I'm Back!

It's been way to long since I've been on here.  For those of you that have stuck around, thank you! To my new visitors, WELCOME!

Since I was last here I have switched schools and grade levels.  I am now teaching at the same elementary school that I attended as a student and teaching Kindergarten.  I never thought I would love teaching kindergarten as much as I do.

Friends...I have found my LOVE of teaching again! Kindergarten is the best. They are so cute and eager to learn. Not to mention the growth that they show by the end of the year.

Last year was my first year teaching Kinder at my school and it was stressful.  I had just begun my graduate classes, had to switch schools, grades and curriculum. I spent most of the year leaning on my team for support and they got me through the year with flying colors. I really can't thank them all enough!

This year, I am nearing the end of my graduate program and I can't wait to get started this school year and really help my team.

I hope to share some of my ideas as I do them all year. Many of which are tips and ideas I learned at the iTeachK conference this past month in Vegas!

Have an amazing start of the school year!

I'll be back...

Lost my MOJO

The start to the school year has been the worst one I've had in the past 7 years.  Here are just a few of the reasons why...

First, my grandmother in law passed away on Monday.  It made it hard to focus on getting ready for school to start.  The funeral was on Friday so that meant taking off on day 3.  Ugh!  It's hard enough writing sub plans when you know the kids, but when you've only had 2 (very hectic) days with them, it was next to impossible.

I found out I was getting identical twins on the first morning of school.  Nothing like a last minute add 30 minutes before school starts.

Then on Thursday my friend who had been hired to teach at my grade level with me got word that her position had been cut.  We all absorbed her kiddos so I went from 24 to 28.

As I'm typing this post, I got word that I'm now getting another student which will put me at 29.

I have just went from 5 round tables of 4 and 1 rectangle table of 5 to 7 tables of 4.  Where do I put number 29?!?

Any advice from teachers that teach large classes?  I had 24 last year and I thought that was a lot.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

My room....so far

I have been in my room 4 times as of today.  Twice with my mom and twice on my own.  Here is a look at a few part of my class.  Please keep in mind that this is all still a work in progress, and my 2 1/2 year old was with me today, so as I was organizing, she was un-organizing!

This is my Pencil Pouch/Golden Tickets.  Last year I saw somewhere on Pinterest an idea to have a pocket chart for each student where they would keep 3 pencils.  it worked wonderful, but fell apart constantly!  So this year I bought a show organizer at Wal-Mart and numbered the pockets with a paint pen.

It will also house my kiddo's Golden Tickets.  I used to do a behavior clip chart, but didn't like that there was little to no accountability with it.  I wasn't so great about sending the notes home when on Red and  didn't like handing out trivial prizes for my Outstanding kiddos.  While reading through my friend Mandy's blog Tickled Pink Mandy I stumbled upon this gem from A Teeny Tiny Teacher and I'm going to give it a try.  I have always done Fun Friday, but I love how the behavior ties directly to fun friday this way.

My Fun Friday chart still needs the clothespins on them and my 2 1/2 year old was testing out the Golden Tickets for me :)

Here is an up close look at my Fun Friday options...

Here is my Calendar area.  I have it on the door to best utilize the space.  We start every day with our student of the week adding to our calendar (I will take off the numbers before the year starts, I just wanted to make sure I had them all), changing how many days's we've been in school and adjusting the  Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow signs.  Then as a class we sing our days of the week song, months of the year song and count money for how many days in school we've had.

I don't really like the sign above the straws...I must find another way/place for that.

Thanks to Clutter Free Classroom I will be trying out Math Workshop this year.  I'm really excited how this board turned out and I can't wait to get it started!

This is my little helper today...she was such a trooper for over 3 hours!  She found all sorts of ways to entertain herself while I got some work done.

I'd love to see how all of you set up your classroom....feel free to leave a link to your blog in the comments so we can all check them out!

You know school is starting soon when....

Oh boy!  It has begun....dreams about school!  You know school is starting soon when you start dreaming about the upcoming year.

In last nights dream it was the first day of school and EVERYTHING was different!  The school, the location, the rules.  I went into the office to check my mail and there were people in there that had to do it for us.  We weren't allowed to make copies, walk into the office, check our mail, nothing!  Now, I'm all for some help but it was seriously insane.  And, we hadn't had our retreat (I plan our staff retreat every year) yet and school was already starting.  Not to mention our school was in a brand new location and you had to cross streets to get from one building to another.

Have any of you had strange "back to school" dreams yet? Or am I the only crazy one?!?!

Summertime Planning

I'm sitting on my couch, baby sleeping, movie on (Rock of Ages) and I can't. stop. planning!  I really just want to sit here and do nothing.  I still have 5 weeks of summer fun ahead of me after all...one more vacation and lots of baby and me time to go but I can't help but scour social media for new ideas and start figuring out how I'm going to get it all together in time.

Proof, that teaching is way more then just a full time job!

To everyone out there on summer vacation....stop, relax and enjoy...because I say so!