Is it Summer Yet?

I am ready for summer vacation.

Not so that I can get away from my kids....well....mostly not. I have some really great ideas that I would like to implement next year, but I have no time right now! I am creating a list of everything that I want to accomplish this summer. This school year is going so quickly, I can't believe it. There is only one day that I am not looking forward to....the last day of school. I will have to say goodbye to all my kids and I'm not sure I'm ready to do that. They were my very first class and I will miss them very much, especially when I move away. But I promised them that I would attend their high school graduation. So even if I leave Ark City in a couple years, I will be back for high school graduations starting the year 2022!

Pre-Spring Break Crawl

One of the first things that some of my experienced colleagues have told me is that the time between Winter Break and Spring Break moves the slowest. I didn't think that was true until a couple days ago. We still have two weeks to go before Spring Break and I cannot wait to go home!

I feel like I am finally settling into a weekly pattern. At this point, a lot of what I am doing is repetitive for both me and the kids. Part of that is because I feel like I am still trying to stay afloat. And part of that is because I need to find or create everything I use! In my building, I am the only third grade teacher. So that means, I don't have a partner who already has a ton of resources. Sure, I have peers in other buildings. But when I am gathering materials over the weekend, there is no guarantee that they will also be in their building. I also don't like feeling like I am bothering someone. If I asked peers in other buildings every week for the materials they are about to use, I would feel like a pest. I am really looking forward to summer break because I can actually sit down and look at my entire year, piece by piece and create things that I wouldn't normally be able to create.

I did have one brilliant idea a couple months ago. I scheduled our first field trip for this coming week. I needed something to break up the time and my final evaluation for this year happened in February. So now, I am in charge of my very first field trip and I am all on my own. I have four chaperones for a class of ten students, so I should be totally fine! But I have never been to this children's museum and I really don't know what to expect.

I don't think I really have a lesson here. I haven't done the field trip yet. This should be interesting!

Sub Binder

Over the summer, I spent a ton of time on Pinterest. It is one of the best places a teacher can go for new ideas. One of the things I found on Pinterest was the idea of a Sub Binder. I created a binder with tabs that I thought were important and I leave it sitting on my desk for a substitute teacher. Here is basically what my binder is:

Before the first tab:

• Welcome letter to the sub
• Classroom management system
• Think sheets
• A seating chart
• A list of all my students with their pictures and names (kids like to play tricks on subs).

Tab 1: Schedules

• The daily schedule
• The specials schedule

Tab 2: Emergency Procedures

• My principal required this of our sub folders, and it is just good sense. Subs need to know what to do in the event of an emergency.

Tab 3: Lesson Plans

• Here I include the lesson plans for the date of my absence.
• I also have sheet protectors for any papers that they will need. I wrote with a sharpie on the front of the 6 or 7 page protectors exactly what subject they would need the papers inside for. 

Tab 4: Emergency Plans

• This section is in case you get ill out of the blue and don't want to be up at the school at 4 in the morning to prepare sub plans. I arranged it exactly like my normal plans, but these plans are generic based on the unit we are studying. In my welcome letter I state that if there are not plans in the Lesson Plans section, then this was an unplanned absence and they should refer to the plans in the Emergency Plans section. 

Tab 5: End of the Day

• This section has a checklist of everything that needs to be completed before the bell rings or before they leave. For example, students are to stack their chairs and mark their days (color the color they ended up on from our clip chart to show their parents). If it is Friday, they will also need their Friday Folders. Things like that. I also have the sub leave me a note to say how the day went (I have a cute template that I got for free on TPT). 

I have gotten several compliments from subs to say how much smoother their day went with my plans and my binder than with other teachers' plans. One sub even wrote a note to my principal to say how impressed she was. It feels awesome to get great recognition from your principal your very first year. 

Lesson: The more prepared you are (with your sub binder in particular) the smoother things will run!

Panic Mode

As a new teacher, Panic Mode is a mode that you will become very familiar with!

I was about a month into school when we had our Literacy First training. Literacy First is basically the model they want us to follow for all of our literacy stuff (and some of our math). It's a very complex program and I am not going to go into great detail about it here (partially because I don't know if I could get in trouble for it).

I had already figured out what I wanted my literacy centers to look like. It was modeled after the teacher that I did my student teaching with. I knew this system worked well and I had an idea of what I wanted to do at each station. When my friend and I arrived at the training and were guided through the GIANT book of information, we were totally flabbergasted. I hadn't necessarily been doing everything wrong, I just wasn't doing the centers that Literacy First suggests you do. I blocked most of the training day out (but throughout the day I had placed sticky notes on important pages). I spent the weekend in my classroom reworking my centers and I was in a total panic mode.

On Monday, my coach came in to talk to me and make sure that I was feeling okay after the training. I told her how I was feeling. She explained to me that we are new teachers. Not everything is going to be perfect the first time. Not only are we new teachers, we are new to the district and to the state. Their standards and models are totally alien to us (and by 'us' and 'we' I mean my friend that moved out from Colorado with me). She said that I should focus on one center at a time until I get it the way that I want it.

Lesson: You will get a lot of models/information about how to teach/run your classroom. Don't panic. You are a new teacher and you will not be expected to implement everything you learn the very next day after learning it. Your administrators know that you are new and will give you time and support to make sure you can get comfortable with new models.

A Minute to Catch My Breath!

Oh my gosh!!! It is already November! I haven't posted anything since before the first day of school!!!!

So much has happened. I barely have a moment to breath, it seems. I think what I have decided, as I think through everything I want to say, is to post multiple posts about each topic I want to cover. I have had two months of school and there is SO much I want to say!

