Guess who I'm spending the day with!?!?

An informative, exciting post to follow!!! I'm super excited about this, can't wait to share what I learn.


BTW- Are any of you gals here?

What I Wore Wendesday on a Thursday/First Day of School 2011

What I Wore Wendesday on a Thursday!

I intended for this post to be made on yesterday but I left my computer chager at work and my laptop died on me in the middle of this VERY LONG POST. Why so long because I realized yesterday that I had yet to publish my post about the first day of school. Sorry, I'm slacking sorry :-(

Here is my outfit from yesterday

This was written on September 9, 2011

Today was our first day of school for the 2011-2012 school year. I woke up this morning at 5:00 a.m. and was out of the door by 6:15 a.m. Talk about AMAZING! I'm never up that early let alone leaving out of the door on my way to work. Needless to say my day started out great, I felt super prepared and ready to give my new first grade friends my ALL.

I had A LOT to accomplish that day. It all started with me planting a small "Back to School Gift" on each one of my team members desk. Wait I should back up and tell you the week before school started I was picked as the Primary Team Leader! Talk about exciting even though I know this postion includes more work for me. My team is group of well educated, dedicated woman that got into teaching for the same reason. We all want to help our children become the best they can be.  Lets get back to the first day of school though. I placed a small token on each teachers desk and each Instructional Partners desk.

                                         

 The idea came from Eigthteen25 and I was able to download it for free. Be sure to check them out because they have GREAT ideas for every occasion.

After getting my gift planted before each of them arrived I made sure everything was set up in my classroom and my shedule for the day was placed around my classroom so I was ready at any given moment during the day. I made a few copies and then it was time for my students to arrive. This year we greeted the parents and students outside and then we let them into the building. This worked out great because parents got to speak to the teacher for a few seconds before intrusting them in the hands of their teacher.

Once we got into the building my students where taught how to line up in the hallway, how to enter into the classroom and they also we allowed to pick their own desk. I always do this because I like to see who is friends with whom. I allow the students to sit next to whomever they are confortable with for the first month of school then I change sitting arrangements, students are then most likely to sit next to one of their group members or next to someone I think will benifit from the arragement.

After all the house keeping things where done we dove straight into Daily 5. Students did an excellent job helping me make a I-chart for Read to Self. I've been a bad blogger and forgot to take pictures :-( 

We took pictures for the first day of school they turned out so cute and I've used them many times since then around our classroom.

On the first day we got out at 12:30 so that was the end of my day.

Because this post is already sooooooo LONG. I'm sure it's the LONGEST POST EVER. I'll be back with a recap of my first FIVE weeks of school.

What I Wore Wednesday-Teacher Edition2

Here is this weeks peek at my outfit of the week. This happens to be a bad picture but hey it's not about my expression or lack of one it's about the clothes.

I'm wearing brown and cream striped slacks from New York and Company along with a cream blouse from New York and Company. This was super comfortable all day long. I was even happy about the long sleeves by the end of the day since we had a fire drill and it was FREEZING cold outside today since it rained.

In other news...

OMGosh, this school year is really wearing me out! I'm not complaining though because I am having a GREAT time with my new little friends. It's only been FOUR weeks and I already feel like we have learned so much and that they have grown to be a tad bit more responsible than they were. These are all GREAT things but they also cause me to be TRIED TRIED TRIED by the end of the day.

I hope you guys are having a wonderful school year also!

Top 10 Award

I'm a tad bit late posting about this topic but I must thank a couple of my fellow teacher bloggers Jess from Rambling about Reading and Chistine from Hopping into First Grade for awarding me with the Top 10 Blog Award. A year ago when I started this blog I never thought I would have people reading about the things going on in my classroom. Heck I never thought people would be interested in ME at all. Lucky for me I was wrong! But more than anything I'm so grateful to have all of your wonderful blogs to read everyday and to keep me encouraged.

What I Wore Wednesday-Teacher Edition

A couple weeks ago a really good friend of mine asked me to start blogging about what I wear to work. I didn't really understand why that was important. After she explained to me that she is a member of a fashion board (she is a merchandise major) and the one thing that always comes up from non members is "What should a teacher wear to work?" So I've decided that I'm going to do her a BIG favor and blog every Wednesday on what I wore to work. Please know that the outfit may not be from Wednesday every week but hey I wore it to work so that's all that matters. If you want to join in on this I'll post a linky tool next week.

Here is my outfit of the week



This dress was super comfortable and the cardigan was the pop of color I needed.



Missing "N" Action Blogger Update

Hey all!!! These last two weeks have been ALL KIND OF CRAZY! I did three weeks of professional development spent some of those days in my classroom. I've showed you some of the in progress pictures but the following is the finished product. I think out of the five years I've been teaching this is my FAVORITE classroom set up EVER! I owe most of that to your guys.

A view from the door

Library Area

Library area/leveled books in the back/behavior chart and common core stands from Deanna Jump

Up close of the same board

Spelling Words/ Word of the Day and Daily Rotation Chart

Math Tubs and Word Work table

Writing Center

Listening Center

Read to someone center (books are inside of seat)

Pendant Banner (The Inspired Apple)

Board in the hallway

Up close of the Gumball Machine

The top of my students desk. (D.O.T. Binder, Math Folder, Data Folder, Math Journal and Poetry Journal)

Front Cover of D.O.T. Binder (you can download this cover at my TpT store

So that is my classroom for the 2011-2012 school year! My students really have been enjoying everything about the room. I'm sure there is something I missed but I'll take a picture of anything else I think you guys should see.
I want to share my first day of school tonight but I see this post is already to LONG so I'm going to make a posting. Be on the look out for a review of my first week back at school.

Where It All Goes DOWN Wednesday-Classroom Pictures

This isn't going to be the BEST post. Why? You might ask. Well it's because my classroom ISN'T finished yet. That's not a bad thing though, school doens't start until September 6 so I still have some time. Infact I've been in my class for a total of five or six hours. Below you are going to find some before pictures and some in progress pictures. I'll do a update once the room is completed.

The MESS I call my classroom (before pic)

Above the board are the colors. On the board is my book report chart, birthday chart and on the lower left hand side is where the students will turn in homework and classroom. The cute little sign came from Teaching In Flipflops

"On The Spor Work"- This is where I will display student work. (Disregraurd my closet it's not in the best shape yet)

Word Wall! I really love this board. The letters came from Teaching in Flip Flops also!

Library Area. The books on the self are grouped by genre and the books on the small bookcase are picture books.

Where my pencils will live. I have three more sets to put out around the class.

These books sit by my guided reading table. They are leveled! Organization coming soon.

My board in the hallway. I'll post this again later because I'm adding a gumball machice in the center. Super CUTE!

Math Wall!!! I love Saxon Math!

Subtraction and Addition key words. From theteacherwife

So far that's it folks!!! I've only worked for a couple hours so I feel like I accomplished a lot in that small amount of time. The finished product COMING SOON!!!

Don't forget to HOP on over to Blog Hoppin' to see what the other GREAT teachers have to share with you today!