173 more to go!

Well, I made it through the first and second days of school for this year so far. The first day was pretty good. It didn't go quite as I planned. As always, you can plan, plan and over plan and things still won't go the way you planned! Everyone ate and got home the right way so based on that it was a success!!! Hahaha. I think I've fogotten how to teach! I'm having to learn to get back into the routine myself. The only part of Kindergarten I don't like is the first few weeks when you have to re"train" your kids all over. They are so little and some of them have never been anywhere before or came from somewhere else. I think once we're settled into a real routine and following our schedule completely things will settle down. I think Ms. Griffin and I have another sweet class. I've already had some laughs but forgot to write them down! I've gotta get back on that. If you can't laugh you won't make it.

I've forgotten how TIRING teaching is! My feet are KILLING me and I've been going to bed at 8:00pm! LOL! But that is to be expected especially since we had so much time off. Now I'm defintely not complaining about the 3 + months we had off, but for me that was probably too much (and I think for some of the kids too)! But I enjoyed it while it lasted and I will probably be saying the opposite come next summer we will have just a few weeks.

This year seems like it may be challenging but it always is every year in different ways. Hopefully I can stay on top of everything even better this year. I want this year to be the best yet and me to be the best teacher I can be this year. One thing about being a teacher is you definitely NEVER STOP LEARNING!!! Which is good because I LOVE learning cuz I am a nerd as most of you know! :)

Okay most of that probably doesn't make sense because I have 1/2 asleep as I am writing this. I'm hoping to try and stay awake for at least 30 more minutes and make 8:00! I mean I can't fall asleep before Jeopardy after all. ;)

Meet the Teacher

Well, the kids and parents came and "Met the Teacher" last night. It went GREAT!!! I had 16/20 parents/kids show up and that was great! I think the Lord has blessed me again this year with another group of great children and parents. I am just soooooo excited about this school year. I'm not sure if it's because our summer was so long and I was getting tired of not being in a routine or what. I think it was just not getting to do what I have been called to do and LOVE LOVE LOVE doing. Yes, it is overwhelming at times and can get stressful, but bottom line I just can't see myself doing anything else. I love teaching and I LOVE teaching Kindergarten.

We have the CUTEST kids! I was like oh no I am in trouble! You know those children that are so charming and can just flash a smile at you and it makes your heart melt and you forget that they just bit the kid next to them? Yeah, we have a CLASSROOM FULL this year! How I am ever going to stick with "pulling their symbol" when they break a rule will be a bit more of a challenge this year. Maybe I will just close my eyes. Or maybe I will have them pull their own symbol so I don't have to! hahaha. No, I will do like I normally do. They have to learn that something things are acceptable and some things are not. Hopefully we won't need to pull a lot of symbols this year. Behavior has a direct affect on their learning and I want ALL of them to be able to do their best without having anything to hinder them. In return, I will give them my best everyday.

I know this is all I keep talking about lately but I am just so excited for this school year. It might be a little more challenging with less breaks during the year, but it will still be okay! And Fall is coming which I LOVE LOVE LOVE too so that makes me more excited!!!! YAY!

YAY for the best school year yet! :)

Almost Ready

Today was my third day of pre-planning and we finally got the last box unpacked today! YAY!!! I'm SOOOOOO TIRED of unpacking boxes. I hope to never have to do it ever again...okay realistically I will probably have to but hopefully not for a LONG time!

Things are coming together and looking like our classroom again...yay!!! There's still things to do, but hopefully between tomorrow and Friday we can get it all done so I won't have to go up there over the long weekend!

I SWEAR my classroom is bigger than the one I was in before. I would be willing to put money on it! But I will take it because everything fits! I will finally be able to use my awesome pocket charts that I have for a center this year because there actually is a place to put the big "chart holder" and I am VERY excited about that!

I have a big change in my schedule this year and at first I wasn't sure how it was going to work, but I am very excited to try it out. We have to have 75 minutes of Math, and usually I would do 30 minutes of Calendar and the rest of the time would be broken up into Math small groups. Well, this year in order to do most of my Math in the morning I had to change things around. The new plan is 55 minutes of calendar. I know that sounds like A LOT and it is, but this way I can also get in songs, whole group games, Math read alouds, etc. and I am really excited about it. Plus, I usually go over 30 minutes in my calendar anyways because we just have so much to do and the kids really get into it. Then after that in the afternoon we will do 20 minutes of small group, but instead of changing groups, I will only see one group a day, my para will see one group a day and the other 2 will go to centers. This way each group is getting 20 solid minutes of small group instruction and the ones at center can actually have partners to play games with! I'm really excited to try this change. I think it will work great and I bet my student's math scores will increase! We will see how it goes!

I think this year is going to be great! Whether it really is or not, I will hopefully stay as positive as I am now and make it great no matter what! :)