Perfect Timing, Perfect Words

On Saturday I went in to school to work in my classroom for a couple of hours.  When I got home I still had more work to do and quickly spread it over the kitchen table.  My darling husband wasn't too happy with the situation, and actually asked me how it is that I can have so much work and be so far behind at the BEGINNING of the year.  Hmmmm.  He's actually lucky I didn't rip his head off, as this happens every year and he seems to forget.

The beginning of the year is crazy busy.  "To Do" lists and wonderful ideas are just buzzing through my brain at a rapid pace all day long, and there just aren't enough hours in a day to get it all done.  Especially since I have a job and a half at school and every afternoon except for one I've had at least one meeting!  That's where Saturdays become a lifesaver.

Also, at the beginning of the year when assessment scores start trickling in, it's easy to be overwhelmed by all the work there is to do and oh-my-goodness-how-will-I-ever-do-right-by-all-31-children!  Some days it's enough to make a gal question her vocation.

And on those days, like today, sometimes a small miracle happens.  My sweet "neighbor", who lives 350 miles away from me, sent me a lifeline.

Even better were her sweet words on the inside, and I'll share with you, "You are definitely using your talents for a Purposeful life.  We should all recognize the teachers who mold the future of young people . . . who inspire, build up and guide.  Remember that you are exceptional and the world is a better place because of you."

Oh my gosh, almost brought me to tears.  Such perfect words, and so especially meaningful coming from my friend.  Don't get me wrong, she is awesome and amazing and always has just the right thing to say.  But, considering that she isn't a fellow teacher, and isn't a parent of human children, it touches my heart to no end that she had these words to say.

Thanks, Melanie, for totally making my day and giving me enough energy to make it through, at least until fall break.

Hands on Germs

My favorite lessons to teach are the ones that kids can really get excited about.  Let's face it, grammar isn't always that much fun.  And math has its un-fun moments too.  But science?  That's usually a shoe-in for a good time.  And a good time means that my little friends will remember it.  And if they remember it, they just might learn something.

We still haven't received our science kits from the district, and it may be a while, so for now I'm on my own.  I decided to start with a lesson to introduce and then reinforce the scientific process.  Funny graphics on a PowerPoint got me started, but the real fun began when students got to the hands on part.

Basically, kids are investigating what removes germs from their hands best:  Nothing at all, water, soap and water, or hand sanitizer.  My friends were to clean their hands (or not) and then handle a raw potato slice for 1 minute before placing it in a plastic baggie.  We then observe the potatoes for a few days and then confirm or revise our hypothesis.

The kids with the unwashed hands assignments were totally cracking me up.  While other kids were washing  or sanitizing, these kids (totally unprompted!) tried to get their hands as dirty as possible.  Some rubbed their hands all over the carpet.  Others rubbed their hands all over the bottoms of their shoes.

Today was an observation day, 2 days past "treating" the potatoes.  It was awesome!  The kids were so excited to see their potatoes and just couldn't get over the difference in how many of the slices looked compared to others.  They were also fairly grossed out!  Anyway, totally fun little investigation, and the kids are learning so much.  Now this is my type of lesson!

The First Days

When I taught in California (and when I was a student as well), school began when it was proper, a couple of days after Labor Day.  You know, when summer was actually coming to a close.  Here in Arizona?  We start in the middle of summer.  It's crazy I tell you.  Pure crazy.  To make matters worse, this is a week of record heat, 113 to 117 degrees.  Frankly, anything over 110 is just miserable.  Especially now, because we are still in monsoon season and the humidity is up making it feel even hotter.  If we could just stay in my cozy air conditioned classroom all day without leaving it might not be so bad.  However, we have to leave, to walk outside, all the way across campus, a few times a day.  Fire drill tour?  Yup.  To specials?  Yup.  To lunch?  Yup.  After school parent pick up duty?  Yup.  And really, it's more than just turning into a sweaty puddle of a mess several times a day.  The heat just sucks the energy and life right out of you.  OK, I'm done now. 

We are three days into school now, and things are going really, really, super well.  I have a fairly large class, 31 students.  I ended last year with 24 so this is a little bit of an adjustment.  Every little thing takes forever long to do because my students need to be trained how to do everything if anything is going to be automatic later.  We haven't gotten into much curriculum yet as we've been focusing on rules, procedures, and community building with just dabbles of actual work.  My little friends need to be eased in to work too, just like the teachers.

This week is also a little crazy because I have meetings every afternoon this week.  It really cuts down on planning time in the afternoon.  I haven't been able to carve out a large chunk of time to really focus and figure out our new Common Core standards.  That part is a little, ok a lot, stressful.  Makes me feel like I don't know what I'm doing.

I'm trying to give myself some grace, and time, to get everything figured out and up and running.  The level of pure exhaustion that comes along with this time of year is truly amazing.  Teachers will totally get this.  We've had some time over summer to let down our guard and only do one or two or three things at a time.  Now?  Completely different!  In the classroom so many things are being juggled at one time, plus you are working things through in the back of your mind, and trying to keep one step ahead of where you are.  The mental and physical juggling is like nothing else.  It also takes a toll.  Combine it with the heat, and it's the perfect storm.

