Skip to main content

First Week of School

It is Friday of the first week of school. I dont' think I've ever been so excited to say that it's Friday! I had a fun week though. All of my students on my roster showed up on the first day and I haven't had any new students yet. It's nice getting to know my students and practicing routines and procedures with a consistant class. Here are some highlights of the week...
  • starting whole brain teching (post later)
  • staying on top of planning and copies
  • sticking to my resolution schedule
  • my "wiggly" student sitting in his seat the whole 40 minutes of writing
  • learning all of my students' names on the first day of school
  • having a "straight" line basically all week
  • getting a compliment from the assistance principal
  • working together with my grade level team
I have Self Control UPDATE

If you guys remember, I made a post about Teacher Tipster. I found him through Pinterest and I knew I wanted to try out some of his ideas. The first one I wanted to try out was his self control bubble lesson. I wanted to try it out on the first day of school, but I knew that my little darlings wouldn't be able to handle it. Since today was Friday I figured it was the perfect day. We went outside for a morning recess and there were a couple wiggly kids running around outside in another class while they were in line. My students saw it and instead of deciding to be wiggly, they stayed in line. I was taking a big chance, but I wanted to try it out.

I followed everything that Mr. Smith did in his video and... IT WORKED!!! We were able to talk about having self control and one of my students, who needs a lot of work on self controled put it in perfect student friendly words. He said, "It's like your brain is driving your body." He even put gestures with it!! I was so amazed at how well it worked. It was nice to reference it later on in the day. We will see how often the poster will help them. Of course you don't want to pull your bubbles out every time your students loose control, that would just be a nightmare waiting to happen!!!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Monday Made It Planner Stickers

Today I am linking up for Monday Made It. It is my first time this summer. This summer has flown by and I can't believe that I only have one more week left until meetings and two weeks until I meet my new kindergarten students. Since the school year is sneaking up on me, I am in creative mode and crafting up a storm. As teachers, I feel like we all have something in common... a love for planning. Lesson planning, life planning, to do lists, etc. Over the past few months I have been creating my own planner stickers and I have become a little obsessed. I plan on making more as well as stickers for my teacher planner and lesson planner. If you are interested in some of my stickers, you can find them HERE . After taking a two year break from TpT, I have started updating my old products and creating new ones. One of those includes my Neon Chalkboard Classroom Rules. You can find them HERE for free in my TpT store.

Before Pictures

Many people that walk into my classroom think that it is such a clean and organized room. Clean... yes. Organized... NO WAY!! Here is what everyone sees my classroom as... I love my room and I spent a lot of time rearranging it to make it fit my needs as well as my students' needs. It is a very functional classroom, aside from the organizational piece that is missing. Today I am going to share with you my "secrets". Are you ready for them? I must say that they aren't pretty. Be warned, you are about to see my BEFORE photos.   This area looks fairly organized, except for the fact that I don't use ANY of it. I ocassionally lift up the fabric to get the students' reading books and a binder here and there, but other than that, these shelves are taking up prime real estate.   One of my few cabinets that lock is filled with supplies that don't need to be locked up.  Math centers that have never been used because I still have no clue how I want to organize them. ...

I'm Not a Turkey

With Thanksgiving coming up, I am reminded of all the things that I am thankful for. I am thankful for my wonderful family and friends. I am also thankful for such a sweet bunch of second graders this year. I want to keep this post short and sweet so I will leave you with one of my favorite writing activities, I'm not a turkey. I'm sure there are many variations of this activity, but I just love it so much.  I love the creativity that comes out during this assignment. One of my favorites... I'm not a turkey. A turkey has feathers. I have hands. Can I ask you a question? Do turkeys go to school? No they do not. I am a student. I talk a lot. If you eat me, I can talk in your stomach. If you eat a student, you go to jail. Ohhh so creative!!