I Love Lucy

I am in such an amazing mood yesterday, a far cry from yesterday that ended with a headache and defeated feelings. To think that everything can be made better with little old Lucy Calkins. A bit of background - I love teaching literacy - both reading and writing. I especially love Lucy Calkins. I think she is amazing and I love how her books are written in narrative form. Granted it takes longer to get to the meat of what she is saying, but it makes for such an easy read that I actually end up understanding each bit more. Anyways, at my school, the first grade team creates lesson plans together, and dear Lucy wasn't included in the plan. I tried to teach with the plan on Monday, and it was a complete disaster. The kids were not engaged and I didn't get much writing from them. So on Tuesday, I decided to secretly do my own thing aka start a writing workshop the Lucy way. Let me tell you, I got way more writing when they had the freedom to write about something that they know - themselves! And today, when I said it was time for writing, I even got some cheers. Never thought I'd hear that. But a big part of me felt guilty for not following the lesson plans. However, today, the first grade team met with our principal and assistant principal to discuss writing rigor. And my assistant principal revealed that she loves Lucy Calkins and used her books when she was a teacher. And she went on to suggest that we use it in our rooms! Oh my, I can't even tell you how my face must have lit up. I was so excited. I went and got my very own set of writing books (which were stashed in a resource room), and got full permission to use them!

Happiness in the form of Lucy. 

So, needless to say, I am beyond pumped that I can not-so-secretly be a writing workshop lover, and I can't wait to have writing again tomorrow! And I'm starting Daily 5 tomorrow too. I'm bringing in a bag full of shoes to discuss finding Just Right books. I bet that will be a lot of fun and the kiddos will get a kick out of seeing me hobble around in my fiance's shoes!

Overwhelmed

This week has been very tough on me since we have to administer a standardized pre-test to our kiddos. Normally, it wouldn't be a huge deal except that it's only the first full week of school and that the tests have 45 questions long and that there are three tests they have to take and that there is also a writing prompt as well and that it's only the pre-test. The real deals are given once a quarter. 

I do understand the importance of having data to know if my teaching practices are effective or how schools/districts/cities/states/etc are doing as a whole, but it's just so much. I'm feeling super overwhelmed by it all. Add to that everything else that is new to me - all the school assessments and different curricula and just that things are done differently here than they are in Madison, WI, where I did my student teaching. It's just a lot of change and adjustment at once, and it's a lot. On top of that, all Arizona teachers must be SEI endorsed (structured English immersion) so I am attending a class for that. And it met this past Saturday and this Saturday for all day long when I really could have used that time for getting ready for school. And there's homework too and yikes! I wish student teaching would have prepared me for getting used to how much work being a teacher is. 

On the plus side, tomorrow is the last day of testing so Friday will be a regular day - probably with a lot of review about procedures. I've had new kids trickling in all week, and a lot of them have caught on to how we do things, but review is always good :)

Anyways, it is late (not really, but it feels late) so I am probably off to bed. Now that Evan and I are in our new apartment, my commute is now only 20 minutes as opposed to 45 minutes so that's at least nice so that I don't have to wake up super early anymore which makes for me being much happier!

I Survived!!

So today was THE day - the first day of school! My first ever day of school as...yelp...the teacher! Let's just say I was definitely panicking on the way there (luckily Evan was driving) and up until I had to go pick up my kiddos. And that panic turned to frazzle as I attempted failed tried served breakfast to my firsties in the classroom. Of course it was cereal and of course one of my students accidentally knocked his over and of course our janitor is super busy and hadn't come by to clean the carpet yet. So there is nasty dried up milk in my carpet. Yuck.

Then we raced over to music class. Oh music... my saving grace. It gave me 45 joyful minutes collect my thoughts and revisit my lesson plans and make sure I have everything I need. After that time zipped by, the kiddos and I returned to our classroom to learn about procedures up the wazoo. So necessary yet so uninspiring. We covered classroom rules, how to get to the carpet, how to sit and act on the carpet, how to clean up table spots, how to get supplies, how to ask to go to the bathroom, how to walk in line, how to do a fire drill (because of course we had one today...), and how to move through the cafeteria. Lots and lots of procedures. And tomorrow, there is a lot of review on my plan since the kiddos got a lot shoved at them for one day. 

We ended the day with a writing bit on their first day of first grade. They got to draw and write about something that happened today. They are all hanging up on my student work clothesline so it's not so empty and bare. 

