Tomorrow is the First Day of School

Tomorrow is the 8th "first day of school" in my teacher career. This year I had a bit of a jump start with the mandatory extended school year at my new school. I already taught all of my kiddos during the month of July.

While I wasn't thrilled about losing a large chunk of my summer, I actually really liked it. It was a wonderful way to get to know the kids, my teaching partner, and my new school! It was also nice getting to start with half days!

View from the front

Tomorrow marks the beginning of official school year. Lauren and I have a group of 11 rambunctious boys! Yep, all boys, not a single pink-wearing girl! With this in mind, I had to rearrange our desks last week. We originally had 2 rows of 5 desks, but with the changes in enrollment, it wasn't going to work with that 11th desk. I wanted a way for all of the kids to be able to face the front and be easily accessible for the 3 of us teachers to help them. Additionally, it's a special education class and some of the kids struggle with social skills, so groups don't always work well. I'm hoping this "U" shape will be the solution!

View from the back of the room

Lauren and I know we have an active group of boys, and we look forward to all the things we can accomplish with them this year. I plan on grabbing their attention with their love of bugs! We'll be kicking off the year with our insect unit! More to come on that, but for now all I have ready is the clip art. I have created a couple of science pages created for my kiddos, but it's not quite TPT ready yet.

Now I'm off to pick out my first day of school outfit! This could be a challenge, I went Back to School shopping at the outlets on Saturday. Banana Republic and Ann Taylor Loft (outlet versions) are dangerous places for me! So many cute things! Added bonus, my new kids don't have as many aggression concerns so after FOUR YEARS I can FINALLY wear necklaces again! Whoo hoo!

It's Fun Helping Other Teachers :)

Today I spent the day in a classroom...it just wasn't mine! One of my favorite teaching buddies (well actually she's an awesome friend in and out of a school setting) moved to a new school. She was with me at my last school and we often helped each other out. No need for that tradition to end just because we are on new campuses!

Now she's at a great new school, but needed some help figuring out the best way to set up her new and awesomely huge classroom! Our last school was FAR from traditional, and the building was never meant to be a school! There was no such thing as bulletin board walls, cupboards, counters, or storage that's actually useful in the main teaching spaces. Since that was her first couple years of teaching, she was a little behind on the tricks to using the amazing space of a real classroom. She's teaching 4th grade this year :)

So off I went to hang out with her and help any way I could... (I secretly love setting up classrooms!)

It was fun chatting as we sat on the floor cutting out laminated stuff and helping her plan her classroom setup. I was glad she was able to feel much more settled in her room by the time I left. We'll be checking out another teacher store tomorrow and using my Cameo machine to cut out of bulletin board titles. Have I mentioned how much I love that thing?!

This was our proudest creation today! She picked an owl theme and had a basic idea of what she wanted, just wasn't sure how to execute it. These colored sheets are going to be the background for her students' work to be displayed.

 Tips for setting up a board like this:

• Laminate the construction paper with the blank name tags attached (we used tape)
• Write names with a Sharpee marker. This makes it so you can use Expo (dry-erase) spray to erase the names if students move away or classes get adjusted in the first couple of days of school. No need to redo the whole wall! Same goes for name tags if you teach with a migrant population like I have in the past.
• I'm convinced school walls, or maybe the fade-less paper aren't exactly straight! We hung the borders in straight lines, and some paper hung out on the sides/bottom. To fix the problem, slide an open pair of scissors or a razor blade gently along the edge of the border. The thin strip of excess paper cuts right off! Her walls have cracks in them and sharp scissor slide easily down the line for a perfectly straight cut.
• Work can be hung and exchanged easily using a small binder-clip held on to the wall with a push pin. Putting the pin at a downward angle helps keep the clips from blowing off if there is a breeze through the doorway.

I love setting up bulletin boards! Oh, and desk/furniture arrangements! What's your favorite part of setting up a classroom?

Pictures of My New Classroom Setup!

Happy Friday! I was up really late last night getting things ready for our first day of school. We start in a week on July 8th, but next week not an official teacher work week and I don't have keys to my room yet. I was scrambling to get things done today in order to be ready when I come back on the 1st day of school.

