The One About Starting Over

Hey!

So, my good intentions of coming back after summer fizzled away with the busyness of August.  I am sure August is that way for you too though.

After an awesome summer at home with the family, August brought us back to reality.  The reality was that there was a ton of change coming upon us with the new school year.  Me moving schools.  Amy moving grades.  All of the kids changing schools.  The kids being split between schools.  Everything we knew had been turned upside down.  But not in a bad way.  Change can be good, even though I am, admittedly, at times resistant to it.  But we were all very excited about these changes.  They were fun.  Positive.  Exciting.

So, August brought me to a new school.  Well, sort of.  You'll remember that I am now teaching where I attended elementary school forever not too long ago.  The church and school welcome me with wide open arms.  It was an effortless transition.  I have been amazed, humbled, and blessed with coworkers and church members alike eager to have me aboard.  It did make climbing the mountain of change much easier.  

But, as you may know, with moving comes boxes.  As in everything you own.  In boxes.  That you have to unpack.  Find places for.  Hide.  Cram.  Get creative.  You know the drill.  It took me the better part of a week to get everything out and away.  And honestly there are things that I just had to place somewhere with the hopeful promise of returning periodically throughout the school year to finally put away and sort through.

After that faculty meetings began.  As did block planning, lesson planning, back to school planning.  Luckily I am familiar with some of the curriculum so that isn't all new to me.  But you forget about how many little day to day procedures and routines there are to learn at a new school.  Big ones like fire drills and restroom locations and what to do/who to see when you need _____.  Little ones like lunch count and scheduling and recess.  All in all though my coworkers have been eager to help, assist, and offer advice when needed.  Again, I've been blessed.

Despite seeming like I would never be ready and dealing with the hectic schedules of 2 different schools and all of the kids Amy and I made it.  The school year started off very well last Tuesday.  I have 17 kids this year, our cap is 18 and I am sure we will fill that spot soon.  My kids are amazing, as are their parents.  The first day went off without a hitch.  My 10th year teaching and this was the first year with no crying.  One little girl had the sniffles for about 30 seconds, but that was it.  I was pleasantly surprised.

These first 5 days have flown by.  Last week was filled with initial assessments, rules, procedures, getting to know you, back to school activities.  You know the stuff.  This week we began everything, with the exception of Reading Groups.  I am still doing assessments in order to properly group them.  I will begin that next week.

My classroom is huge.  The one downside is that it is an interior room (read: cave) so I have no windows and there are none in the hallway.  In the event of a power outage, I only have the soft glow of 2 red "EXIT" signs to illuminate the entire room.  But, it's all good.  The room I am in now was my 5th Grade classroom so that is pretty crazy.  The walls are cinder block which brings me back to my first job in New Orleans where I also had cinder block walls.  So that was a bit of nostalgia.  I think I am happy with my set-up and haven't felt the need to rearrange anything yet, hopefully I've hit upon a good layout that I can stick with.  I am notorious for changing desk arrangements and/or other room components mid-year.  We will see if this year is any different.  

All in all though, back to school has been a breeze this year.  I have been lucky.  But with all the change and easy transition is nice.  I still haven't been able to make much for TPT but I hope to get back onto that soon and get everything going.  I miss making things, and selling too.  I'll keep you posted though.  

I'll close with some pictures of my classroom.  Nothing fancy, I didn't go all out this year but I am pleased with how it turned out.  I hope your year is off to a great start!

Thanks for hopping by!

Giant panorama of the room when I first moved in.

My box pile.  It got bigger.  Then it went into the recycling because I could barely get in the door.

Finding a home for the frog collection is one of the first things I have to do! 

My name!  On the door!

My word wall.  Literally.  I didn't jazz it all up and decorate it with frogs.  I may do frog letters later and replace those but I didn't have the time or energy.  Note to self: frog word wall letters - make for TPT!

My vintagey (yes it's a word I'm sure) alphabet.  Again, not frogs but a retired teacher from my last school left it and I fell in love with the vintage, old school look and now I just can't bear to be without it.  I get attached like that.

My class pictures.  All 9.  

My door, decorated and ready.

Tags for the kids' backpack pegs.  Not fond of the curtains but I don't have cabinets, just open shelves.  I need to jazz the curtains up though.

Birthdays.

Big panoramic 1st day picture.  I hope it gets bigger when you click on it.

Me, ready for the first day!  Bring it!

The One About the Move

Happy June!
Are you finished with school yet? If not, I hope it's coming to you soon. As I mentioned in the last post our last day of school was May 22 so technically it's been out for over a week. However, I'm not considering summer vacation to have actually begin yet, I'll save that for tomorrow. I'm totally one of those people who has to begin new things, diets, units, etc, on a Monday. But there's a more logical reason other than being neurotic.

