Excitement, Nerves, and Pictures!

Excitement

School starts on Monday!  All this work and preparation hopefully starts to pay off.  I already met many of my kids, and can't wait to start getting to know them for real on Monday.

Nerves

School starts on Monday!  I'm scared, as usual.  For some reason this year, I seem to feel like I've forgotten how to teach.  I think it's because so much of my curriculum is new to me, so I feel almost like a first year teacher.  I hope my students behave and learn a lot from me.

Pictures

School starts on Monday!  I took pictures of my room before I left on Friday.  There are still some things not completely done, but it's looking almost ready at least.  Here are pictures of my room.

Small group table and floor area

Rules, Consequences, Behavior Chart

Jobs

Wet area

Small group and shelves

Word Wall

Sight words and work wall

I can statements

Classroom

Classroom

Classroom

Outside my door

Super Improver with the stars up

So there ya go.  Notice there are no pictures of my desk--that's because that area is a scary mess right now.

Joell

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Hi all,

I have been so busy with meetings and professional development and trying to get things ready for parent/teacher conferences tomorrow that I haven't even thought of taking pictures.  I've gotten home too tired to even think straight.  But tonight, I feel more like myself rather than the scary stressball I was on Monday and Tuesday.

The Good

• I am now ready for parent/teacher conferences tomorrow, and actually had the first one today.
• We had a fabulous luncheon at a country club before our big faculty meeting.

The Bad

• The school district scheduled training on our new gradebook program for everyone in the district at the same time.  Naturally, nothing worked because too many people were all trying to do the same thing at the same time.  So, we weren't able to set things up.
• There's lots more, but I don't see the point in recapping a bunch of negativity when it won't change a thing.

The Ugly

• I have been in a foul mood with a headache most of the week.  It was mostly ugly inside my head and I tried to avoid too much contact with people for fear I'd implode on them.  Still, my team members did have to put up with a lot of whining from me.
• My living room might never get cleaned up since the cutting project is so slow going.

I will try to get some actual pictures taken probably Friday.  No post tomorrow--conferences will go until late.  As an introvert, conferences are always hard on me.

Joell

Rules and Consequences

Hello,

The rules and consequences for my classroom are determined partially by the school (the first 3 are school-wide) and my grade level team.  Here are the rules.

For consequences, we use a color coded card system.  The students progress through the colors and there's a consequence tied to each one.

A.C. stands for Alternative Classroom.  It's another place where students calm down and process with a counselor before returning to class.

I don't have pictures of my cards, but they're really nothing fancy.  Just a pocket chart--I used an old calendar one I had.  Each pocket has the 5 card colors listed above and the child's classroom number on it.  When the child is told to "pull a card" he or she takes the top color out and puts it into a container.  I used to have them move the card to the back of their stack, but found it easier and faster for me to record with things being moved to a container instead.

What are the rules and consequences in your classroom?

I'm hoping this made sense tonight.  My head has been spinning all day long.  So much to do!

Joell

Five Things I'll Miss About Summer Linky

Hi all,

I worked all day today, but didn't take any pictures.  So I'm joining in on this linky. From Joy of Kindergarten.

1.  I'll be surprised if this isn't a popular one...

Sleeping in late or taking naps whenever I want.

2. Not being interrupted all the time.

"Can I go to the bathroom?"  

3. Being able to relax because I'm not responsible for the education and well-being of lots of little ones.

The kitty was too cute to pass up.

4. Going out to lunch with friends and family members on weekdays.

You mean we have more than 5 minutes and don't have to eat on the run???

5.  This goes along with #1.  Staying up late.

Love this picture!

So there ya go.  I'll try and get some pictures taken tomorrow so I'll have something to post.

Joell

Bulletin Boards, part deux.

Hi,

I didn't have much time at school today because I was busy with contractors for my kitchen.  I signed the contract today and picked out cabinet stuff.

The first picture is my super improver wall cards hung up.  I don't make the name cards until the day before school because in my school the class lists change a zillion times before school starts.

The color codes go with student stars.  They earn a star sticker every time they improve.  After they get 10 stars they move up to the next level.  So they all start at TV Viewer.  Their star is white.  They earn sticker stars.  When they have 10 stickers on their white star, they get a pink one and they are now Movie Goers.  When they get 10 stars, they'll go to gray and be Extras.

The second picture is of my half-finished bulletin boards.  These are the ones that I was complaining about yesterday because they raised them too high.

The Left word wall was made by one of the teachers in my school.  On the right there will be two sections.  One will be sight words, the other one might be student work.  I'm not sure.  As you can see, my room still isn't quite organized completely.

The word wall will go with my vocabulary cards.  Black is for Starter Words (the, a, an, first, next, etc.).  Orange is adjectives.  Red is Nouns.  Green is Verbs.  And blue is Tagalongs, which are prepositional phrases and time words.  You can get my vocabulary cards for free by following the link above and clicking on the files you want.

Tomorrow I have professional development, so might not post.  We'll see.

Oh, and I'm trying to get my blog button to work.  Thanks to Jennie for helping me test it out.  If anyone sees what's wrong with it or gets it to work, please let me know.

Thanks,
Joell

Bulletin Boards

Hi all,

First of all, I made my very own blog button over to the right.  I think I did okay with no formal instruction whatsoever.

I did something stupid today.  I left my school keys at home.  So I got to school and couldn't do half the things I planned to because the keys to the cabinet I needed were at home.

So, I put up backgrounds on bulletin boards.  They raised my big bulletin boards too high and even standing on the counter underneath them, I can barely reach the top.  This is going to be a pain because they're word walls where I'll be posting stuff all year.

I actually finished one bulletin board.  My calendar math.  So here it is.

The blank spot on the wall above the boom box will have my Star of the Week hung eventually.

So, after a whopping hour and a half in my room, I went with several lovely teacher friends to lunch and Lakeshore.  I bought some borders at Lakeshore because I don't like the train ones I made as much as I wanted to.  It was fun to discover there's a new dollar store right by the teacher store.  Good planning there.

I pampered myself with a mani/pedi, then came home and couldn't face the cutting.  So, I made the signs for my very first ever Super Improver Wall.  Here they are.

Without meaning to, I ended up with a Hollywood theme this year. 

And of course, I did more cutting.  These things better last a loooong time.

Joell

Sale and a Fun Outing

Hi all,

I've been taking a break from school stuff, well, except for the endless cutting which takes no thought whatsoever.  As a result, I don't have lots to talk about here.

Today was fun.  I went with my sister and two nephews to a dinosaur museum.  I took pictures with my phone camera which stink.  I got a few good ones with my real camera.  So here you go.

And finally, there is a sale going on at teacherspayteachers starting tomorrow.  Use the code below while checking out.  I'm also putting my whole 2 non-free items on sale, too.

To see other teachers having a sale here.

And that's all for today.

Joell