Full Plate

Greetings Apples,

School is in full swing, and I am already feeling the pressure of due dates and career demands. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have returned to graduate school this year to finish my Master's degree.  In addition to tackling that beast, I have a career full of demands and time commitments. On top of the actual "teaching" part of my job, I run our school's recycling program and sit on the RTI and Technology committees. (I swear I scaled back this year...) Those things alone keep me busy from Monday to Friday (and if we're honest, at least one day of the weekend, too.) Add on to my plate 31 progress reports due on Wednesday; scheduling and attending about 35 parent/teacher conferences in the coming weeks; SST, 504, and IEP meetings I am required to attend early in the mornings before work actually begins; and the first chapter of my thesis due in a week...

I am one frazzled girl in fancy ballet flats.

To offset the stress, I am trying hard to get enough sleep each night. I am also trying to do little things to treat myself when I can, like putting fresh flowers in my bathroom to enjoy while I am getting ready in the morning or getting a manicure so I have something pretty to stare at while I am typing my thesis.

I keep trying to remind myself that this level of stress I am feeling will only last for a short period of time. If everything goes as planned (which my dad has emphatically told me IT WILL!), I will be donning my cap and gown in May of 2013. Eye on the prize, right?

What things do you do to help yourself manage stress?

Miss H.

The Germ Factor

Greetings Apples,

One of the worst parts of teaching (Yes, we get summers off, but there are downsides to the job, too...) are the constant germs floating around in the classroom. I hear veteran teachers talking about having built an "immunity" to cold viruses over the years, but that has yet to happen for me. I certainly get sick fewer times throughout the year than when I began teaching, but I do definitely still get taken down by the little green Mucinex man every now and again.

We're barely into the start of the school year, and I already have my first cold. Surprisingly though, I can't blame my students for this one...I caught this bug from cuddling with my sweet (and sick) nephews on Friday afternoon. It was too hard to turn down pjs, Toy Story 2, and a cuddle after a long week, and now I'm paying for it!

So, for now, I continue to live on a diet of Vitamin C, Advil and water until I'm back on my feet again.

Miss H.

Devouring Books

Greetings Apples,

One of my goals this year is to be better about incorporating art projects into my monthly schedule. Not only does it give the kids a good "brain break" and creative outlet, but it also provides me with instant classroom decor!

I spent a lot of my Pinterest time this summer scouting out art project ideas. Below is a clever bookmark my kids and I made on Friday afternoon.

I ran templates of the different pieces (monster body, outer eye, inner eye) on various cardstock colors for the kids to choose from. As one student shouted enthusiastically, "That is the coolest thing I have ever seen!"

Miss H.

Welcome to Room 18!

Greetings Apples,

If you're a teacher who is anything like me, setting up your classroom is your guilty pleasure! Even though I love summer vacation, I always secretly look forward to August when I can head back into my classroom, crank up some music, and get everything organized for the upcoming school year. After all, I spend so much time in my classroom, I want it to be a place that makes me feel happy and inspired.

When I began in fourth grade a few years ago, I loosely decided on a California theme for my classroom.  California history is a major focus of the fourth grade curriculum, and I thought it would work well as a unifying theme for my bulletin boards. I also chose to invest in fabric for my bulletin boards that year after learning of its wonder from my first master teacher, Mrs. Hardin. Though it was pricey at the time (but do-able with strategic JoAnn coupon usage and teacher discount), this fabric is going on its third year and still looks as good as new. Unlike butcher paper, when you remove staples or push pins, there is hardly any sign of damage. (Thank you, Mrs. Hardin!)

Here's a look around my "office" ... 

Welcome to Room 18!

View from the front door

I have always put up the kids' pictures on the door, but this year 

I adapted these awesome posters that I saw here on Pinterest to add to the mix.

Just inside the door, is my Twitter board, student mailboxes (courtesy of my handy dad), and class pet. On the "Voracious Vocab" board, I post our weekly vocabulary words on index cards. By the end of the year, the students are amazed to see the amount of new words they have learned!

A peek at our class pet, Zeke, an eyelash crested gecko donated by a former student.

Inside the door to the right is my information bulletin board.
This is where I post birthdays, student awards, weekly jobs, and our daily schedule.
It is also where the students take lunch count in the mornings.

This is my desk area. It took me two years to work our a configuration that I liked, but now I'm a happy camper! Did you spot my pup, Duke, peeking out of the corner? When I have to catch up on work on the weekends, he comes and keeps me company (and by "company" I mean, sleeps in the corner...)

This if the front of my classroom. I am fortunate enough to have a Smartboard in my room (thank you, PTA!) The shelf under the whiteboard houses dictionaries, thesauruses, math reference books and math toolkits.

To the left of my Smartboard is my "teaching" area when I need to sit. Here I have my document camera, various remotes, my copies of textbooks and workbooks, fair sticks, etc. Please note my adorable skunk air freshener from Bath & Body Works. He is one of many around the room who combat the "after recess" smell...

My day of the week buckets hold papers and handouts that I will need throughout the week.