And that was it. Then they went home. The whole leaving school process caused me to get a bit frazzled since I took forever explaining their take home folders and figuring out how everyone got home (which I still messed up on since I sent one of the kiddos to the wrong bus; luckily it was caught before anything major happened. Tomorrow I'm walking with him to the right bus).

I could finally breathe again. I had done it; I had survived my first day of school of my first year teaching. One day down; 179 more to go :)

August Currently

Yay! My first Currently with Farley at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade with her monthly Currentlys...

Here is mine!

This past week was a whirlwind for me as I had time to work in my classroom and a few PDs thrown in for fun. Next Monday and Tuesday is all PD and grade level meetings, and then Wednesday is THE DAY aka the first day of school aka everything I've worked for and wanted for the past five years! So exciting yet so nerve wracking. I attempted to make a teacher binder today, but all I got done was hole punching some Common Core things and putting them in. I'll have to work more on that tomorrow...

Classroom Pictures!

So I have been working in my classroom for three days now. I meant to diligently take pictures after each day so I could really see my progress and how much I've done. Of course, I forgot to every day. So no measuring my work and seeing how much I got done. However, today I was determined to remember aka I set an alarm on my phone to remind me. So here it is! My very first classroom!!

This is the view from the door. To the right is my carpet area, the left is my rainbow table and straight ahead are the kids' table spots!

Please ignore all the junk on my rainbow table, but here is my small group area where I'll do guided reading and math groups. And I really like my student work clothesline. At my school, we have four required bulletin boards, and guess how many are in my room? So I had to be creative about where to display kids' work, but I really like it. There is another one on the other side of the closet that says Work so together, the two say Student Work. 

Turning around 180 degrees, here is my carpet area. Despite the fact that I have a Smartboard, I decided to have a traditional carpet area since I have never worked with a Smartboard before. So until I get used to it, I don't really want to focus my lessons on it when I don't even know what I'm doing! But here is also my classroom library too! Sidenote, the big whiteboard on the wall just fell off today. It's good thing Evan was there to help me since I don't know what I would have done if it had fell and it was just me in the room. Or worse, if it was me and the kids...I'll have to get to maintenance to fix it tomorrow!

Close up of my library. I made the labels myself - nothing fancy - and I am sorting the books by genre so the kids can find them easily. I thought about making it an authentic library and doing authors' names, but that seems way too difficult, even for me, since I like things to be categorized in ways that make sense. For me, I almost always know what book I want based on the title or what the cover looks like or what the story is about, but never ever by the author. Therefore, I sorted by genre. 

This is my wishing tree. When parents come in for Meet the Teacher night, they can take a sticky from the tree. Each sticky lists an item that I'd love to have for the classroom. Most of them are snacks for the kids, but I also have pencils and ziplocs on there as well. Plus, when school starts, I can just change the words and keep the tree - I was thinking the classic Chicka Chika Boom Boom tree :)

Back of the room. My lovely yet empty word wall is just waiting to be filled and more kids' tables plus a heap of books that need to be organized, put away, and/or returned to the book room as I found out that I have about 50 books that should have been turned in at the end of the year but weren't! And as for my teeny, tiny windows, I found a Welcome Back window cling that I got at Target last year - before I knew my classroom would have practically no windows. However, it fit perfectly up there!

Lastly, my class rules. I thought about making them with the kids, but I also wanted to have rules all set and ready to go. I actually first saw rules like these on Sandra's blog, Sweet Times in First. I adapted them just a tiny bit to better fit what I expect my kiddos to do and how to act.

I still have some things to do of course so it's still a work in progress. But I still have Thursday and Friday to work in it! Tomorrow, we have actual training and then next week is when the hardcore stuff begins. Oh yeah, and the first day of school is next week too - is this real life??

Treasures 4 Teachers

I, like many of you, am always looking for bargains when it comes to supplies I need for my classroom. Even thought the teacher that I am taking over for left me a ton of resources, I'm still finding myself needing simple supplies like office supplies and general decorating materials. Luckily, one of the other teachers at my orientation (she has taught before but not in my district) filled me in on an amazing store in Tempe. It's called Treasures 4 Teachers. She described it as a goodwill store for teachers. In order to get in, teachers must get a membership, kind of like Sam's Club. A yearly pass is $35 and gets you access to loads of goodies. The store is separated into different parts. The largest part is the $5/bag part. In this area, everything that you can fit into one of their provided bags costs $5. Doesn't matter what is in there; if it fits, it's $5. They were out of the reusable bags that come with the membership so I got a Trader Joe's bag instead to fill with goodies. 

