New School Year

Welcome back, students!  Ok, well I don’t actually have kids until the 17^th, but I definitely have the itch to get back to teaching.  This is now my second year in the biz (the first year only produced 3 blog entries… sorry, I’ll try to do better).  I feel like I have such a better handle on things this year – it’s amazing!  I’ve only spent 5 days so far up in my classroom working on putting things together for the upcoming school year rather than the entire month I spent last summer working on my classroom.  A big improvement!  It’s wonderful how much quicker things come together when you’ve already done it once and saw what worked and what didn’t.  I have changed a lot of things in my classroom, mostly furniture rearrangement, but I like it a lot.  I still have quite a bit of organizing to do in my file cabinet and my library, since they both took a major backseat last year.  It’s also nice not having to make everything this year.  Don’t get me wrong, some things weren’t “cute” enough for my liking so I had to redo them.

My school district’s teachers are back for professional development on Wednesday and so that means I won’t have that much time to spend working on my room.  Luckily as part of PD time, we are given a full workday to be in classrooms getting ready for our students.  My goal was to be able to spend most of that time working on curriculum, but at this rate, I’m not quite sure that is going to happen.  I have a constant to-do list on my desk, my kidney table, and my phone to make sure that everything gets done before that first day of school.  Once it’s all done, I’ll be sure to post some pictures.  Until then!

Snow Days

Tomorrow will be the fourth snow day of the week. We are also expecting more bad weather early next week.  Since returning from Christmas break, I have only had one full 5 day week with my students.  While I am enjoying the days off, it sure is throwing a cramp in my lesson plans and my standardized test preparation. My units are dragging on with no end in sight.  My lesson plans keep getting carried over to the next week.  I don’t have any grading to do because I spent all last Sunday doing that, and I’m caught up. I’ve tried to look ahead a little bit so I can be way ahead and keep my stress levels low, but I’ve got cabin fever pretty bad at this point and I just want to work on craft projects instead of school work.  I don’t know if I will ever get back into a routine with my kids.  I guess I need to start working on the Father’s Day unit!

Welcome to our class

On Tuesday, an 8 year old girl, made herself the newest member of room 160. AD is her name for our purposes here.  She was very welcomed to help balance the boy to girl ratio in my classroom (now 15 to 10).  This is only the 2nd new student to come to our class after the first of the school year, so I am still learning how to make new students part of room 160 quickly and with love.  New students offer a unique challenge to the teacher of the class to which they enter.

Challenge 1: Routines: There are very established routines in our class, from how to enter the classroom in the morning to sharpening pencils to what days you are allowed to check out a book from the classroom library.  A new student knows none of the routines that are already ingrained in my 24 other students.  You can’t really stop teaching inferencing and graphing to teach the new student the required routines.  They are taught in pieces as they are needed.  It anyone’s guess when she will learn all the necessary rules, procedures, and routines to feel at home in room 160.

Challenge 2: Knowledge base:  I’ve been with 23 of my students since the first day of school.  I know a plethora of information about each of them – their reading level, their second grade teacher, their birthdays, etc.  I know what they know and I know what they don’t know (I’m working to tip the scales in the direction of what they do know).  I know almost nothing about AD.  Her emergency card was given to me, but very little else.  I’m waiting for the check out papers from her previous school to help get a handle on how to help her be successful.  Maybe tomorrow they will come.

Challenge 3: Belonging: School is so much more than the spelling tests and books read.  School is a community where friendships are formed and life happens.  Changing schools in the middle of the school year forces a child to leave one community behind and enter a new one without knowing what to expect.  Making new friends, deciding if you like your teacher, and learning all the school stuff on top of that can be a struggle for many kids.  I want AD to feel like a part our family.  I can’t wait for the day AD hugs me goodbye as we leave room 160 for the day.

I know AD won’t be the last new student I get, but perhaps this experience will help me to better bring the next new student into our classroom with ease.

Good Morning Class

Welcome to Room 160.  I’m Mrs. Webber.  I’m a first year year teacher in North West Arkansas teaching 3rd grade.  My dad told me at the start of the school year that I should start a blog to chronicle my first year as a teacher.  It’s taken me a while to get started obviously.  So here is my first post.  Let’s see where this goes.