The first week of school is complete! It's been a great week, but I'm feeling exhausted and can't wait to sleep in tomorrow. I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to show you my week in Five for Friday. Link up with her here...
Today I finish my first week of our new school year - my 9th year teaching. Even though I've been doing this for nine years, I still forget how the first week goes - the routines, procedures, expectations. And, don't get me started on unpacking and pack up at the end of the day - I get anxiety just thinking about. I love order and routines and I always forget how painful it can be to start over. I saw a few of my kids from last year in the hall and I pleaded - "please, come train my new kids." They have already improved with everything since Monday, but there is nothing like having your class trained in how you run you room...we'll be there soon...hopefully.
Andy was so sweet and surprised me with flowers for the first day of school. He even got sunflowers which are my favorite! He also took me out for Outback to celebrate the first week and I can't live without Diet Coke. Love the special little treat for the first day!
I will do a large, very large post on this later, but wanted to give a sneak peek. I'm so excited - we're working our very first project based learning project. I took that class at the DI Conference in Vegas and with a friend's help from another school came up with this first project. The kids are helping me create Johnson Elementary from the ground up - classes, maps, rules, procedures, etc. I know this is vague, but I'll post more once it's complete. This has been one of the best things I've done teaching. My kids are so excited and engaged and ask every day - "when are we doing PBL?"
It's the little things that excite teachers. Last year I had two trapezoid tables that I configured to make it work for pulling small groups. My HR director was kind enough to purchase me a kidney table for this year and it arrived this week! It's so pretty lol. It even has a white board top. It's funny how excited a teacher can get over a piece of furniture!
Oh how I've missed kids over the summer - I love this response above to "What do you want to learn in second grade?" One student responded - I want to learn more education. That makes me smart. Too cute! I'm enjoying my new group of 2nd graders.
Hope everyone is having a great first week, first few weeks back, or last bit of summer! Happy Friday, too!
Follow me on...
That white board top will be so much fun in small groups!
ReplyDelete