinning class at the gym. I was not really awake until about 15 minutes and I did take it easy since I am not used to spinning, but by the time it was over I felt great. I love getting my workout over and done with first thing, but it takes a lot to drag myself out of bed that early to get it done, so it usually doesn't happen too often. I love the gym I joined (24 Hour Fitness) and they have great classes there. The pilates fusion is awesome! Since I start my doctoral courses in two weeks, I want to try and make an early morning workout on Wednesdays part of my routine since I have class on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. Hopefully that will become a habit and it won't seem as torturous to get up early as it did today! I feel like spinning and I are not a match made in heaven, but I do enjoy it if the music is good. The music today was not really that awesome, but like I said, I still felt great at the end of the day. It was so nice to leave work knowing that I had already worked out!

I decided to hit up the library since I am living in a new county than I did before Germany and I needed to get a new library card. While I was there I picked out some cute books to read in the next few days. I guess it has been awhile since I visited the library because they had a self checkout system. It was fun checking the books out ( I kind of felt like a kid playing store) and I am glad that I finally got that checked off my list. Now I need to get in the habit of borrowing books instead of buying so much from amazon! 

I am happy tomorrow is Thursday because after Thursday comes Friday :0)