I'm thinking it would be a great idea if the first week of school were all early release days, with no meetings aloud.  Sounds like pure heaven.

All Systems Go for the First Day

After nearly two weeks of preparation in my classroom, I'm finally ready for the first day of school.  My classroom is organized and inviting (at least I think so), though by no means "finished".  I need my new friends for that.  Their creativity and critical thinking will fill in all of the blank spaces in the room, and that is the really exciting part.

I spent a couple of hours on Saturday doing the final clean up and preparation of plans and materials for the week.  Here's how my room looked when I was finally ready to leave:

There you have it!  All set for my new little friends to walk in the door.  I'm sure it'll never be this clean again, but that's ok.  A lot of work will be happening in the room over the next 180 school days.  Wish me luck as I attempt to get my new students to think and grow more than they think possible.

Meet the Teacher Night

My last district in California didn't have a Meet the Teacher Night, and I must say, it has become one of my favorite traditions in Arizona.  That says a lot, because not too many Arizona things have become my favorite.

I love the night!  It's just an hour and a half, but it is so much fun to meet my incoming students and their families.  The kids are so excited, though some are a little nervous.  I especially love when my new students are from previous families that I've had.  I've found that the night really sets the tone for the year.

Let me show you the goodies I have for my families this year . . .

The first lovely item I have is a package of microwave popcorn with a tag that says, "Welcome, Thank you for popping in!"  I totally stole borrowed this idea from Pinterest.  Next, I have a brochure from our entire grade level sharing with families how we work together and some of our routines and policies.  I also have my business card magnet for each family.  It includes my phone, school email, and school webpage.  I made the business cards at Vista Print last year, then just stuck them on business card sized magnets.  Finally, I have bookmarks for my new friends reminding them to bring in one of their favorite books on the first day of school.

Now you know why I just can't wait!  To those of you hosting Meet the Teacher Night, I hope you have a wonderful turn out.  To those of you attending Meet the Teacher Night, I hope you fall in love with your child's new teacher.  And to my fellow teachers, leave me a comment telling me something special that you like to do for Meet the Teacher Night.

Simple Solutions

Today I'm sharing just a couple of ideas from my room.  Now, none of these are new ideas by any stretch of the imagination. They are all ideas I regularly use from year to year.  However, I did spruce them up for my new bunch of friends coming through the door on Monday.

I'm sharing my favorite first.  And I need to begin by explaining that I did get this fresh take (and download!) on an old idea from a delightful teacher blog.  However, I did it before I decided to start this blog so I didn't leave myself a way to remember who to give credit to.  Oops.

Without further delay, let me introduce Brownie Points!  The idea is simple, for whole class great behavior/effort that is recognized by me or other adults on campus, my class will earn a "brownie" on the baking pan.  When the pan is full my little friends will be treated with a brownie treat.

 And you won't believe how simple and inexpensive this was!  First of all, I printed the sign after downloading it.  I bought the baking sheet at the Dollar Tree.  I also bought a sheet of brown foamy stuff at Joanns.  I used my paper cutter to cut brownie shaped pieces.  Then I used a white paint pen to draw an icing squiggle on each one.  I slapped a little piece of magnet tape on the back of each "brownie" and I was done.  Oh yeah, I taped a piece of ribbon on the back of the baking sheet for a little extra something.  The baking sheet is attached to my white board with a couple of command strips, and the sign just has magnet tape on the back too.

In the name of research I may have even bought a box of brownie bites from the bakery in order to taste test and make sure this would be a sweet reward for my kidlets.  Now I know where to buy them when my kidlets fill up the baking sheet.

I've always given my students table points for group good behavior and effort, and then there has been a reward for the winning group.  I've varied this for the most points over a week, month, or even the first group to 25 points.  This year my tables aren't just numbered, but they are called Camp Sites.  That's it.  Not a huge change, but just enough to make it a little bit of fun.

 I just sectioned off  a part of my whiteboard with blue duck tape, then used green painter's tape for  my vertical lines.  The Camp Site image came from Pete's PowerPoint and fit in perfectly.

As general practice, my lessons are taught in an "I do, we do, you do" format for modeling, guided practice, and independent practice.  This year I made formal labels, and it was so simple.  I had some owl notepaper (That fits with camping, right?  I mean, you see and hear owls when camping, right?), wrote the label on it, laminated it, and slapped magnetic tape on the back.  See?  Simple.  During my first week of school I will be generating ideas with my students for what it will look/sound like during each part of our lessons and I will write these ideas next to the owls for a reminder.

City Girl Builds a Campfire

I've mentioned that this year camping will be my classroom theme.  I thought it would be fun for my students, and fun for me too.  One thing that comes to mind when you think about camping is telling stories around the campfire.  Sooo, I wanted to have a campfire for my students to read their stories around.  Here it is, what do you think?

