Please excuse my blogging absence, I have been suffering from teacher perfectitis. I have started blogging about my classroom set up and first days of school several times but deleted the drafts because I didn't like how things were looking. I want the room to look perfect, the projects I shared to be projects that went perfectly with my class, everything to be perfect. Not sure why I thought things would be perfect, but somehow I got the idea in my head that it should be. Well my room is coming along but not there yet and these first 6 days of TK have been hard, really hard. Nothing is perfect and I decided finally that is ok. I'm not a perfectionist usually, just look at my house, but I have wanted to share my best at least.
After really thinking about it I realized my room is actually looking better than any other year and my class is really going pretty well. Most of the class is doing great with the Whole Brain Teaching tools I have introduced and I really only have a few friends that are going to be challenging. We have the 5 Rules, Class/Yes, Hands and Eyes, Mirrors and the Scoreboard going. We also have started Read to Self and Word Work which most of the class can do for 5 minutes each. Work on Writing, Math Stations and Creative Stations are each up to 10 minutes each which is really amazing for four year old students after only 6 days. Now if I can get a handle on my 4 challenging friends I will be able to start assessing and doing small groups since the majority of the class is rocking and rolling. So what if things are not perfect, in the words of Pete the Cat, "It is all good." I'm going to focus on the positive and share any help I find for the challenges when I find them.
The amazing Debbie from
Rainbows in Reach has the most powerful post on
her blog today and it is a blog hop. Be sure to hop over and read the story she shares and take a look at the amazing photos of classrooms that are sprinkled through the post. It reminded me that I even though I have been struggling, I am making a difference in the lives of my students. Teaching, especially I think the youngest students, is a mind molding, life altering, hard but rewarding work. Debbie reminded me that we all struggle at times but we are stronger together, making our students stronger too :) So with the knowledge that this is a work in process not a work of art, here are some pictures of my room and the links to the blog hop started by Debbie. Hope you like them :)
Here are our cubbies with ocean artwork from one of my fellow teachers until student art is finished
This is our store which is from my own parents, they bought it for my 3 children and we moved it into my classroom. Took me most of 2 days to put it together again.
One of 4 tables with crayon cups
Close up of the crayon cups. I was so excited to get these on clearance for 30 cents each this summer from Walmart :)
Our Word Wall with the green letters from my Tropical Dot Word Wall Letter sets. The book shelf on the left holds the open Word Work choices and the shelfs under the board hold the goodies that will be used later in the year.
This is the calendar part of our front board. The monkeys are from Graphics by Ruth and yu can get them
here.
Hung beach balls and tropical flowers :) You can see the rest of our front board which will hold PowerPix and our screen and lcd projector I use with the ELMO and WII whiteboard.
Our class library and Wonderful Work Wall
My teacher desk and small group table next to our bathroom :)
Hope to share more soon and that you will join in the blog hop with pictures of your room :)
