Today was a great day!

Oh today was busy but it was that good kind of busy not the "oh-my-gosh-why-did-I-get-out-of-bed-today" kind of day.
I had the morning nutrition lesson for the school, we talked about our virtue of the week, courage and what that means. We then played one of our favorite games, red light, green light.
Academics went pretty well today too! One of my boys who really struggles with English was talking a considerable amount more than usual and was eager to participate in Math, he was proud of himself too! It was great, I love seeing them make strides!
And on top of this, I had my constant behavior struggle boy have a pretty decent day, I felt like I didn't have to say his name nearly as much! In turn we were both happier ending our day!
Tomorrow is my first run at a field trip with the kiddos, granted it is only to the High School to partake in a workshop about bullying. Still it is an adventure outside the school testing the students self control and I am sure they will attempt to push buttons along the way. It will be a good trail run for us before we make the trip up to the city next Friday to explore the Zoo for the younger kids, Discovery Center for my students and 6th graders and the History Museum for the 4th and 5thers.
I have been slacking with my posts and really hope to turn that around, I spent some time in the class on Sunday getting some small things done that make the room feel a little more like home, hanging more student work and rules we have agreed upon together and some reference posters.

Pictures Pendig

I really wanted to post some pictures of the classroom and such but I left my camera at school. :( So hopefully I can remember it after the in-service on Monday.

LONG week

What a week!
Got married to the love of my life on Monday, it was a lovely little wedding at City Hall, married by the mayor, my mom made it out to take some pictures. She was our only guest. We plan on having a real ceremony/reception in a year or two. My students knew I was going to get married over the weekend and were excited to see me on Tuesday and most remembered the new name, it is funny though, they used to call me Mrs H and now they call me Ms C, they got their titles a little mixed up :)
Tuesday was a busy day at school and my mom and husband came down so that my mom could see my school and room for the very short time she was here. The students loved it and were eager to read with them. Although I had a social studies lesson planned I found the interest to share reading for the last half hour of the day to be more beneficial to them at the time.
Wednesday my lovely husband got up early to take my mom to the airport so that I could sleep a little longer before having to go into work all day.
Thursday doesn't feel as though anything really out of the ordinary happened, I did stay at school until about 7 getting things ready for Friday because all of the teachers had a AIMSweb training to go to at the High School for the day. So our Parapros were going to sub in our classrooms, while I might have made long and detailed sub plans I just wanted to make sure there was enough for the students to do.
The training on Friday was good, I went in not knowing a thing about the program since I am new to the school and missed all the beginning of the year training and everything, came away from it knowing the same if not more than all the other teachers in the district that used it last year. I also found out I am far more computer savvy than I had thought. Set up all the teachers online access to our reading program during lunch too. Boy were they happy about that one! Now they can print almost all the materials they need from the web and had access to an online edition of the Teachers Manual. Which means no more lugging home those huge heavy things.
Now for some enjoyable time outdoors with a friend.

Full Friday

Friday morning started off in full force, I was going to pay for having a weekend this week!
Got to school about a half an hour earlier than usual, to make sure I had time to get all the doors unlocked and lights on and still prep as our amazing Administrative Assistant was going to be out of town for some meetings. Got everything ready and was prepping the last few things as the students showed, I'm the morning bus duty lady and it was my morning for Breakfast/Nutrition duty as well. So I get all the students walking/running in the gym and am "racing" a few of the younger kids to get them going. Then we get through breakfast, I send the 4th, 5th, and 6th Graders to Positive Actions while the younger ones and I watch a video about bones and muscles. They LOVED the video, which asked them some review questions along the way, and they really got into answering and counting down to see if they were right. I was rather surprised in their involvement. One of our kinders was feeling rather spry and I got down to his level to tell him to keep his hands to himself and have him repeat what he needed to do, before repeating my request he thought it would be a good idea to flick me in the nose. Ignoring his behavior as I knew he only wanted a rise in me, he repeated the desired behavior and then gave me a big hug. This young man is too smart for his own good, and he cracks me up daily.
After video and breakfast we walked some laps, unfortunately some students thought running would be a good idea, which made me cringe being after breakfast. And sure enough someone ended up yaking, although no one would admit it, which worried me that someone might still feel ill. So I cleaned up while my students sat patiently watching since I couldn't send them to our room without a teacher in there. This set us back and put a bit of a rush on things but we worked it out.
On to SIPPS, I was finally able to get the kids excited about phonics and phonemic awareness, I started trying to stump them and catch them off guard. I successfully caught them 3 times out of probably 75 but they were enjoying it and I told them I was going to get more next week, so hopefully I can keep up the excitement with phonics, if you have any suggestions I am definitely open to them.
All this in only an hour! Lets just say I enjoyed my little break while the students were in music! They came back with mallets as antennae and were hysterical about how silly they were. :) Love them
The rest of the school day was pretty good, we did a language arts exercise that got them up and moving and acting out the verbs in a Space story, definitely something I will have to try again with them, gets them moving, and they think without really knowing it!
We got to work on some mapping skills with the older kids to end our day. Working together to color and discuss the elevation of our state as well as rivers. The older grades will label their rivers while we will most likely just label the capital, where we live, and the rivers near by that they are familiar with. It is great to have the chunk of time to work with our older friends though. It is cute to see how nervous the younger ones are to enter the 4/5/6 class, I had to go first :)
After waiting with the nose-flicker and his teacher after school for his ride to show and enjoying some hilarious conversation with him, I was off to meet with my Mentor. Turns out there was some mis-communication and she wasn't there anymore when I got there, so instead I enjoyed my drive through the district and home again.