Since I'm a teacher, and on a tight budget, I managed to throw this together for a whopping $2.  I bought a pizza pan at the Dollar Tree, as well as a package of red and orange tissue paper.  I lined the tray with rocks, then hot glued them down.  I also hot glued some sticks into a little teepee shape.  Then I bunched and twisted up tissue paper and glued that to the tray as well.  In my typical "day late, dollar short" fashion, I realized that I should have spray painted that pizza tray.  I'm thinking it could still happen though.  All in all, I think that my little fourth grade friends will get a kick out of sharing their writing around the campfire.

In the Midst of a Mess

In all the years I've been putting together my classroom at the beginning of the year I've stuck to the same process, and I'm going to share it with you here.  For free!  Ready?

Step 1:  Make a huge mess
Step 2:  Take 3 days to clean it all up

Not much of a process, huh?  Well, let me show you how things are progressing.

 My "window wall" needs to have things on it that don't get changed very often because it's a super hard wall to staple into, necessitating a staple gun.  Also, the fire alarm and fire extinguisher are on this wall, limiting what can be placed here.  So, I put things here that won't change over the course of the year, like my calendar and birthday chart, classroom job pocket chart, bucket filling post, bathroom sign out, and thinking maps.  I also use the whiteboard for displaying our ever changing daily schedule and daily objectives.

 I have my tables arranged, and hopefully won't have more than 30 students because that is what I've planned for.  This means I'll have something like 36.  Notice I said "tables".  Not a student desk in sight.  I made the plunge this week and had tables brought it and individual student desks removed.  I'm hoping that students will be able to work better together in groups and will have fewer distractions.  What's in it for me?  No messy desks!  Fewer distractions!  Hopefully it'll be a win-win situation.

 I've moved my classroom library up to the very front of the room because I want independent reading to take an even greater place in my classroom.  There's no better way to show how important it is than to give it prime, front of the room real estate.

This is the back wall of my classroom (opposite the SmartBoard and whiteboards in the front).  Most bulletin boards are here and my writing supplies and station are located here, as well as my Arizona interest board.
I know you can't see a lot of detail in these pictures, but I wanted to show the overall picture.  I'll show pictures with better details once I have at least one thing exactly how I want it. 
Just one week to go until Meet the Teacher Night, and there's lots to do before then.  Meetings, meetings, and meeting galore.  Oh joy!

And So a New Year Begins

I know, completely crazy, a New Year beginning in July!  Yup, here in Arizona our school year starts crazy early.  Our kids return to school on August 6th.  As a Mentor Teacher my report date is July 27th.  This means that I'm spending my last days of summer freedom preparing my room for the coming school year.  And I'm in good company, as most teachers I know follow the same ritual.

Last year I switched grade levels and therefore classrooms.  Everything was so rushed that I simply couldn't handle setting everything up exactly as I wanted.  This year I'm staying put, so I have more time for set up and don't need to worry about putting away and organizing.  Go me!  I was also lucky enough to have the district paint my room this summer.  I'd inherited a really gross, pukey green color and hated it every day.

Yesterday when I walked in this is what welcomed me:

As you can see, I had my work cut out for me.  Those bookshelves are all full of books.  And super heavy.  The file cabinet too.  And guess what?  Where they are in the pictures?  That's not where I wanted them.  Ever.  Yesterday I moved all that furniture around.  It took forever, and every bit of strength I had.  I also rewired and connected all of my electronics . . . . laptop, document camera, printer, SmartBoard, and projector, and made sure it was all working properly.  Today I worked on bulletin board backings and borders and some organizing and lots of planning where to put things.   As any teacher can tell you, the amount of thought that goes into each decision is amazing. 

This year I've decided to have a camping theme in my classroom.  I'm really excited as it is starting to unfold.  I think my students are really going to enjoy this.  I've also done a lot of reading and have lots of new things to try this year, some of which are quite radical for me.  I'll be back at it tomorrow, and I'll be sure to take pictures to share of my progress.

How Did I Ever End Up With a Teacher Blog?

Of all of my years teaching last year was my most difficult, challenging, and miserable.  I know, shocking for a teacher to admit these things.  I accepted a new position as a Mentor Teacher since our school and district were implementing TAP.  Then, I was thrown into a new grade level, fourth grade.  The only grade I'd never taught.  A place I desperately didn't want to be.  I mean, I had been firmly rooted in third grade and was perfectly content to stay there.  Over the course of the year some things got better, some things got worse.  Professionally, I grew a ton.  Creatively, I was treading water.  Drowning, really.  I had no time to do things in the manner in which I longed.  I was simply in survival mode.  I longed to be inspired again.  I began browsing teacher blogs and Pinterest and discovered the creativity I'd been craving.  I bookmarked many, many things and promised myself, "one day".  Well, that one day arrived and I've been busily stealing everyone else's creative ideas and making plans for this upcoming school year.  I'm still a Mentor Teacher.  I'm still in fourth grade.  I'm hoping that a good dose of inspiration and creativity will give me the energy I need to make this the best year ever for both me and my students.  I plan to use this bloggy space to share the ins and outs of the majority of my waking hours.   Wish me luck!