Awesome first day!!!

What an awesome first day of school! I haven't had such a great start to the year in a long time! I have a wonderful group of 3rd graders!!! They are so sweet and well-behaved! The time flew by so fast, I didn't get to do well over half of the things that I planned. Have a few hiccups at dismissal time, our air didn't work most of the day and it was pretty hot in the room, my feet are killing me, and I'm exhausted because I didn't sleep much last night - yes, after 9 yearsI still get anxious!!! But I am looking forward to tomorrow! This is going to be a good year! A few pics of our jitter juice and magic play dough!

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My room is FINALLY ready!!!

Wow!!! After 4 weeks of work, my room is finally ready!!! I would like to thank all of the educators who have blogs that inspired some of the things you will in my classroom. Thanks for sharing your ideas and making products for other educators to use, particularly Jodi at Clutter-free classroom! There are others, but I can't recall their names. Sorry! But without further ado, here is my classroom. There are still a few tiny loose ends to tie up, but for the most part it is done!!! I'm so happy!!!

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Meet the Teacher Night

It finally arrived!! Meet the Teacher Night!!! I'd been anxiously looking forward to this night. I really wanted to hurry and get it over with because I have been working hard the last few days - or should I say week - to make sure that I was prepared. I was also curious to see my little kiddos!! I didn't know how they would react to me and I must say I was pleasantly surprised.

As the evening started, I was getting a tad bit emotional. As the kids starting pouring in the building,they started running over and hugging their old teachers. As they did, I thought of my little lovlies at Moss - how they'd be looking for me, how my old kids who've graduated would come back to see me and I'd be gone, and how I was missing getting all of the hugs!! I never thought I'd feel all of these emotions.

The night went well. 14 of the 19 kids on my list showed up. Overall the night went well. The best part of it all???? As the kids were leaving, many of them gave me hugs!!!! :)

Goodbye, Summer!!!

Well, my summer is officially over and I have reported to work. I started NEW teacher (although I'm a long way from being a new teacher) orientation today. It was a pretty easy day with a nice lunch provided. We reported to our campus at noon and was able to work in our rooms after a brief meeting with the AP. Of course, I really didn't have much to do since I've been working in my room for almost 3 weeks now. I was able to start moving my stuff from my old room this evening. I'm no where near being done though. But I'm glad I was able to start.

Goodbye, Summer!!! See ya next year!

Boxes arrived...operation mailboxes in progress!!!

The boxes I ordered finally arrived!!! Now I'm starting to work on my next project...classroom mailboxes. I already have the pocket chart organization station from Lakeshore but the pockets are really tight and it's hard for the kids to put papers inside. With the boxes all they have to do is slide the papers inside!! I'm going to either paint the boxes or use patterned tape to decorate them. Will post an updated photo once they are complete.

Lakeshore pocket chart organization station that I'd previously used.

The boxes I ordered in the process of becoming mailboxes!!!

Now I must admit...I saw this idea on Pinterest and when I realized that I could get the boxes for FREE I rushed and logged onto the USPS website and placed my order. It wasn't until AFTER I had ordered my 2nd set (the first set didn't arrive within the amount of time specified on the site and I thought something had gone wrong with the order, so I placed a 2nd order) I read the fine print and it states that the boxes should be used for mail purposes only!!! So this same project could be done with cereal boxes.

Today's work...

People that really know me knows that once I get something in my mind to do, I'm going to do it!!! I do sit idlely (uhhh, I need to check the spelling of that...) by, twiddling my thumbs. I get at it head on!!! That being said, for the last couple of weeks my mind has been CONSUMED with school and getting prepared. Of course I went back to work in my class this morning. Kristi, Maria, and I also worked on our hallway as well. I really like these ladies. I think I'm going to like my team. I'm quickly finding out that the dynamics are not too different from Moss, which makes me think this is going to be quite interesting.

Today's work...

First, things first..I had the green background paper on the birthday board...so I changed it to blue. I like it so much better!

The changes to the front wall area.

Kristi adding accents to fence.

 

It's coming along...

 

CHAMPS, New Team, & Rustic Ranch Hallway Theme

We had CHAMPS training this morning and suffice it to say, I'm a bit baffled. I'm trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to make this work with the HOW I ACT behavior system that is a campus wide program. It seems like this could be a little more work that I wanted in a behavior management system, but I'm going to keep a positive outlook and just see how I can make this as pain free as I can.

I also met our two new team members. Well one of them isn't quite new...she was on the 3rd grade team before but had taken a new position somewhere else. But after getting there she didn't feel comfortable, so she decided to come back. Which is a good thing, I think. She's the team leader that was in on my interview and help make the decision to hire me!!! And she seems pretty cool and sh'e a "getter done" type of girl like me and I love that! We spent the afternoon working together on our hallway and we got to know each other a bit. I think I've made my first new friend at the new campus...outside of Camilla. Funny how she's Camilla now instead of Mrs. Broughton...LOL

About that hallway that I mentioned above. Each grade level is required to choose a theme for the hallway. Our them is a rustic ranch. Kristi and I stayed and started decorating. We got the most time consuming part of the project done...the fence.

We have quite a bit to get done...but I think it already looks pretty good! More pics to come! Excited!!!