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 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!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The One About A Desk

My desk.  And an excuse to play with the panoramic feature on my iPhone!

Do you have a desk?  A table?  A landing spot?  I have to personally.  I know a lot of people are anti-desk, stating that a teacher should be up and about and around the classroom at all times.  Well, me (and my feet) slightly disagree with that notion.  See, I need a landing spot.  See how I italiscized that?  To stress the need.  A place to put my stuff.  A place to grade.  A place to organize, gather, sit, collect, hold, etc.  I think you get the picture.  

Now, I don't sit there all day.  I am up and about most of the time.  But if I am using the ELMO or grading or working one-on-one with a student, I'll be there.  That and, of course, on breaks.  See, you agree now don't you.  I'm sure most of you have a similar spot somewhere.  Mine is a table and student desk put together in an L-shape in the front of the room.  The location is crucial as my laptop must be connected to the ELMO and the SMART Board, both of which are in the front of the room.  See, yet another important need for a desk.  So, it's not a desk per say, but you get the picture.

I've had a lot of difference set ups over the year.  There was the ginormous (I kid you not) 6 foot by 4 foot metal monstrosity I had at one school.  It was huge!  But I loved it.  Do you know how many piles of stuff neatly organized stacks you can create on a desk that size?  I've also had a smaller wooden number, basic but it got the job done, a simple computer desk, and another art class-type table.  I have to admit, the ginormous beast aside, my latest arrangement is my favorite.  I'm a fan of the L-shape.  

I wish I could say that I was the most organized teacher out there.  Like some of the great blogs I follow.  But I don't like to lie.  Now, I'm not a mess, exactly.  I like to think of it as organized chaos.  Yeah, that's probably a good description.  But, I'll have you know, I know exactly where everything is and there is a method to my madness.  You know how it is.  You're busy.  There isn't always time to put it away neatly where you found it (despite the fact that you tell the kids that about every game, manipulative, and project they get into).  Sometimes you just need to put it down somewhere.   

There are times though, that it even gets to me and I must purge and reorganize.  With the Christmas season upon us I'm quickly getting there.  So, I've bared my soul, and desk here to you.  I hope you don't think less of me as a person or teacher.  I'm sure everyone has their dirty little classroom secret.  Like my closet, but that's a topic for another post!

So, what about you?  Desk?  No desk?  Everything neatly organized and aligned or creative piles?  I promise I won't judge you either!  It takes all kinds though!  :)