Yes, I know it is silly that there is a week between teacher work week and the first day of school... I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the company I work for being closed July 4th & 5th.

 I think I managed to get it everything essential done. My co-teacher is in a foreign country with her family, so there was only so much I could do without her. I have the room all set up and some lesson plans ready to go, so I figure that's the most important thing. The rest we can sort out when she gets back.

We have a MONSTER theme!!

(It's all boys in our class. I think they'll totally dig it)

There are a couple areas that still need work, but it's not too shabby for putting the room together by myself if just 3 days. I figure it's summer school with shorter days, so we'll have time in the afternoons to perfect our classroom together once my partner gets back.

Take a peek! I walked in a circle around my room so you get the full view! A few things still need work, but for the most part, this will be how my room looks this year.

The first two are my small group room so my co-teacher and I can both teach at the same time without interrupting each other.

The posters go with our curriculum

View from my front door, our teacher desks are under the windows

Next is a view from the back of the room. That space in the top left of the photo under the bare corkboard and magnetic board is the "Calm Down Corner" for when the kids get frustrated. It needs some serious love next week, but I couldn't find the things I wanted to put over there. And the calender area is rather bad too, but I kinda want to do SmartBoard calendar once we get the new projector bulb for it anyway.

View from the windows:

My monster behavior chart! I made it from some of the materials in this classroom decor set. It includes a behavior chart, but the wording is different than I use, so I made my own that still matches the name tags in her set that I'm using.

My door! Ignore the emergency procedures I have to leave there!

This might be the funniest part! Look at the reflection of me in the mirror and think about the size proportions! Yep, that sink goes to my knees! And that toilet...it goes up to my shins. We have a preschool bathroom inside my 1st-2nd class! Hahahaha. Even the kids think it's too small!

Adorable monster board, soon to be social skills curriculum stuff!

Zones of regulation...MONSTER STYLE! We are thinking of calling it "controlling your inner monster!"

And my AMAZING courtyard!!!

And we can't forget Tavish! He is the therapy dog who loves my room so much that he wandered in without his handler yesterday! I'm soooo excited to have my class work with him this year! I've never had a therapy dog at school before, and I'm already loving it! He's visited me just about every day that I've been working in the room this week :)

Ready to see my new classroom?!

Be warned, this place is mess right now! But I'm so excited about this new school that I just had to share! The teacher who had this room last year still needs to come move stuff over to the other room, so our things are just piled on tables right now. Either way, I thought I'd share! It'll get fixed up next week :)

Lauren, my new co-teacher, is awesome! We weren't able to get much actual work done today, since the room isn't cleared out, but we made the most of it by chatting all day! We have a general plan of how we want to lay out the classroom when the time comes. We also have a plan of attack for how we want to start the year. I don't officially start until Monday, but I'm enjoying the time to get to know people and my room without a set schedule of meetings and things that have to be done.

So without further adieu... our room! (Or what will eventually be a nice version of our room. I'll post "after" pics later.)

We still need to pick a theme. I was thinking ocean, but with all of this green, I'm now thinking maybe a garden theme would be best! Who doesn't love flowers and butterflies?! We'll see, I could totally change my mind by tomorrow :)

Did you know they made sea foam green desks?! I didn't! The door goes to our little courtyard. I'll have to show you that another day.

Obviously all of these piles will disappear in the next week. I'll posted the finished room pictures later! It's always more fun to see both "before" and "after" anyway. It makes it more dramatic!

I have a SmartBoard!!! I haven't had technology in 4 years!! I'm thrilled!! Oh, and we have iPads!! Yippee skippy!!! I might have just died and gone to teacher heaven!

This is our small group room. It's actually a separate little closet area so my co-teacher and I can be in separate places teaching small groups without interrupting each other.

Five for Friday!

 

Oh Friday, how I've missed you!

This was one of those weeks that involved me saying, "It's only TUESDAY?!"

 Ok so here are 5 random adventures in my life this week:

1) My new collaborative special ed blog has a name!! It is called A Special Sparkle! I'm super excited about the name. I made up a couple versions and this was a unanimous winner between the contributors and my other blogging buddies! Be on the look out for when it is up and running. Currently we are working on the blog design!

