I made it!

O.M.G.
What a crazy week! I am seriously exhausted after a great first week with my new sixth graders. So exhausted that I finally got out of the bed around 1:30 p.m. even though I have been up since 8:00 a.m. Crazy!??! They are so cute & extremely polite! It is refreshing to see that some parents are still teaching their kids manners.

I late posting a few things, so I am going to try to tackle a couple of things in this post.
Here it goes:

Hug Your Heart jar & Brain Break Activities (in the smiley face jar)

I have no idea where I originally heard of the Hug Your Heart jar, but I decided to make one a few weeks ago. I want to emphasis the good things that students do. I teach sixth graders and sometimes their actions can be quite the opposite of kind. Clearly, when I took this picture, I hadn't filled it with Hersey Hugs yet, but I think it's pretty cute. It is plastic because I can see it being dropped (sixth graders don't have the best coordination)! I covered it with owl stickers because for our Greek mythology unit, I am the goddess Athena. I try not to let my newly found owl obsession run wild!
I'm going to add a cute poem to this that I found on  a first grade blog. I will be making it owl themed of course...I can't resist.

The smiley face jar has brain break activities. I got most of the ideas from a third grade blog and added a few of my own. I have yet to introduce the concept to my kids since we have only seen my classes twice in four days, but they are really interested in knowing what is up with the smiley face jar.
I wrote the activity on one side of the stick and a description on the back. I'll have to link up my activities, but they include the following:
Cha-Cha Slide, Telephone game, Mab Libs, Simon Says, Seat Switch, and Hot Potato questions

That's all for now. I'm off to actually enjoy my weekend and not focus on school stuff for a while. Off to a practice tailgate party. As we often tell the kids, practice makes perfect! :)

Holy Moly...

First off, today is a happy day! Just found out that my very first DonorsChoose project just got funded in under 48 hours! This is one shocked and happy teacher! :)

In other news...tomorrow is the first day of school! I cannot believe it! Summer went by so quickly! I am clearly in a state of complete shock! Although, I cannot be too mad because the weather is cooling off and football season is gearing up. Bliss!

The last few days have been a fast and furious scramble to get everything ready for the big day. To my knowledge, everything is taken care of (schedules, lockers, health forms, course outline). I hope that when I wake up tomorrow, I still have this false sense of calm about me.
With all of that being said, I am really excited to see my new students. Summer Sizzle Fizzle was Saturday (registration). They kids for the most part were very excited to start the 6th grade. I can only hope that the enthusiasm carries over to tomorrow morning!

I did want to share a few pics of the room that I managed to remember to take this afternoon. Still missing one or two things, but it'll do for day one.

My desk area & the computer station

View from the doorway
Decided to pair up the students for the first few days of school

Student supplies & paper turn-in boxes labeled by class period

"Hug" Your Heart jar
The smiley vase contains our Brain Break activities

View from the front of the room
Labeled crates on the back table to hold their interactive notebooks

Wishing everyone a great first day of school!

Live Project!

Yay! My DonorsChoose project was accepted. Please consider helping my students and I reach the goal of having this project funded by October 26th.
THIS WEEK ONLY (now through August 26th), donations are automatically doubled! Please spread the word!

My Class Project

Tuesday Tidbit #1

Normally, I would never double post...who has the time?!?
Since Tuesday will be one of the "free" days during the year, I figured I would designate it as my day to blog. I'm sure that might fly out of the window once the kids come next week, but I'm gonna give it a solid try.
I was talking with a new teacher today and was asked a great question that got my wheels turning.
What do you know now, that you wish you had known when you first started teaching?

Here are my top the lessons learned/ pieces of advice for the new kids on the block:

1. The bookkeeper should be your best friend.
   I don't know how things work at other schools, but if my bookkeeper ever decided to leave, I'd head out the door with her. The woman single-handedly runs the school. OK, not literally, but seriously, we'd fall apart without her. The bookkeeper knows all the ins and outs and can even "suggest" ways for you to get the things you need with you can't afford them. My basic philosophy is to treat her right & sing her praises!
2. Lessons will fail.
   Every lesson will not go as planned. Be flexible and adapt it for later use. There is no need to beat yourself up when things go wrong. Learn from it. There is absolutely no point in dwelling on the negatives. Remember writing all of those reflections in college...yeah...
3. Find a friend.
   You must have at least one friend in your school building. When I moved a few years ago to my current school, I was beyond nervous to be the newbie. I most certainly didn't need to worry because from the moment I stepped onto the campus, I had two immediate friends/ team teachers take me under their wings.
   You need someone to collaborate with and to vent with. OK, if  nothing else, a venting partner will do. You can't do it all alone.
4. Don't forget about the rest of your life.
   Sometimes I feel that I give everything, including my "personal time," to my students/ job. As my friend say, "There are people in real life who want to talk to you." Be sure to plan time for yourself and time with the people you care about most. I can be easy to lose yourself and others in the mix.
5. Kids forgive and forget (even if you don't).
   I teach sixth graders and trust my, they do forgive and forget even faster. We're not perfect beings so we will screw up sometimes, but apologize and keep it moving. The kids won't hold it against you. I think it's good for them to see that sometimes (like once a year), we don't have it all together.

What is some advice you'd give a novice? I'd love to hear what you think.

Back in the Habit...kinda

Today was the second day back for teachers. It has been incredibly hard to get back into the routine of things. My camera is officially dead so there are currently no pics of my classroom, but I hope to change that situation by the end of the week.
There have already been hours upon hours of meetings. Today's emphasis was on CCS (Common Core Standards). The implementation should be really interesting. I'm we are starting to work on this as a faculty now instead of waiting until next year when we officially have to implement them.
I'm crossing my fingers (and toes) hoping I'm much more productive in the classroom than I was today. I'm pretty sure I only organized the student supplies and hung up one poster. Must. Do. Better.
I get to meet most of my kids at registration this Saturday. Getting pretty excited minus the fact that my room is kinda a disaster.
The rest of today is devoted to updating my classroom website.

Best wishes for a wonderful & successful school year!

Homework Contract & Binder

I can't believe this is my last weekend of summer! My heart hurts just a little, but I'm pretty anxious to get this school year up and running. I guess that's apparent since it's 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning and I'm typing this...
Like many of you, I've been pinning the summer away and I came across some pins concerning homework. The first pin was a No Homework Binder and the second was a Homework Contract. (I can't find the link to the Homework Contract at the moment. Ekk!)

I borrowed and modified to create my own. I'm pretty excited about it because it should eliminate the number of excuses I hear from students about why their homework isn't complete. I also added an area where I document how parents are notified that their child was missing their work.