See, I had work to do before summer could actually begin. I know everyone does, but I had some different end of the year work. First of all, I had to finish the yearbook. I am in charge of creating our school's yearbook and I love it. However, I tend to put off the bulk of the work until the spring and then I'm crunched for time to get it in by the deadline. There's another dirty little secret, I'm a horribly procrastinator. Anywho, in addition to finishing the yearbook, I also had to finish packing up my classroom and bringing home my stuff. I'd been working at that for several weeks prior to the end of the school year so I had a good handle on it. But these two seemingly small tasks were, in fact, quite daunting. But with a lot of work I was able to finish them up by Thursday. Due to my moving to a different school and some other things, I didn't have any meetings this year so that ended up being a timesaver.

Thursday also happened to be Amy's last day of the school year and her faculty was having a little lunch party after the half day was over. There was some more motivation for me.

So, here I sit with summer beginning tomorrow even though I guess it began last week. Amy has meetings for the next couple of days so I am home by myself with the kids. We'll be taking it easy with Amy still at work. Lazing around sounds good and I know we all need some of that. Maybe a little time at the pool? Riding bikes? TV show marathons? The sky's the limit people, I'm living on the edge here!

But I guess I've gotten slightly off topic since the title led you to believe this post was about me moving schools. So I'll touch on that. See, it's something that's been working in me all year. God's been whispering and guiding me and I've been doing by best to listen and follow. Around Spring Break it became official, I was moving.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of change, but I'm welcoming this one. I'm excited. A new school. A new principal. New coworkers. A new classroom. New everything. Yet, ironically these things are also quite frightening. I'll be the new kid on the block again (anyone else have the song Step By Step stuck in their head now?). But that's not so bad right? It'll be refreshing. Another fun part about the move is that I am moving to the school where I went to elementary school! Where I first met Amy in 7th Grade! Also, I came to this school in 2nd Grade and that's the grade Braeden will be entering next year! So those things are pretty neat. Stella will be joining me too but Jackson will be attending the school where Amy teaches. We decided to split them for many reasons and they're both exited. I think it's going to be a great thing.
So there. The move. I know I've got my work cut out for me. The hauling of my stuff to school and unpacking alone is enough to drive me bananas. My garage is full of all of my teaching stuff. I'll need to review all of the curriculum. New block plans. New materials. Aaahhh! So much to do! But for now, it's June and I am taking the month to do nothing school related! Vacation! I'll post here, but that's about it.

Come July I want to work on some things for my TPT store and slowly (keyword slowly) begin looking at curriculum and planning. Then in August when I return I'll begin the nitty gritty stuff.

But now it's summer! It was a fantastic year and I know the summer will do it's best to compete! I hope that you're summer is awesome. Whether it has already begun or you're in single-digit countdown days. Enjoy it teacher friends!

Thanks for hopping by!

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The One About 100 Day

So, I'm still here.  Yeah, I've been MIA for a little while.  Sorry about that.  You know how it goes.  Things get busy and all.  So again I'll promise to post more frequently, this time I mean it!  I promise

Tomorrow is one of my all-time favorite days in 1st Grade - 100 Day!  Now, I'm sure you're the same way, I'm always up for a fun celebration of any sort.  An excuse to do fun thematic learning.  Crafts.  Make silly hats (a total other post I've been meaning to write).  You know, the usual fun stuff that makes this job totally awesome!  I pretty much plan the entire day to center around the number 100.  

Now, I'm not claiming to be totally revolutionary or anything in my celebration.  I'm sure you do some similar things on 100 Day.  How many ways can you count to 100.  What does 100 _____ look like?  What would you do with $100 (always one of my favorite writing assignments).  What would you look like if you were 100 (always one of my favorite crafts).  Then there is the 100 Day project that each student completes at home and brings in to share.  Obligatory, but always fun.  Then there's the 100 Day snack, made from 10 each of 10 different items.  Oh and who can forget 100 day necklaces made of Froot Loops!  And while I'm on it, there's a race to fill in a 100 chart the fastest, first boy and first girl win a prize!  I think you get the picture.  

I always enjoy the 100 day project as a teacher.  Seeing what the kids want to collect and how they want to present it.  However, being a parent of a 1st Grader, I was able to be on the other side if it all this year.  Yikes.  I felt a little bad for all of my former parents.  Just a little though, it's still a great project!  Braeden chose to make a Lego car with 100 Lego pieces.  Not too bad right?  Well, not until you factor in his indecisiveness and perfectionist qualities.  I thought I was going to pull my hair out in frustration at times, but it got finished and he enjoys it.  It will be fun to see him present it tomorrow to his friends.  I know he's proud of it.

