My Past Week

This time last week I was setting out on my first day at the 2012 Summer Institute for Technology Integration (SITI).  Four other fellow teachers and I drove down to Dunedin, FL to learn SMARTboard techniques as well as how to teach our students to use Higher Order Thinking skills.  We learned so much at the institute; especially my group, since we had little to no knowledge about the SMARTboard.  Throughout the week we created a 15 page lesson using many different strategies.
One of the greatest things I discovered was SMART exchange.  This is an online sharing forum for teachers to share the lessons they created.  This will be great to supplement my lessons without me having to re-create the wheel.  For example, somebody created a balloon pop game that is used for attendance.  I will bring it up on my SMARTboard each morning and the students can come in and "pop" their balloon so I know they are present.  I'll share more neat lessons as I discover them!
Once I returned home, I did go out and work in the classroom a little bit.  See the pictures below of a couple bulletin boards I am working on.

Monkey Calendar Bulletin Board

Our Daily Schedule

Welcome to the classroom!

Bookshelf Organization

When I received the keys to my classroom, one of the first things that I knew I would need to work on was the bookshelf!  Books were literally piled on it haphazardly and what wasn't piled on the shelf, was packed in milk crates.  I have a very strong need for organization, so I knew this would not work for me.

My first order of business was to go through the milk crates and make piles of similar books.  I quickly noticed there were lots of different types of beginning readers (mostly level 1 and level 2).  I put all similar level 1 beginning readers in individual piles and then combined all the level 2+ beginning readers in one separate pile.  After the milk crates I tackled the shelf which had more beginning readers and lots of random picture books.

My strategy for tackling the picture books was to pull out all non-fiction/subject related books and put them in piles.  I ended up with a history/social studies pile, a math pile and a science pile.  I also pulled out holiday books and kept them in their own piles so that when each specific holiday rolls around I'll be able to easily pull the books.

The rest of the books that were left were simply picture books.  There was a wide variety of hard and soft cover picture books.  I put these to the side until I decide what I want to keep on the teacher shelf and what I want to put out for student enjoyment.  I pulled Clifford, Richard Scarry, Berenstein Bears, and Little Critter books knowing that those will be put out for students to read and the rest went into the milk crate for me to continue to sort through.

I placed each pile of beginning reader books and the picture books mentioned above into a clear container so one can easily see the covers.  I also put the math books out on the shelf in a clear container with covers showing.  You will see in the picture below that I also have an old set of leveled readers in matching holders.  I placed these on the shelf for now as is,  but may change and put them in clear containers to match.  Also, Dr. Seuss books are free-standing, but will be place in clear bins once I purchase some more.

My next step for the student book shelf is to label these books in a kid-friendly way to ensure they are put back organized each day.  I am thinking that I will label each container with a number or color and put a corresponding color or number on a bookmark that will stay inside the book.  I will teach the students to refer to that bookmark when returning a book.  Also, it will allow me to do a quick check to see if the books have been put back properly.  I think by doing the bookmarks, I will be able to give myself the freedom to tweak the system in the future if I find problems with it.  If I were to do a sticker on the book, it would make changing the system messy. 

The holiday books are organized and placed in bins on my teacher shelf (see picture below).  I will do the same with Science and Social Studies once I go through the books more in depth.  I plan on pulling out sub-categories of these books and labeling them appropriately.

I am learning as I go.  I would love to hear if anyone has tips/suggestions for me regarding the best way to organize the bookshelf!Thanks & happy organizing to you!

Classroom Helpers

Something that I want to acknowledge from the start of the year is the use of parent volunteers in the classroom.  I realize that parent involvement changes year to year, but I feel like the younger the child, the more the parents will want to play an active role.  Therefore, in order to get an idea of what way each parent has a desire to do to help, I have created a volunteer form.  I have listed items that would be useful and helpful to me in the room and I have given the option of checking off all that apply.  Check out the form below.  I am going to try it out and see if this helps me to organize and delegate tasks in a useful way.

Open House Student Information Sheet

Our first day of school is on a Wednesday.  On the Sunday before we have an open house so the students can come and see the classroom with their parents for the first time.  Parents can bring the requested school supplies to the room on this day, so the children will not have to lug it all on Wednesday.  This is also a time for me to provide information to the parents on how a typical day will go and procedures they will need to be aware of while their child is in my classroom.  Since I am learning school rules and procedures myself, I am trying to be proactive about planning my open house to ensure the best result possible.

Today I was thinking that it is going to be most important for me to get personal student information from the parents on this day as well.  I have seen teachers handle this in different ways, but I think having a paper they can fill out will be the best way.  I am going to create files on each of the students and I can easily put the sheet into their file once the form is returned to me.  I have included a copy of my "student information sheet" below. 

One thing that I want to note is that an important thing to know about a student is their "special food requests."  Most teachers think to ask about food allergies, but since we have such diversity in schools today, that is not all that needs to be accounted for.  At a previous school that I was an assistant at, we served snack to Kindergarten students daily.  One day we served dinosaur chicken nuggets as snack.  One child went home and told her mom what she ate and the mom was very upset with that decision.  It turns out, the child lived in a vegetarian-only home.  She had never eaten meat in her life.  The mom felt betrayed by the school for providing her child with a food that she wished she not eat.  In that particular case, the teacher had never been told previously about the vegetarian household.  In order to avoid any kind of conflict, I was sure to include a spot about special food requests.
 

The start of a great thing

Maybe a little over a month ago I was offered a position to teach at a private school as a first grade teacher. All of my previous school experience has been in public school where there are classrooms pushing 30 kids, limited supplies and para-professionals to help with the difficult students.  The school I was offered a position at is the antithesis of the environment I am used to.  I am the sole teacher, helper, and aide of the room.  I will have less than 20 kids and I can teach with my very own, personal SMARTboard installed beautifully at the front of the classroom.  So, needless to say I accepted the position and I am so excited to finally have the key to my very own classroom!  I think I literally jumped up and down when I got it!  In the weeks that have gone by since that moment I have felt the whole spectrum of emotions, including feeling like I'm never going to be prepared enough to teach the fragile little kids coming to the "big" school for the first time! 

While I have been fruitlessly planning in my spare time for this wonderful classroom of mine I have visited many other teachers' blogs to get inspiration and ideas.  I found so many great things that I decided to start a blog of my own.  I am going to share my thoughts, ideas, experiences, and failures on here for other teachers to learn and grow from as well.  I hope that my blog is able to help somebody the way that others have helped me.  And, if nothing else, I think it'll help me reflect on my own experiences as I journal my way through my first year as a Bobcat (our mascot)!

This is what the room looked like when I first went to visit it:

Stay tuned for the transformation that will soon be taking place!  I am thinking grouped desks, work areas for centers, and a "Swinging in to First Grade" monkey theme!