Exhausted

I sure forgot how exhausting teaching can be! On my way to school Wednesday morning I could hardly keep my eyes open.... it was bad, and then I was dragging all day, I just could not WAKE up! It was hard to keep the kids excited about learning. And one of them even looked at me, and in his broken English, told me I didn't look so good!
I was a bad teacher last night, I came home, ate some dinner with my honey and then went to take a "nap". Well this nap turned into a long nights sleep. I was up a few times to let the dogs out, but then it was straight back to bed. I felt tons better when I woke up this morning, that is for sure.
I got my first official apple of the year, mushy or not, it's the thought that counts and boy did it make my heart smile.
Now on to catching up on some America's Got Talent, I love me some Prince Poppycock and Studio Young One Beast Society! And some grading of course.

Sunday, fishing, and money

Sunday I was lucky enough to convince my soon-to-be husband to join me at school for the day. While I did need his help with moving a few large items and some nerdery I mostly just wanted his company for what I suspected would be a long day. He is taking a class on discreet mathematics so I figured he could bring that course work and use the computers at school while I worked. Success on my part! We spent nearly 8 hours there, I was busy organizing, and preparing the room since I did not get the time before school started to do all that. I got all the materials and resources straightened out and now each subject has it's own neat cabinet instead of stuff just kind of everywhere. I made copies for the first part of this week, and set up posters and my word wall and prepared jobs and class money. There was still more work to do yesterday but I did that at home. Another big thing was I got up to date with grades and even had two girls that were able to sort and pass back papers for me today, so they are even out of my hands!
Today started off a little rocky with the chaos that is Tuesday mornings and then some. Positive Actions for 1st - 3rd grades was in my room this morning, which took from getting settled in time and we got a late start on SIPPS. But a quick little chuckle was one of my students looked down from the start. I tried to figure out what was wrong but he did not want to communicate with me in English, nor would he tell his cousin or other friends in the class in Spanish what was wrong. After some coaxing from myself and an aide we were able to get him to walk down to the office where we could have our ELL coordinator try to figure out what was wrong. Well turns our after she chatted with him for awhile he was attempting to be sick and go home because he wanted to go fishing. Smart cookie knowing that sick equals home, but he had to stay the day. Surprisingly enough we had a really great day after he realized he couldn't go home and maybe should enjoy himself as much as possible.
I ran off copies of our Wise Rewards, play money, we will be using in our class this year. I want to use them as an incentive for good behavior as much as possible. While I have not yet worked out the wrinkles, I'm thinking each student will get 5 dollars at the end of the week for their job, and they can earn dollars throughout the week as well, and even by having a parent sign their agenda book, for every 20 times they bring back their homework and have it signed, as well as other good/positive behavior. They will loose dollars/points if they need me to make another copy of a worksheet they should still have. And anything else we decide as a class,when they loose money for negatives that money will go into my BANK, paying me for their disruptions, this I think will cut down a lot.
I ramble, I am exhausted but really wanted to post today.
Oh yea, can't wait to see how they respond to their desks being rearranged into a horse-shoe shape tonight.
Must sleep spent 12 hours at school today and am nodding off as I type.

Week1

Well the first week sure was busy, exciting, exhausting, and I am another year older!
On Wednesday our class got a new student so now my grades are even, six 2nd graders and six 3rd graders, I have already become attached to my students. I am eager to see them grow and learn and excited to be able to help them overcome some of their challenges.
There was a delay in our new reading program order so we just got the books and resources on Thursday  after almost 2 weeks into the school year. I am very excited about getting the new materials and to really dig in and begin our reading curriculum, for those who are familiar it is the Scott Foresman Reading Street curriculum which I think will truly benefit our students, especially with the specific ELL materials. I spent some time yesterday while my students were watching a video on state history with the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders to help our librarian barcode and inventory all the materials, and man is there a TON of stuff, especially for the Kinders. She, with the help of one of the paraprofessionals, was able to get the teachers manuals and student textbooks plus some other materials barcoded and ready for us to begin using on Tuesday.
Then Friday was my birthday and it was great with the students and staff. I walked into a nice message on my board from the secretary, as well as flowers and a gift on my desk. Then our amazing principal made a nice warm breakfast she brought in, and then there was a home made butterfinger cake for me in the fridge! It was an amazing birthday considering it was the first time I have ever really worked on my birthday. The kids sang to me in the morning and then also again when I picked them up from music.
I need to get down to school tomorrow to rearrange, organize and plan for awhile.