Expectations

The beginning the year has begun with great excitement and anticipation of what is yet to come.  I always dread the first few days of school, it is so much of getting back into the routine of things for the children and myself.  We spend A LOT of time practicing our classroom expectations and procedures and just getting to know each other for the first time, or again.  I long for the days of the well oiled machine where the children just came in and got started, and were reading and writing and loving it! But, like everyone always says you have to take it slow to go fast.  So we are going SLLOOWWW....

We started the year with just some getting to know you activities and community building exercises.  We watched the John Lennon performance of Imagine on YouTube and the children reflected on how we would build and maintain a peaceful community.  
   This year we are implementing a behavior piece to our data wall.  I will send home the components of this piece and the expectations in each area so you can see how we will monitor student behavior. 

The Day Has Arrived!!

    So tomorrow is the day I go back.  I have had a great summer with my kids.  Albeit at times I wanted to come back sooner... Oh well it's here there's no denying it any longer.  I went in last week and spent some time unpacking and setting up my room. Our building is still under construction we've been split into two buildings, we are still split until October/November.  But, lucky me, I get to move on back as I take on the 4/5 combo classroom.  
    I admit upon entering I was a little skeptical how it was going to be kid friendly come the 15th, but the crew is confident so I will put my trust in them!  I took a few pics of the before and after.  I will save you the pictures of the hallway with construction guys everywhere, grouting, doing electrical etc.  Sorry for the quality I took them with my phone.  I will remember to bring my camera many days this year! 

 So this is what it looked like when I walked in. Not too bad...boxes stacked neatly, furniture piled in the corner. I can do this!!

 

 This is what it looked like 5 hours later!  Pretty good. Oh wait there's a giant gaping demolished wall... Oh yeah our whiteboards are being held up in Shangai. Yes! Shangai!! So until those arrive we will be getting a smaller temporary one so I will have to cover up the ends of that nastiness!! 

 

 And the back.  I love the library and all the storage!! I filled it right up.  Some of you may be wondering where my desk is, well we no longer have desks in our building and most likely across the district now. They want a more kid friendly space that is all for student use, not a big ol' desk taking up precious work space.  So I just use that big table,  pretty much a glorified desk.

  Tomorrow when I go in it is get ready for back to school night and putting up some much needed decorations/color!

Scheduling Scheduling

     Alright it's June 28th and the master schedule has been sent out from our principal, eh not to shabby this year. My Friday's are awesome, rest of the week... We are required to have 3 hours of literacy each day and 1hr15 min of math and then content gets what is left over.  The latter makes me sad, as science is my most favorite subject (and that of my student's). So I am left trying to find ways to bring content into our literacy block through research and writing experiences.  You can see the break down of my schedule here.  Feel free do download and adjust as it fits you. 
****Side note: t I am font freak and love to color code and use a variety of fonts, it is like a sickness I swear, I cannot however figure out how to upload the cute version of my documents I get to see. Oh well I am a teacher, a lover of paper, smell of new pencils, post its, labels and funky fonts!