The School Year Has Begun

     The past three weeks have been very stressful.  I worked for 2-1/2 weeks to move into a new building and organize my classroom.  The last few days I was working until 8:00 p.m.  The day before school began I was there until 10:00 p.m.  I was very frustrated!  It is so hard to change grades.  I have so much in teaching materials for third and fourth grades that I feel I should save in case I teach those grades again.  I still have boxes to go through, but they are leaning against walls and kind of out of the way for now.  I'll post pictures when it all looks nice.
   
     I made it through the first week of teaching first graders.  Luckily, there were only three teaching days.  This is harder than I even imagined!  There are 30 students in the classroom.  They want to talk all of the time.  I'm not used to kids who talk while I talk to the class.  I see they need a lot of work on their behaviors.  This will sure take a lot of time.  They are cute kids and very sweet.  It is so hard, too, when they don't know how to read much.  They seem to be afraid to write.  They tell me that they can't write, but the kindergarten teacher said they did a lot of writing last year.  We'll have to work on building that confidence in writing.


     I'm so glad that it is the weekend.  I really needed a break.  Next week will be even harder since I'll have to teach five days.  I'll make it!  I read the blogs of all of these first grade teachers who love first grade.  I hope I will be there someday.  Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to teach them and get them to follow the rules.  


     It's Saturday, but I've been working on typing things on my computer that I need for school.  I just wasn't able to get all of it ready before school began.  I'm hoping I can have things ready this week.  My H.O.R.S.E. Book is almost ready.  Tonight I worked on my lesson plan form and trying to figure out my schedule.  That is hard work!  It's hard to figure out a schedule for a grade I'm not sure how to teach.


     Tomorrow I'll work a little at school.  I need to get papers ready for this week and go through some boxes to organize a little.  I will feel better when things look better.


Diane
     

Day 2 - Moving In

     Today was the second day to work in my new classroom at my new school.  I walked in the door and was still overwhelmed.  There were boxes everywhere!  I finally decided to start moving some boxes and clear a table.  That helped.


     I had a friend coming to help and she brought a friend of hers to help.  They were a wonderful help to have.  It took us awhile to figure out what to do, but we finally decided to move all of the boxes to one corner of the room so that we could figure out where the furniture would go.  The room looks so much better now.  We figured out where most of the furniture would go.  Thank you Christie and Christie for all of your help!


     Now, the fun begins of unpacking and figuring out where things should go.  Hopefully, I'll get to the point that I can work on the bulletin boards.  I have ideas of things I've seen on other teachers' blogs or things I have bought on TpT, but I wonder if I'll have time to make these things.  Some things may come after school begins.


     Here are some pictures from today.  Look at yesterday's post to see the difference.

I'm not as far as a lot of you out there in the Blog World because actually teachers don't report to work until next Tuesday.  I am here a week early since I have a huge job ahead of me.  The kids begin school on Wednesday, September 7th.


I did find out that I have a document camera, but I don't have a Smartboard, as I was told.  I am excited about the document camera since I've never had anything but an overhead.  My friends set it up for me.


    I know everyone is putting up pictures of their classrooms today.  This is what mine looks like so far, but it's nothing to brag about.


     I will keep posting each day so that you can see my progress, although, I only have 3 followers so far.


Diane

Moving In

     I've spent the past two days moving into my new classroom in my new school.  I am so thankful for all of the help I received from teacher friends from my old school and their families.  It's amazing how many boxes I have!  At the end of the year, some things were packed that I probably would have thrown out, but because they were doing construction in my old school I had to get out quickly.  Hopefully, I'll have time to go through things.


     There are boxes everywhere!  I had some time today to work on the room alone.  I was so overwhelmed and didn't know what to do.  First, I need to figure out where to put the furniture, but everything is covered with boxes.  I started moving some of the boxes to create space.  Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out where the student tables will go, my desk, and the classroom book corner.


     Tomorrow, a friend who is also a teacher, is coming to help me and she's bringing a friend of hers. They are going to help me arrange my room.  I'm looking forward to their help.  They helped me two years ago when I moved from a portable to a classroom in the building.  It will be good to have some help.  Another teacher friend has offered to help on Friday.  I need all the help I can get.  My official first day of work is next Tuesday.  I'm hoping getting an extra week will help me to be ready on time.


     Here are some pictures I took after everything was moved in.  It shows how much work I have ahead of me.

Finally . . . The Inside of the School

On Friday, I called my new school to see if I can see the inside of my classroom.  The lady that I talked to was very friendly and told me to come over.  I went and just looked around.  It gave me an idea of what I was moving in to.


The classroom is an odd shape.  It is in a Pod - seven classrooms are around a circle.  The classroom has some short walls.  It's hard to describe the shape.  There aren't many bulletin boards.  One large one and two small ones on both sides of the white board.  I hope I can do everything I want on those boards.  I may be using the walls.  There are two bathrooms in the room.  A friend showed me that these are shared with the room next door.  I wonder how that works out?  The teacher's desk is large with room for a computer.  There are different things for the students to sit at:  rectangle tables, two tables that make a hexagon when put together, and a few desks.  Hmm.  That will be interesting to figure out.


