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 =)