This little bookshelf is new this year. It holds things I need to access while teaching at the front of the room, near the Smartboard and document camera. The Kindness Jar, Brain Breaks, and Help! bucket are all fabulous ideas I found on Pinterest this summer.

Problem of the Week board with a weekly math challenge

My Accelerated Reader "Walk of Fame" is where I keep track of students' total AR points each trimester. Above is my social studies timeline, which is something new I am trying this year. I posted U.S. history events that are relevant to things we talk about in 4th grade. As we progress in social studies, the kids and I will add the California history dates as we learn them.

The California Dreaming board houses miscellaneous work throughout the year.

I have 5 student computers, and each has its own posted list of "approved websites"
and hints for navigating around a computer.



My classroom library, extra storage, and small group workspace

Passport to Reading is my independent reading program for the kids.
To the right is the All-Finished station (thank you, again, Mrs. Hardin!) where kids
can find approved activities if they finish all of their work early.

This is the student supply station and homework board. 

On the very back wall is my writing bulletin board.
Each student has a designated space to hang their work.

Well, there you have it! I really do enjoy being inside my classroom, and I try to always make sure that it is a space that is inviting and inspiring to my students, too. 

Miss H.

Troubleshooting

Greetings Apples,

Last school year I put up a small board in my room called the "Problem of the Week." I posted a math problem there every Friday morning, and students had until the following Thursday to attempt the problem if they wanted a math challenge.  I even offered raffle tickets as an incentive to those students who solved the problem correctly.

No one was really interested.

A student or two tried it at first, but even their interest slowly waned, until I was left with a single challenge problem, posted for several months with no takers, and a board overrun by a lonely cobweb in the corner of my room.

I was thinking about my "Problem of the Week" board today because for my current class, I can't post these challenge problems fast enough.  These kids love the idea of a math problem that they can solve when they have a free moment.

I have begun to notice that there are one or two specific academic-related memories that I have had with each of my classes so far. My first class, when I was a long-term substitute in the third grade, wrote the most hilarious Mad Libs together - to the point where, years later, they would see me on campus and repeat a hilarious line from one of our ad-libbed gems, and we'd crack up together all over again.

My first fourth grade class loved figurative language.  From the day I taught my first simile lesson, their little hands would shoot into the air any time they heard a metaphor, idiom or hyperbole. They couldn't wait to share with me what they had heard. Last year's class was enthralled with our creative writing journals. They would literally cheer when I pulled out the creative writing jar and asked them to take out their journals and pencils.

Each of these special memories is unique to the group of kids that I had in my class that year, and I treasure each one.  (We've been in school for two weeks, and I am already wondering what is going to be my special memory of this class!)

Which brings me to the point of my blog...

Children are different. There are books and classes to teach you how to be a teacher, but there is no user manual to figure out what any one child needs. What has worked for one child or group of children in my classroom before won't necessarily work the following year.  As I learn and grow in my experiences as a teacher, I am beginning to develop quite the "bag of tricks," but my job still requires me to know each little mind that enters my room and learn what makes them tick.

And not only is each child individual and unique, but each combination of children that makes up my classroom each year is special. Their personalities feed off of each other, and I can already see that no two classes will ever be quite the same.

How cool is my job? I get to do something everyday that will never quite be the same day to day, and I get to work with children - unpredictable, hilarious little beings - that always seem to keep me on my toes.

Would it be easier to work at a job where everything was predicable, and I always knew how to solve the problem? Probably.

But how boring would that be?

Miss H.

Tweet, Tweet

Greetings Apples,

One of my favorite things in my classroom this year is the Twitter board. I fell in love with the idea on Pinterest and knew I had to replicate it for the upcoming school year. Many of my students had heard of Twitter, and all of the kids shared a giggle when I said "tweet."

After our first week back, we ended Friday by "tweeting" about something new we learned...

Miss H.

First Day Jitters

Greetings Apples,

If only kids knew that their teachers are just as nervous the night before school starts ...

I always know summer is officially over when I begin having school nightmares. Teachers know which ones I'm talking about - the ones where you show up on the first day and nothing is planned, your room is a disaster and you have absolutely no control of your class when they arrive.

My school nightmare this year was a little different. In my back-to-school dreams, my teeth began falling out, and I had no way to get to the dentist in time. So, like any dedicated teacher, I attempted to teach my first day with my mouth shut.

Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep the night before the big day.

Despite all of my worrying, I had a great first week back. My class has been delightful so far, and I am looking forward to a really fun year in fourth grade!

Miss H.

The Teacher Becomes the Student...

Greetings Apples,

I have spent so much of my summer reading teaching blogs and exploring ideas on Pinterest that I began to think I should document my own teaching experiences.

I'm in a unique position this year. Now that I have finished clearing my credential through BTSA, and I've gotten a few years of classroom experience under my belt, I am going back to graduate school to finish my Master's degree. So this school year, the teacher becomes the student... (My class thinks this is hilarious and wants me to bring in my homework so they can check that I am, in fact, completing my assignments.)

It's going to be a crazy, but rewarding year - stay tuned for many more adventures in education!

Miss H.