I went back today with a friend.  We loaded our cars up with things to drop off.  It seemed like a lot of things, but there are so many more sitting in a friend's garage.  I'm so glad that over the years I have bought my own bookshelves.  There was only one bookshelf in the room.  I think I have 4 bookshelves with 3 shelves and two with 2 shelves.  I probably will use the smaller ones for my things.  This will help me to create my library.  I have so much to do at home right now that I won't be able to do anymore this week.  I'm hoping to move everything else in next week.  Then I will begin to really work and put the room together.


I feel better now that I have seen the room and moved over a few of my things.  I didn't take any pictures, but I will eventually.  It's more work moving into a new classroom, coming up with a good design or layout. I will get some friends to help me come up with ideas on how to arrange things.


Diane

Lesson Plans

I've been reading several teacher's sample lesson plans.  I feel it will be so different to write up plans for first grade.  I need to get started on a template for 1st grade.  I've been working on one today.  I should be doing other things, but I just want a form.  I know it will need to be changed once I know when PE, Music, and Media are being taught.  Oh well!  This might work and take less time once school begins.  I always find those days of getting the classroom ready don't allow for much time in writing up the lesson plans.


It takes more space to write up first grade plans.  I still need 4 pages, but I can't fit the standards on them.  I'll have an extra page for the standards.  I actually think I might like that.  I'm trying to fit in Morning Work, Morning Meeting, Writer's Workshop, Reader's Workshop, Read to Self, Theme / GLAD, Math, Author Study, and some extra routines.  I think I have it.  It's so hard to fit everything in.  The Word Work, I believe, will be something the students work on during Reader's or Writer's Workshop.  I'm not quite sure yet.  I will teach and review the words orally with the kids during the Morning Meeting.  This is something I need to read more about.


I want to incorporate Author's Study.  Last year my 3rd graders loved learning about authors.  What better way to help the kids become better readers and writers!  I need to pursue and find which author's would be good to study.


I think I'll also have a Daily Lesson Plan to write out specifics for what to do.  This will sure help me since I know little about teaching first grade.  I think it will also be useful when I have a substitute.


I'd attach a blank copy, but that's something I still need to learn how to do on here.  I need to get back to another computer class this week and ask questions like that.  Once I think I have a good form, I'll attach it here when I know how. 




Diane

More Changes

This next school year I will be going through all kinds of changes.  On June 1st, I found out that I am being transferred to another building due to the budget cuts.  Later in the month I was told that I would teach first grade.  I panicked!  I know very little about teaching first graders.  I have taught for 16 years plus I began with several years as a substitute until I could get a teaching job since budgets were tight at that time.  I started in second grade and spent about 7 years in that grade.  One of those years was in a 1st/2nd grade blend.  Then, I began teaching older kids.  I have spent the last 9 years with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders and really enjoy those ages.  This will be a year full of learning as I learn how to teach 1st graders.  I am so thankful for all of the blogs out there where I can get ideas and see what others are doing.  I also have been buying many things on TpT to help.  I just discovered the blogs and TpT about 3 months ago.


Today I had an recorded phone call from my new principal.  Today, I know, was his first day back to work.  He is transferring to a middle school in the district.  So, right now my school doesn't have a principal.  One more change to deal with.  The district did cut all of the elementary vice-principals.  Maybe they would hire one of them back, however, I know that two already have another job.  One more change to deal with.  At least everyone at the school will be going through this one, not just me.

Computer Lessons

My computer skills, I know, are limited.  I see all of the things everyone creates on their blogs or from TpT and I want to do the same type of things.  I started buying some clip art, but I still didn't know what to do.


When I bought my MacBook in February, I also purchased a year worth of One on One classes.  I haven't been to any because it was so busy in the spring and I have been stuck without a car, other than the rental, since school was out.  Finally, I decided to take a class.


On Thursday I went to one of the One on One sessions called Personal Projects.  You go to the Apple Store and one employee helps the people in the class with whatever they want.  I didn't really know where this store was because it was in a shopping center that I've never been to.  I found the store pretty quickly.


The class was so worth going to.  I showed the employee what some of you bloggers have done and said, "Is there any way I can do that sort of thing?"  He told me that there is.  I usually use Word, but he suggested that I get Apple's form of Word called Pages.  That's what he knows and likes, so I purchased it.  He showed me a variety of things that were so beneficial.  I finally got out a piece of paper to write some notes realizing I would forget when I got home.  He would bounce back and forth between each person.  There were only two of us there, so I got lots of attention.


I think I'm going to sign up for one a week until school begins.  After that, it will be a little harder to go to because these classes are usually during the day.  Maybe they'll have some on Saturdays.  They have other specific classes that I may take if the time is right.


I just worked on my schedule cards.  Last night I found the perfect background. I wanted polka-dots, but I wanted them colored.  After looking at Cheryl Saod's Celebrating Yummy Birthdays, I noticed there were lots of polka-dots.  It's so perfect!  If I knew how to attach a page here, I would do it so that you can all see it.  I tried, but it didn't work.  I think it's because I don't know how to reduce the size of the document for the blog.  That will be a question to ask next class. I'll go take a photo of a printed page, so that I can show everyone what I made.  

          
  I'm looking forward to printing and cutting all of my schedule cards.  They will look so nice in my new classroom at my new school.


Diane