Here is the bag of stuff I got! I could have stuffed it more but there wasn't much good stuff left since I went later in the day.

Inside the bag, there is...

Some paper that I was thinking would be great at the writing center that I (may) have. It's not very pretty paper, but my students won't care.

Now I am a binder clip junkie so I pretty excited to find the jumbo ones! I love binder clips and the jumbo ones are great to use in binders to keep stuff separate. I also got one of the receipt paper rolls for writing down each day we have been in school. I also found some adhesive putty. The package is opened and half of one of the rows is gone but that's ok! I also got those little circles that reinforce three hole punches. I'm super clumsy when it comes to three hole punching and I always misalign the paper so there are papers that have awkward holes. But now I can fix them with these lovely gems! Lastly, I got a stack of cut up cardstock. The size is small, but I know I can find some use for them. Bookmarks perhaps?

Now, there are three other sections. The next section is a price as marked area. As the name suggests, all the items in this area are a la carte so you have to check the prices on each individual item. This is where the furniture and nicer office supplies are. In this section, I got...

A magazine holder! Just one thought as it was the last one there after another teacher piled like six into her cart. Oh well, I'll take it anyways! And for that price?!?! I didn't get any furniture since most of it was filing cabinets and I already have one, but I bet there are book shelves and stuff there on a regular basis.

The next section is my favorite: the free section. In this section, everything is free! Free, free, free! So I got these beauties:

Big, three inch binders! New, they would have definitely cost me probably like $7 or more apiece, and I walked out with them for nothing. There were heaps of binders in the section so you could definitely get enough for all your kids there if you wanted to. 

The last room I went was the book room. All of the books in the room range in cost from 25 cents to $2. I picked up a few kids books so add to my collection and I found a Fountas and Pinnell phonics teacher resources for second grade for only $1! Even though I'm not teaching second grade, I feel like it still might be helpful! Plus, for only $1, I couldn't not get it! 

Lastly, they also have a school supply store that sells new supplies, but at reasonable prices. I didn't get anything there since my school supplies everything kids need. 

So I am pretty pleased with my purchases! I will definitely be going back again soon to look for more treasures. So, if you live in the Phoenix area, I would definitely recommend going and checking it out! I think there also might be one in Tuscon, but I'm not entirely sure. Click here for more info! 

Tomorrow, I'm headed back to school to work in my room some more and I have a new hire meeting at 2:00! Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Destination: Summer Vacation

So tomorrow, I'm diving into my new classroom to try to get something accomplished. It's like the opposite of a hot mess in that it's totally empty except for the furniture pile.
But until then, I found an awesome linky by Krista that I just had to do! I'm so fortunate in that my parents adore traveling and have been taking my sister and I all over the world since 2nd grade.  So, I have developed a love of travel and if I could, I would travel all the time. I hate the aspect of getting there (airplanes really aren't my thing), but once I'm there, I am so happy. So here are my top three vacation spots!

1. International: Paris.
Paris is probably my favorite city of all time. The architecture, the lights, the food, the fashion, not to mention the historical sites. I love it all. Being in Paris makes me so happy, and if I spoke French, I would definitely move there. I have been to Paris twice, and each time, I never want to leave. It's truly a magical and wonderful city!

 

2. National: Disney World.

So my family is a huge Disney fan. It was the trip in which I went on my very first airplane ride. I was in second grade; my sister was in kinder, and we both had the time of our lives! 

First trip to Disney! We're sitting on Minnie's couch, which is sadly no longer there D:

Since then, I have been probably ten times. During high school and college, my family would go every year around Christmas time. Disney is completely right when they say that it is the most magical place on Earth. It's so true. Everything is better in Disney. One of my friends is working there for a semester and I am completely envious of her since she gets to live magic and make it happen!

3. Close to Home: Chicago.

I'm doing my old home since I just got to my new home, but Chicago is a city that has so much to do. There is something for everyone whether you love museums, musicals, animals, night life, shopping or food. Yet somehow, I've never seen this...at least I don't remember seeing it.

Buenos noches!