I survived...so far!

I survived the first week of school and I am almost done with the second week! Whoo hoo! The first week was super super hard. My body was starting to give out on me with the stress and the sleep deprivation and the new germs from my kids. But this week is going WAY better. WAYYYY better! I feel good, I know my kids better everyday and we are all learning our way more and more. I have 27 second graders right now but September 2nd I will give up 5 of my kids to the new teacher. I am sad about losing those 5 kids, I am really getting attached to them and to all my students. It is so funny how quickly we are getting attached to each other. Even my tough kids that give me problems all the time hug me and draw pictures for me. I really can honestly say that this is exactly what I want to be doing. I love it! I love my kids even if they make me crazy with their incessant talking. They are good kids, they have good hearts and I so appreciate being able to share this experience with them.





Evie is doing GREAT! She is saying more words all the time. Some new ones that I hadn't heard include funny and don't. I love it! She is getting prettier every day and I am amazed at how well she is handling me being at work all day. She is doing fantastic with our new schedule! =)

Progress...

Here is my room as of today at 445PM.





I found out today that I will have 25 students. That number will probably go down to 20 or 22 by the end of next week. I got to help register new students today, that was really cool! I will take more pics of my door and room tomorrow. Tomorrow night is Open House for all parents and students. I am working on my packets for my parents. The packet will include a letter of introduction, class schedule, supply list, and student handbook. Wish me luck everybody, tomorrow will be a very busy day =)

Being a Teacher

I have already been put in charge of my school's Art contest and I have been charged with the task of creating an Artist of the Month program. We already have a composer of the month program. I am soo thrilled to be asked to do these things! It makes me very happy to be asked to help with school things. =)

Yesterday I got the greatest compliment. My mentor teacher came into my room and said it looked great. On top of that she said she wanted to steal my morning routine idea! That is about the most flattering thing that could have happened to me on my first day of preplanning. I spent the morning like a deer in headlights so having that happen in the afternoon gave me the burst of confidence I needed.

What is my morning routine you ask? I am going to have the kids come in and file their homework under their name and then place their folders in my inbox. Then I will have them pick up their journals (that I am providing) and sit down. I bought some creative and silly journal starter books, I will put one up every morning and have them write. I will also have a math problem of the day that I will put up everyday for kids that finish the journal work really fast. I am super excited about the journals. I always always loved journal writing as a student, even at the college level I found it to be one of my favorite aspects of my classes. I think that teaching young children to just express themselves through the written word is so empowering. And their journals are for them, I won't grade them on grammar or spelling, or making sense. I just want them to have as many opportunities as possible to write for fun. I have personally kept journals my whole life, and now I keep a blog =)

My Classroom

OMG!! I had no idea, no clue how much work it is to get ready for school as a teacher until today. WOW! I worked my fanny off today and I made progress but my room still has a long way to go. Because you are a loyal reader I will now subject you to before and after photos of my classroom. (BTW, I LOVE having my own classroom!)


Here is my classroom door.


Here is the view from the back wall, this is the before shot.


Here is the after.



Here is my room from the back left corner, this is the before shot.



Here is the after shot.



And here is a shot of my room as I left it today. This is from the front right corner of my room.