Small Wins and a Recipe

I've had some great small wins this week and getting my babies trained and ready to go! I love breaking through with the "hard kids" and getting them to really trust me. I've had a couple of precious heart-to-hearts with some of my girls to let them know I'm on their side and we're a team. The results have been great. I highly recommend a "secret sign" to remind them to get back on track so their name isn't being said constantly...

Our Promethean Smart Board has had most of the kinks worked out so the kiddos and I are loving exploring it's capabilities. That is helping for engagement and motivation as well. Promethean Boards are the next generation Smart Board so they are a little different. Any advice? This is my first time with this technology!

Lots of little aha moments too which lets me know that in the midst of reviewing for our state tests (in Oct) and dealing with behavior/character training they are still growing and learning. Yay! Here's to more and more of that as our learning environment becomes increasingly effective!

Lastly...I took out some of my stress on baking last night. I made the most delicious and surprisingly healthy Fall Cake! Seriously only 5 ingredients!

Mix 1 box of cake mix (any flavor but I used spice) with 1 15 oz can of pumpkin- beat for 2 minutes and pour into a greased 11 x 7 pan. Bake at 350 for 30 or so minutes.

While it cools mix 1 cup powdered sugar (although this was a bit much so next time I'll reduce it) with 2 T apple cider and 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice. Drizzle over cake and serve. No eggs, oil, milk, or butter needed. I even ate it for breakfast this am and it made my morning ;-) The original recipe is here: courtesy of Babbling Abby, one of my fav blogs.

Happy first day of Fall,

Retreat

It's been a little quiet on the blog front because things have been a little, err loud, on the school and health front. Last week was pretty insane. My kiddos (whom I love) had behavior challenges, admin changed our schedule/literacy plan (and as the lit coordinator for my grade level it freaked me out a little-it's a lot of responsibility!), and my body was on strike. Needless to say I was at the end of my rope at the end of the week. Perfect timing for a women's retreat with my faith community. I was so blessed to get some advice from veteran Urban Teachers, Let go and let God, and get some great prayer and worship time in. I came home so rested and peaceful!

I didn't do ANY school while there, other than praying about my role this year. I am so thankful that God gave me some insights into the potential reasons for these challenges and I have a renewed energy to help teach, model, and practice appropriate citizenship and learning behavior this coming week. We will get there, it's only week 3! I am again so thankful for my job, my co-workers, and the special little lives that are entrusted to me this year.  Have a wonderful week y'all. Remember to breathe, remember who's in control :-)

25 Blessings

Can't wait to catch up this weekend and share about my first week teaching my 5ths! For now, in honor of my 25th b-day today, I'm going to share 25 different blessings in my life!

25. Many great teachers who have inspired me to teach others
24. My years of dance
23. Being a UM Alum- Wolverine!
22. My apartment- love my introvert time
21. A reliable car for my commute
20. Diet Coke
19. Facebook birthday love
18. The teacher blogging community
17. The adoption blogging community
16. Foam Rollers and Heating Pads
15. My life journey- especially the past 4 years
14. My JOB!
13. Summers off to refuel
12. The ability to teach with the arts, each and every day
11. Faith, Hope, and Love
10. My kittens, Margaret and Samuel
9. My SCS
8. Music
7. My high school youth group ladies
6. Word of Life- my wonderful faith community
5. Amazing co-workers and admin at my school
4. My fabulous new students
3. My wonderful friends
2. My family who lives nice and close
1. My God who makes all things possible with grace and strength

Lots of love. To all the teachers out there- hope your first week (or more) is going well!

Word of the Day

My word of the day is...t.i.r.e.d.
I've been putting in 16 + hrs a day on back-to-school prep if you add in my commute.
Did anyone else do that your first year...or now...the week before?

