Multiple Intelligences

It has been so much fun learning about our different "smarts". It's lead to great discussions about learning differences and strengths. Love multiple intelligences!

Anticipation

Tonight I am full of anticipation for the upcoming (quickly approaching) school year. I am excited, nervous, and ready! I was out today and saw a student from my school who happily greeted me and has had a great summer. I have to say I rarely see kids out because I don't live in the same town that I teach, but I happened to be out at a store over that way today. It was kind of cool!

Anyhow, this year is going to be a crazy one for me, but I am excited. Along with teaching full time, I (like most teachers I know) am on a district committee, a school committee, and am also in charge of Relay for Life at my school. I'm also going to begin grad school (on the weekends) full time in a couple of weeks. Sometimes the thought of all this is a little overwhelming, but I'm ready for the challenge!

I have worked very hard in my room this summer and think the changes I made will really help my days run more smoothly. We shall see!

I'm excited to meet my kiddos and get started with the year. Here we go!

Class Assignment Day, Classroom, and Other Thoughts

Today was Class Assignment Day at our school. I volunteered from 8-12. I loved it! I got to see some of my kids from last year. (Holy cow! They've grown ten feet!) I also got to meet a few I will have this year. I loved it! I am so excited for this school year.
I've been working in my room a good bit this summer. The head custodian at my school keeps picking on me that I haven't actually left and had any summer break. He's partially right. I just get bored so easily!
Anyhow, I have been working and I'll share some photos:
    



I'll have to take more pictures! I just realized that I haven't taken any updated ones and I'm nearly completely finished now. Oh well! Anyhow, these are of the progress I made. I'm pretty excited about my room this year.

Sad Thoughts

I heard the news about the shooting at a school in Connecticut yesterday after school.

I actually overheard a few teachers in the hallway.

Then, I checked my email and had an email that mentioned it.

Of course, I figured it was a high school. Things like that don't happen at an elementary school. Elementary schools are filled with safety, love, belonging... markers, crayons, iPads, rulers... not guns. Not shootings.

When I found out it was an elementary school it broke my heart. To be honest, I couldn't even watch the news last night because I was afraid to hear it. Afraid to see it. Afraid to confirm that it is reality.

I watched the Today Show this morning. I cried.

When I heard it was an elementary school I immediately thought of my sweet babies... the ones I, just hours before, sent out the door with hugs and "have a great weekend!" We had a good day. We took a few quizzes, worked hard, had an extra recess we earned earlier this week, had a "dance party" (we dance to one song in the room) because one of my kids had selected it as his prize from the treasure box. They begged me to leave the music on while we packed up and I actually did. We sang and danced and laughed. We had a great day.

I spend my entire day, no, my entire life making sure that my kids feel safe, loved, and wanted. Ask any teacher- that is one of the biggest parts of our jobs. People think we only teach curriculum, but we do so much more. We love, protect, understand, and teach. We teach the curriculum given to us, but we also teach about acceptance, tolerance, and doing the right thing. We teach caring. We teach love. We do these things by example.

Some people have posted on facebook and elsewhere that it is in a teacher's DNA to protect their kids. You know, I have to say that I agree. I don't have any children of my own (unless you count my Dachshunds!) but I know that each year I am given a new set of children. I teach them, I love them, I comfort them, I protect them. Teachers are advocates for our children. We understand that every day people drop their children off at school and trust us to be there for them and do right by them. We take it seriously.

The teachers and staff who lost their lives in Connecticut are my heroes. The children killed by this senseless act... it just kills me. I will continue to pray for all those impacted by this horrible tragedy. I cannot imagine being in that situation. I do not know what I would have done, how I would have reacted. I know that my number one goal would have been to protect my babies. The teachers who died protecting their kids... they are truly amazing.

On Monday I will hug my kids tighter. I will listen to them more intently. I will continue to love them, make them feel safe. I will remember that each and every day is a gift and I should not take a single moment with them for granted. They are truly precious gifts in my life and I am thankful for each and every one of them.

When You Enter...

I made this the other day and will be putting it in the hall between my room and a teammate's room. :)

It says:

When you enter our classrooms...

You are scientists.

You are explorers.

You are important.

You are loved.

You are mathematicians.

You are authors.

You are leaders.

You are respected.

You are the reason we are here.

Love,

Mrs. _______

Ms. ____________

I am thinking I may change the order of these things when I fix it all up on the wall with my neighbor. :)

Also- to give credit where credit is due- I got the idea from pinterest and changed it to suit us. 

Third Year Teaching, Third Classroom

I believe I mentioned in an earlier post that I was asked to move rooms at the end of the school year. I happily said yes because I LOVE my job and will move where ever I need to if it means staying there. :)

Plus, I secretly LOVE new spaces and the challenge of new decorating ideas!

I went to school last week and worked some. This is what I was able to accomplish. 

I have decided to use this space to keep the kids on track with scheduling, etc. They will check here each day to see if it is their turn to use the ipod, go to the learning commons, etc. They will also find out what work station they will begin with in math station rotations.

This shows a close-up of the writing process tracking system. They will each have a button magnet with their number on it and move their magnet once they complete each step of the writing process. 

This is the beginnings of my part of the room where we will do guided reading and strategy groups as well as conferences.

This is the first half of the word wall. I haven't put my word wall so low before, but the kids make the word wall as we go through the year, so it is important that they be able to reach it. Last year I put it on 2 tall cabinets and that worked, but some of them couldn't reach the top letters.

This is the second half of the word wall and the "interesting words" wall. That's where kids put the words they see as they are reading that are interesting and can help them add voice to their writing.

This will be our math word wall. This is not something the kids build on. I add words as we go through out math units.

We are a Leader in Me school and we teach kids about leadership and encourage them to be leaders. I found this idea on Pinterest and fell in love. So, I made it a little more colorful and put it in our bathroom.

This is where we will store supplies. Last year the supplies were in cabinets and the kids could not easily access them. I thought this would be the perfect solution!

This is the beginnings of my classroom library. I like that I have been able to fit it in a small space, but I am a little concerned about how many kids will be able to use this area at the same time. I may have to have a rotation for that as well. That's ok, though.

See the Leader!

We are a lighthouse school for Leader In Me. This lovely little inspirational quote will go above the mirror in the bathroom in my classroom. 

Too cute!