I really hope a new teacher finds this next year!

Preparing for Back to School Night!

Tonight I had Back to School night! It went really well! I was totally stressing myself out which was really unnecessary.

I had prepared some thing that I wanted to give to parents earlier this summer based on things that I found online. But I found this week that it was a little bit of a waste of time. My principal gave me a list of things that she wanted us to include in the information that we gave to our parents. Most of the things that I had prepared this summer I didn't use.

I have also been SOOOO stressed out this past week. I think it might be because we have just gone through an information dumping week. Everyone is giving us everything they know about every topic and it is just SO much information. GAH!

Lesson 1: Ask your principal for a list of what she wants to go out for Backpack Night (or Back to School Night) because chances are, she (or he) has one!

Lesson 2: It is A LOT of information at the beginning. Bring a pen, paper to take notes, water, and take LOTS of deep breaths! They know that it is your first year and that you are going to make mistakes. Remember: it is OKAY to say "I don't know." If you try to fake your way through it, they know--trust me!

My Classroom (pre-pictures)!

Today I was able to get into my classroom and start organizing it. The teacher before me left a lot of resources in my room and so I need to try to find a place for everything. I was also able to find my box in the office. And my name is already on the door!

I wanted to post pictures of what my classroom looks like before I get it organized the way I want it. So here they are!

From the front door:

From the corner diagonal from the front door:

I will post after pictures later this week. My classroom should be set up by next Monday. :)  I am getting so excited for the school year.

I have decided to post the lesson that I have learned with each experience and I am going to link experiences on a separate page to make the lessons that I have learned more easily searchable.

Lesson: DEFINITELY go in as soon as possible to set up your room because you never know if the teacher before you left a ton of stuff or not.

School Supplies

I LOVE school supplies! I have been drooling over all of the new school supplies that are popping up all over the place. My grandma gave me some money to help me get settled in my new town. So today I went to the store and got a few things for my classroom that I have either read will be helpful or pinned on Pinterest.

I got a label maker! I can put my name on the bottom of things that belong to me before I get them into my classroom.

I also found an idea on Pinterest to help students remember to put their names on their papers. You leave a cup of highlighters near where you want them to turn in assignments and make them highlight their name before they turn it in.

I bought three pen holders, one for this idea and one for dull/sharp cups for pencils.

I am going to use Mod Podge to decorate them and add labels. Hopefully they turn out as cute as the ideas I have found on Pinterest!

I also bought three dish pans to use as Work Baskets. While I was reading a blog (The Clutter-Free Classroom) I stumbled upon one of her flash freebies. Her suggestion was to purchase plastic dish pans from the dollar store (if the only dollar store you have is Family Dollar, I actually found them cheaper at Walmart). You can spray paint them to add color to the classroom if you want. Then you use Mod Podge to glue labels onto the sides of the dish pans to make the labels last longer. You have students turn in assignments by subject. That way, you can save time sorting through papers that need grading. Right now they are just white, but when I get paid I am definitely buying spray paint.

I also finally got to see my classroom! My friend has a key to the building (I haven't met any school officials in person yet). I am so excited because my room is HUGE! And there are so many resources already stacked in my classroom. I really want to get back in there, but I have to either wait until Tuesday or see if my friend is up for another trip out there.

I am getting so excited for school to start. Today was hard because Mike went back to Colorado. It is really going to be difficult being so far away from him especially when I run into some issues. I will start posting more soon because my first day is on Tuesday!! Wish me luck!!!!!

Welcome to Kansas!

I arrived here in Kansas on Thursday night at about 9:30 Central time. We successfully got the U-Haul and my car unloaded. We had issues with U-Haul before we left. We weren't able to pick up the trailer the night before (even though we had it reserved) and so we had to load the trailer at 7:30 A.M. Mountain time. We didn't leave until about 10 A.M. Mountain time.

Friday we spent bringing up boxes and getting the utilities all set up. We also went and found my new elementary school. It looks like a really nice school. I really want to get my room set up. It is probably a good thing that I can't yet though, I REALLY need to work on my apartment.

I said good-bye to my parents this morning, which was really difficult. On top of that, I got a cold! Boo. But I have been slowly unpacking boxes. I have already used an idea off of Pinterest! I'm really excited at how well it worked. I took a piece of tape (Pinterest says to use painter's tape, but I used masking tape and it worked just as well) and I taped it to the back of a dry erase calendar I wanted to hang. I poked holes with a pen where the nails needed to be. Then I took the tape off the back of the calendar and put it on the wall. I used a level to make sure it was level and then I nailed nails into the wall where my holes were. Here is the picture (and link) from Pinterest:

A New Chapter

I have been so excited to move and start my career. Beyond excited. I knew that I would be leaving my loved ones here, but I was thinking about my exciting new adventure.

I just packed up my DVD player, printer and TV and it just hit me. I am leaving home. I will be on my own for the first time in my life with my parents 9 hours away. It didn't fully hit me until I put away my DVD player. I watch movies every night and so I wanted to pack that last. I feel like crying. But I know that's silly. I should still be excited to go. I should be excited that I actually was able to get a job unlike so many people who I graduated with. But all I keep thinking is that this is the last night that I will be sleeping in my room on my bed. I will still be here tomorrow night too, but I will be sleeping on the couch. This might be one of the hardest parts. Leaving home for the first time without the knowledge that you are still dependent on your parents.

Leaving for college was different. I was only an hour away from home. My parents were still supporting me. There was nothing but excitement and the fear of being 30 minutes away from Mike for the first time.

I am so scared.