Every time I look at my classroom there's more to do- but it's looking and feeling like a fabulous place to learn. My school is also changing up the Unit Planning Process (I co-plan all the Literacy- Rdg, Writing, Word Study, Language test prep for my grade level). A lot to learn and do this year but it will surely pay off over time. I'm glad that there are 5 on my 5th grade team so that we can share and plan together!

I know this prep will be so worth it for those 25 fifths next week. One of my kiddos was at parent orientation night tonight and I took her up to my room. Just the look of joy as she looked around and immediately started browsing the library made me so happy! We are ready to get down to the business of learning.

PS- I will be posting my Thurs/Fri posts of Teacher Week this weekend- just got too busy! I want to share my resources and freebies though so check back soon.

Where it All Goes Down Wednesday!

I had new teacher orientation today where we played the M&M game (one fact about yourself for every M&M)...and 2 of my facts revolved around none other than blogging and TEACHER WEEK!  I now owe links to your fab blogs to several of my colleagues. :-)

Anyway, today's post is "Where it All Goes Down Wednesday," aka Classroom Tour! I love getting peeks (and ideas) from your classrooms. If you haven't already, link up at Blog Hoppin'!

Since I've only been in my room a couple of days it's definitely A Work in Progress.  I apologize for the cell phone pics but I wanted to document my first classroom's transformation. I'll take better ones once it's complete :-) My theme is: The Big Apple (think NYC/Broadway)!

This is what I walked into:

All of these pics I was standing in the doorway- so definitely small but I am determined to make it work with both table groups and carpet learning areas. I LOVE the shiny new Promethian Board- next generation SmartBoard. For an Inner City School getting this grant was huge- it's going to open up the World and so many resources to our kiddos.

Thanks to these lovely ladies- I am mostly moved in- we got a work out carrying my library and bookshelves up to the 3rd floor!

As of tonight- this is what you'll find in Room 302:

Right inside the door- It houses my fav quote by Nelson Mandela- the Let Your Light Shine Quote. The Statue of Liberty also fits into our Social Studies- of Early Immigrants.

 

Lockers and my number line. I think my Word Wall will go up above. I'm debating separating my Literacy Word Wall from Content Areas Words- any thoughts? To the right of the lockers (covering a few) are 2 huge cabinets. 1 is unlocked and houses student textbooks, supplies, games, etc. The other is lockable and where I will keep materials that I don't want out all the time.

 I arranged my desks in groups of 5. Once I get the rest of my desks I'll have 25- love that it worked out so even. :-) I have a freebie up of my table group jobs. You can find that here. I find it really helps facilitate group work. No pic of those because they are currently in line to be laminated (with a huge pile of other things). I set the desks up so that I can use either the white board to the right or the white board/smart board up front for direct instruction.

My desk/Guided Reading Area. If I had it my way I'd get rid of both and just use a rainbow/kidney table. However, due to the lack of elevator in my building they highly discourage moving big furniture in/out. Either way it's going to work! I have a set of shelves/bins behind  to store guided reading/math group materials and I can fit 5 chairs around the table. All that stuff on the window sill is from the teacher who left- next up on my to do list is to sort it!

You also get a peek at my carpet area which runs the front of the room. I'm not used to having the group area up front but with the Promethian board it is going to be great. I have a director's chair up there as well to go with the theme.

And last up for today- My Library- Easily my fav part of my classroom. I LOVE books. All the white magazine files (yet to be labeled) hold my Nonfiction collection sorted by topic for easy browsing. The buckets are labeled by Author, series, genre, buddy reads (my duplicate books), etc. I lucked out finding the 3 bookshelves on the right for a total of $4!

Behind the library you see my Stage Board....yet to be titled. I am laminating yellow construction paper now which will go up with paper clips so that I can mount student work easily- actually I like the kids to do it so they are in the practice of evaluating and choosing their best work to share.

So there we go- it's coming along well. Hope to put in a couple more days this week and then add final touches next week (our Professional Development Week). It's finally starting to feel like home- can't wait until I get the rest of it up and organized. Any questions? Email or Comment :-)