2) I teach a genius! No joke, I think he is honestly the smartest kid I have ever taught. Mom still needs to take him for formal testing to get his IQ, but I know it's going to be high. This was his "free time" activity after he finished his second grade level math. This kid is in KINDERGARTEN! I did not help him AT ALL. Not only did he create and solve this math problem, but he was also able to tell me that .5 is equivalent to 1/2. Then he proceeded to create 20 more math problems in the same level of difficulty and answer them all correctly. He's FIVE!!

My other kinder boy decided he should join and created fact families with his math free time.

3) We are learning about oceans now and one kid brought in a magazine called ChickaDEE. It's apparently a Canadian magazine, but it was perfect timing. The boys sat there reading about different ocean animals together. Too cute!

4) I suddenly have social life! After nothing to do most of the winter, I suddenly have a million places to be and people to hang out with lately! I think it's the gorgeous weather here in CA that has us all making up excuses to hang out! This is me with my friend Nancy last night. Forgive my squinty eyes, this is what happens when a teacher stays out until 10 on a school night! I know I'm wild and crazy staying out until ten! Hahaha! I'm on the right. Nancy is my CrossFit buddy. It's nice to have a girl in what can be a very manly gym some days.


 5) We're down to 23 school days and 3 staff days this year! I feel like this time of year has a mix of lasting forever and time flying by! I find myself counting the days until it's over. Then I find myself rushing around to get everything done because there just isn't enough time! There is sooo much to do and so many random adventure days mixed in like field day, grandparents day (yesterday), end of the year testing days, etc. Busy, busy, busy! I'm happy my kids have hit a nice little groove where they don't need much direction, and just get their stuff done. It's my favorite part of the year where all my hard work pays off.

Okay, now my question for you...have you ever been part of a collaborative blog? How often do/did you put a post on that blog?

New Carpet! New Shelves! Funny Kid Writing!

My classroom has had a whole makeover since the school year started!! Today I walked in to BEAUTIFUL new carpet and 2 HUGE new bookshelves!!! Sooo excited!

(Be prepared for LOTS of capital letters and exclamation points in this post!!)

I was at work an hour and a 1/2 before school started to put everything back away in my classroom. It's not quite picture worthy, but trust me... it's wonderful! I'm working away at reorganizing and boy is it looking sooo much better. Clutter was my class this year purely to lack of storage! My cottage is super adorable, but was never a functional space as a classroom. It's finally almost perfect! The only thing I wish for is counter space, but whatever... that's why they created plastic organizer bins!

Thank goodness my kids hit that "March Groove" You know the one... that moment you wait for since the first day of school where the kids know the routine so well you never say a word and they just work and do what they need to do. AMAZING! So my plan was to let the kids do Starfall and other learning games on the computer this morning while I finished putting my room together. Then AWESOMENESS happened! The kids pulled out their seat work folder and worked silently while I put things on our *new* shelves. They brought me their papers when they were confused or needed me to reword the directions, and then they kept on working! Note: I told them what I was doing and that my plan is to work while they work, and of course I'm here to help them and will stop ANY time they need help. They worked hard and I had most things back in their place by the 10:00 recess! Whoo hoo! 

Here is what I walked into! Yes, this is only the shelves and carpet, you DO NOT want to see what my kitchen looked like with EVERY teaching material I own inside of it! Or maybe you do, but I'd prefer to pretend that never happened, so I didn't take a picture!

I'll post the finished room this week. I'm undecided about a few shelves, and my label maker ran out of white tape. I tried the gold, which is pretty... but not very readable.

BEFORE!!

New Carpet! New shelves!!

That's my stuff in the recycle bin that the construction workers didn't know what to do with.

Funny Kid Writing:
So today a kindergarten kid was stalling on his writing BIG TIME. I finally had enough and said "Just write! Anything! I gave you topics to choose from. Just pick something and write! If you don't write, you drop a level on the color chart for being off task!" I turned around and he got right to work. When he was done, I cracked up laughing!! In case my writing is chicken scratch, it says: "I don't know what I am going to write about. Lisa gave directions but I didn't want to do that. No." And the picture is of him with a question mark over his head and his writing book in his hand. Too funny!