I was going to do the whole "Dress Like You're 100 Years Old" idea, but I didn't get it together.  I couldn't make up my mind about it so I just put it off for another year.  However, I did come across a neat photo shoot on Facebook the other day that I think I will share with my students tomorrow prior to their craft of what they will look like when they're 100 years old.  It is a photo shoot a photography set up of men and women who are 100 years or more older.  From a photography standpoint (a little side hobby of mine) they are beautifully done.  They are awesome pictures and it is so amazing to think that these people have been alive for 100 years.  The things they have seen, done, experienced.  It's awesomely mind-boggling.  But I digress.  You can find the pictures here.  I'm going to try an impress the awesomeness of this upon my students but I'm sure there will be giggles and silliness, but I think they will enjoy it.  I mean, what is the likelihood that they have ever seen someone who is 100 years old?  I'm stoked about it.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh, one last thing I have planned for tomorrow is a fun little book I created for my students to work on throughout the day.  It has some writing prompts (some I've mentioned above), some math work (how many sets of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 25 are in 100), a some fill-in-the blank page, and a word search.  My kids (and I if truth be told) love these kinds of little booklets with work with so I try to make them when I can.  If you're interested head on over to my TPT store here and check it out!

So, what are your plans for 100 Day?  Do you go all out like I do or do you stick to just a few activities?  Any neat plans/thoughts/ideas you love doing?  My 100 Day is early, earlier than most of yours I'm sure, since we start in mid-August.  I'll try to make it back tomorrow or Friday to share the 100 Day fun with you and hopefully have some cute pictures of the writing and crafts my kids complete!  Until then, hoppy teaching!  

The One About Google Maps

Well hello! By now everyone should have returned to school and should be getting back into the swing of things. How is the new year treating you? I hope all is going well. I've been back for a week today and so far things are good. The 3-day week last week was good. A 3-day week like that after a long vacation is a catch-22. On one hand it's a bummer to return for only 3 days. I mean, you can't really start anything new and the kids are still all wired and hopped up on Christmas. But, on the other hand, it does give you a brief transition time for them, and you, to ease back into routines and schedules. So I guess it's all in how you look at it. I'm a glass half full kind of person so I'll go with the latter. By the time this Monday rolled around we were fully ready to begin everything and didn't need many reminders or reviews. Anywho.

So, this week I started a new unit in Social Studies. You know the one. regardless of your curriculum or what you teach, it's all pretty similar at this level. Fun and exciting, but similar. This is the unit where we study where we live. You know, like neighborhoods, communities, cities, states, country. You get the drift. Well, I decided to try something new this year. Keeping it fresh and all. In addition to learning the general information and definitions, I decided to have the kids work with Google maps. Oh my.
Now, I am by no means claiming to be the first to have this idea or try it out. I know that is far from the truth. But if you have not done so yet, I highly suggest you try it. Today, after reviewing the terms and defining them again, I introduced Google maps via the SMART Board. I showed them how they can type in the name of our state and see it from a satellite view. Then, how you can do the same with a city and neighborhood. Then it was time to totally wow them and type in an address. I did mine as the example and they were stunned. Clearly they had never used Google maps at all. That or they had no clue of its capabilities.

We zoomed into my house and looked at it from the street view. The kids were thrilled. Having Braeden in my class only made it even more hilarious as he was over the moon about seeing his house on the SMART Board. They quickly jumped ahead and guessed at the next part of the lesson - finding their own house.

We have what we call a COW (Computer On Wheels) that has 24 MacBooks. They each got their computer from the COW and were given the instructions to: log on, open Safari, go to Google, and find Google maps. While they were doing this I wrote their addresses on index cards and gave everyone theirs. The next part of the assignment included typing in their address, finding their house, zooming in, and printing the picture. I blew their little First Grade minds. It was amazing to watch them. Out of 17 kids there wasn't one who wasn't fully engaged and enthralled in the lesson. A few needed some assistance along the way, but most were fully independent. I had a blast watching them and seeing the pure joy on their faces. It was one of those teaching moments. You know the one. You're strutting around and proud of yourself. Best. Teacher. Ever. All 17 finished the assignment. Lucky me, it doubles as a Social Studies grade and a Technology grade! Bonus!

Possibly the best part of this all was that Braeden immediately told Amy about it when we got home and cited it as the "best part" of his day. Later he even insisted Amy sit down so he could show her what he learned. What up!

So, maybe you've used Google maps in the classroom before or maybe you haven't. If you have, do you have any suggestions/hints/secrets to share? If you haven't then what are you waiting for? Do it tomorrow or now if you're reading this at school! I don't know why I waited this long to try it. It is definitely something I will be using in the future. I'm already brainstorming ways in which I can use it more! I think it will be the hot topic in the classroom for a while. I foresee the kids spending a lot of time on Google maps on our classroom computers! What fun!



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