A long post! Long time no update~

Oh my has it been a busy week. I've been meaning to post but by the time I get home it's already after 6pm and all I want to do it relax. This'll be a long post since I have some pictures to post, but, oh well :D. I miss my teacher blogs.. I think one of my team mates teacher blogs too - not sure, but we both had this Chrysanthemum idea and I saw she got some ideas from this one blog I love lol.

I'll start with pictures with my classroom. It took me Monday-Sunday, 8am - 5pm every day to finish it, but it IS finished. I love it when people come in my room and are amazed by the simple fact of how organized it is. Apparently the teacher before me was not very organized (and I could tell).

PICTURES OF MY CLASSROOM

The outside of my door :). It still makes me laugh that my supervising teacher and I have the same room number. I have to add a student to that..


My office - I love it now. Though it seems that the students think just because I was in there for a second they think I can't hear or see them.. silly boys and girls lol.


The view of my classroom from the back. I did want to do pods, but.. I'm glad I didn't and I'll talk about that later. The U shape is the best at the moment. I have to do a tech request and ask for a overhead projector. I'm also going to use my laptop (for whenever I'm signed up to Envision) to show the animation while they sit in the middle. My computers don't work at the moment.. and it would be too hard to crowd everyone around one.


My word wall - I should add some words to it, but.. just haven't gotten to it yet.


My cute "Ms. Miedema's Busy Bees" bulletin board :).


Our schedule :). I've revamped it slightly. That whole time for math is a bit too long.. their math lessons really aren't very long. So, right after lunch (along with a lot of the other 2nd grade teachers), I take them out for about 10-15 minutes for recess. It's too hot to stay out longer than that anyway.


Oh.. how I dislike my computers. I hope they replace mine! lmao, they said our goal this year was to get our technology boosted up.


My cabnits and cubbies :). I plan to put their book boxes underneath their backpacks. I was thinking above, but realized they wouldn't be able to reach them. So, the bottom is the only other place I can think of.. there's not room in my classroom otherwise.


My other bulletin board. This is where they'll make their lunch choice (lunch from home or buying lunch). I decided I would do the lunch count though lol.


The view from the front of my classroom. I'm satisfied with it, so that's what matters in the end haha.


MY FIRST DAY
My first day... it was insane, fun and exciting, along with extremely stressful. I got to the school early to try and attempt to do some last minute setting up. That turned out to be futile since they let the parents come up early (earlier than 8:10) and I just felt like a mess. When I began teaching, I just felt so.. all over the place. There was soo much to cover and I wasn't sure if I was covering it all. I just felt like a mess.

Some of the teachers started straight into the curriculum, but I decided to deviate and just make it a fun day. Most of the reading was going over rules, procedures, making our own rules and all that great, exciting stuff. After that, I had them do "self portraits" - of course they liked that.. they seem to always want to color and draw lmao.

The rest of the day was just math bingo, a racing math game and just little fun things here and there. I was a little late to lunch, but they are very flexible there. My one team mate told me yesterday that if he ever beat me or I beat someone else, that it's no problem. I had maybe 10 minutes to scarf down a sandwich, check my e-mail really fast before getting them again.

Late to specials too.. that was a mess. Lmao. Pretty much everything was. I was told that the Science special was the first portable on the right. So, I went to that one and it was the wrong one; it was S.S.M.A.R.T Zone; Science was the next portable over. Oh well, I learned that lesson pretty quick LOL. I also left my badge inside which was absolutely stupid of me. I couldn't get back inside (they lock the doors and you need to swipe your card- it's because we are just off the highway) so.. I had to ask this teacher who was at the playground to let me in. Sooo sad hahaha.

Dismissal probably was the most stressful part of all. I was ASSUMING that there would be bells announcing when the bus riders go, walkers, and ect. since both schools I interned at had that. Well, apparently we don't! I was looking at the clock and wondering why nothing was happening. I decided to send my children out to their spots but of course, some weren't listening. Thankfully they found their groups.. I had car duty with two of my other team mates. And holy crap.. it's just WAY too hot outside. I just watch the kids and tell them to watch for their cars.

All in all, it was good. Everyone seemed to check up on me which was nice.. my team leader came up to my classroom; looked inside and went "Well, must of been okay at least - no dead bodies, so that's good". That still makes me crack up.

MY SECOND DAY
This went 10x smoother! I felt a lot more confident.. I also remembered to send down my 12day count folder, so I felt very accomplished lmao! This is when I really realized who my talkers were. In the end, I had about three people move their clip down since I couldn't stand it anymore. I can at least say they were not happy about that. However, now I have students running to me every time they do a good thing to move their clip up LOL. I do have several people that moved their clip up but I told them they can't if they ask me. So cute.

At the end of the day I had to move a lot of people since I knew I couldn't sit certain people by others. I did some of the curriculum that day but I'm just a little frustrated since I don't have access to any of this material at my house or anything (like online). I asked the tech guy about it but.. really didn't get a response; told my mentor who in turn told someone else who I know will definitely get it done for me. It's just VERY frustrating when I don't have everything I need..

MY THIRD DAY
Again, even better. Though I am feeling a bit frustrated about my class. They like to talk whenever there is a moment of silence or when we are transitioning into a new subject. I'm not really sure how to fix that.. it gets REALLY annoying when I'm trying to teach and some decide it's okay to talk. I do get on them about it but .. I'm not sure what to do. Especially with one of my students. She just.. keeps getting up, walking around, asking me odd questions (like if she could bring her cousin in to babysit) and just not doing her work. I told my staff about it and they said they'll do something about it.

I also made every child put their own pencil sharpeners in to their backpack and told them to take them home. I found pencil shavings on my floor and they aren't suppose to have them in the first place. Some of them didn't want to, but I knew who had them, so, they didn't get away from me haha.

My principal is arranging me (and probably the other two new teachers) to observe a Kindergarten classroom who apparently has great classroom management that she really wants me to see and observe. I'm all for it since I always have room to learn. Us new teachers also met with the CRT and Reading Coach after school which was great in the end. There were some tears LOL - not from me, even though at one point I did tear up. They told us that we need to believe we are good and that our principal truly thought we have the potential to be great. That kind of got to me since it made me feel good. That you know, she saw something in me and that she chose us over all those other people.

Got my profolios today.. I have to test my children to see their reading levels and such now. That's gonna be fun lol. I have to think what to have my kids do while I'm doing that. Blah. Haha.

Well. This was LONG enough. I would go look at some teacher blogs, but, meh, it's time to just relax. Though.. I might try and find an activity dealing with vowels and consonants. My students seemed to have a really hard time distinguishing them today when we were doing the Chrysanthemum worksheet. It surprised me really, so I think I need to work on that..