Pinterest is the best thing since sliced bread!

I must admit I love Pinterest! Where were you last year, during my first year of teaching, oh Pinterest?! 

I have found so many great ideas on there to help with teaching. Something I just found has totally made my day! I am not a huge fan of CHAMPs. And I'm not meaning the store.

CHAMPs is a classroom management idea my school uses. CHAMPs is an acronym and it stands for Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement and Participation. Basically it's a way to help students know what they can or cannot do with conversation, getting help, activity, movement and participation during different parts of the day. 

Well.... thanks to Pinterest I found a wonderful way to incorporate the use of CHAMPs w/out making a large poster that, quite honestly will be forgotten and not used once I introduce it the first week of school. Thanks to Stephanie at http://aloha-kindergarten.blogspot.com/2011/07/champs.html for creating this idea and sharing it with us! I just printed everything out I will need to create this little bit of help. 

I hope I still have space on my dry erase magnetized board!

95% Done

I never thought I'd get my room nearly ready before the first week of school for the teachers. I had set a goal, well actually my mother set the goal, of getting my room completely ready to go before the week back for teachers. That week is busy enough as is with meetings and planning, copying, etc. that I didn't want to really deal with preparing my room. Sure things will still need to be done as the year goes along, but for now it's quite presentable for 'meet the teacher night'. My room, in my most humble opinion, but in others' opinions as well, looks very bright, cheery and inviting! All that's left to do is the welcome board in the hallway. I'm waiting on black bulletin board paper and the names of my students to add to stars and of course die cutting letters. Fun (note sarcasm).

I like my room so much more than last year. The size alone is enough to like it. I have so much room it's almost insane! haha! But also the decor is really nice and bright. The pictures do not do it justice. I have a few more things to do but other than that my room is 95% completed and ready for the students to come busting in. 

"Compliment popcorn" - as students receive compliments outside the classroom (or even in the classroom) they will receive a piece of popcorn to build the word and after they get the whole word built they will receive a popcorn party.

Cafe and Daily 3 Reading Center Pocket Chart board

This will be their work display board - I will add more black construction paper to frame their work. Cut a slit in the construction paper and staple it to the board. Put a paperclip in the slit and then slide work up under the paperclip.

Read-to-Self and Read-to-Someone center. Students will take their own book box full of their own choices of books and read to someone or to their self, sitting around the room.

Word Work center table

Work on Writing center. Students will use clip boards and sit around the room to work on writing. After taking this picture I added another crate filled with dry erase boards and a caddy with dry erase markers. Students can use the dry erase boards as well to write.

Subject magnets. Scholastic is the best! I got these for free with the points I had earned. Going to laminate sentence strips, magnetize them and add them next to the subject magnets to write the EQs on them.

Target's $1 section is wonderful! This year I'm going to try being bucket fillers.

I haven't put up the phrase yet, but it will say "We are bucket fillers!" with the picture of the bucket in place of the word "bucket".

My desk area, with the mail box for students, wire baskets for them to turn in their work on the small table. The small table will also act as a 'think table' for when students need a 'time out'.

Computer station with storage area behind it.

The view from the front door of my classroom. I love the U shape because it leaves a big enough area for students to use as they work in their reading/math centers. I might leave my room like this all  year.

Now I gotta get started with the real part of being a teacher - the planning! Blah!

Little by little

Little by little my room is coming together. I spent 3 days in my room the week of July 9-13 and did some things. What? I'm not sure. Then I was blessed to have the help of my parents (mainly my Dad) to help me hang bulletin board paper. Last night my mom went back with me and helped me hang the film strip border that came in. 

I seem to be spending HOURS in my room and not getting anywhere. I know the kids do not start until August 8th (thanks Marc for the advice!) but I just want to get it done so I can focus on the important stuff. Ya know like curriculum and getting the first few weeks of copies done and all that. The room isn't important but having it all nice and neat and cute helps. Right? It does! At least in my own little world it does. 

So the entire room is done in the Hollywood theme, however, my own little corner of the room is done in one of my most favorite things - polka dots! And PINK! 

The calendar I was debating putting up, along with my "Specials" board, which will tell the kids and remind me where we go each day. The bare pink area will be for me to hang important info for myself.

Next to my little corner of the world is the mail box with a view of the film strip border. Above the mail box I'm going to put a title of "Fan Mail" because well I will be having celebrities in my classroom!

Also, the custodians have been so wonderful! Every time I've needed something they've gone on the hunt for it or moved it or helped me come to a decision about it. In order to have my desk the way I wanted it I needed a much longer internet connection cord. Al went on the hunt for it. Then I wanted to plug a power strip into an extension cord so the power strip would be closer to my computer and other items that needed to be plugged in. I was told I couldn't do that but that he might be able to get me a power strip with a longer cord. Turns out I had one right in my own room! I needed a book case removed from my room (I know! How could I not need a book case? But I did.) Michael was right on it; moving the book case. 

Little by little it will all come together. Some how some way. 

And August 8th is another 2 weeks away! I have time. I just need to breath.

PS - more pics to come!

Getting Organized!

Tomorrow I start back to work in 4 weeks. *sigh* Where did my first summer as a teacher go? Shoot! Where did my first year as a teacher go? 

As I stated before I not only moved grade levels but I moved rooms too. I basically threw stuff in boxes and moved them to my new room, threw the boxes in the very tiny closet in my room and left it all there for the month of June.

Last week I started waking up thinking of all I have to do in just over a month until I start back to work. I couldn't just allow myself to sit around the house. I'm usually not that type of person anyway. I get "mad" at my father when he can't just sit and relax, but yet I take after him in so many ways - one of them being that I can't just sit for too long of a time. 

So this week I have spent some time in my room. Monday I spent only 2 hours. Today I spent double that time at least!

I unpacked box after box. My desk area is all organized as are my closets. If I never see a staple in a bulletin board again it will be too soon! I must have pulled out 1000 staples from the 3 large and 1 small bulletin boards in my room. OK, so maybe not that many but it sure did seem like it. 

In a few weeks when I can get my key to the school and room and I can work after hours (when I have more man power in the way of my parents) all I will have to do is put up my bulletin boards, move a few book cases (that I just didn't have the strength to move myself and to ask the custodians to do more work than they already are doing this summer is not my style as I hate bothering people with things I have want to do), and organize my library books. 

Hopefully my brain will relax these next 4 weeks. Although I have some books to read such as the Daily 5 and Cafe books and Lucy Calkins Writing Workshop books between now and then. *sigh*

Attached are pictures of my room thus far. 

Counter top and cabinets with one of the large bulletin boards

Counter top and cabinets continued from above picture

Closet in the classroom at the end of the counter space from above picture

Small bulletin board at the front of the room to the right of the closet from above

This is facing my desk area and the other 2 large bulletin boards

2 large bulletin boards continued from picture above

Facing my desk area - however my desk is facing differently than this and that short bookcase is not there

Entrance to room with kidney table for small group

Back Pack racks

Computer station for students

What my desk area looks like minus all my personal stuff in the area. On top of that short bookcase will be my students' mail box

The closet I share with my "partner in crime". I can barely fit through there width-wise!

The bathroom entrance, which also connects to my co-worker's room

The closet and bathroom side by side

 More pics to come, of course!

My theme is coming along!

Well I decided to do a "Hollywood" theme. Why? Because it's the most popular and very simple to create. Plus I've always been 'mesmerized' by Hollywood. I have a clip chart themed Hollywood, which a co-worker found for me at The First Grade Parade. I found many ideas from other sites too, of which I cannot remember, I've looked at so many sites. So to all those who created Hollywood themed classroom "stuff", a big huge THANK YOU! Now all I need are Daily 5 cards to match my theme. I created them myself, but eh, they don't look as cute. 

I have been sitting on Pinterest finding a whole bunch of stuff, neglecting other things, like the Lucy Calkins Writer's Workshop and the Daily 5 and Cafe. I must get to those things and soon. Thank goodness for Vacation Bible School starting next week so I won't sit here half the day googling Hollywood themed stuff. I'll add pictures later when I get them taken of what I've found. Although I'll probably wait until I can get into my classroom and start decorating. 

Starting Second Grade

This will be my second attempt at blogging while teaching. My first attempt was last school year (2011-2012), which was my first year of teaching. I was a third grade teacher at Inverness Primary School. Thankfully, I was asked back but was moved to second grade, hence the title of my blog. 

I am on a whole new team, minus a co-worker of mine from my third grade team. And I couldn't be happier. I will be next door to my co-worker, which we've become really good friends, as well as next door to a mentor teacher, who has more or less become one of two of my "moms away from home". The rest of my team and I have all clicked really well, all having the same general ideas of how we want our team to be ran. 

We all want to use the 'clip chart' for positive behavior as well as attempt the Daily 5 (or in our case, Daily 3, as our 90 minute reading bock will not accommodate the true Daily 5). Also, 5 of the 6 members of our team have all come from 'secondary' grade levels, meaning 3-5. So this will be a challenge to say the least. Also, while our grade level is not required to document Common Core State Standards (CCSS), we are to attempt to incorporate some of the standards into our lesson plans as a means of getting to know how Common Core is. As a team, we had two days of this past week, to work together to wrap our brains around CCSS and started to write lesson plans to incorporate them. We have the first 5 weeks of school planned as far as reading goes.

To say the least, I think our team will work well together! I'm super excited. Last year was a rough year for me, this career proving to not come as easy to me as I thought it would. I struggled to keep ahead, fit in with my administrators; basically just to get through the year was a struggle. This new school year is proving to be 100% better and it hasn't even started!

Like I said, I will attempt to keep this blog going as I love the idea of blogging and sharing my ideas. 

Until then... starting second grade... again! 

~Kelly~