When New Teacher Meets New Classroom!

Four days... FOUR DAYS... Ladies and gentleman, I have had accesses to my first-ever classroom for four days, and I feel like a HOT MESS!

Four days has really felt like four months. When I walked into my room for the first, time I was elated! I saw all of the bulletin board space and floor space and couldn't wait to develop my domain. However, I literally had NO idea where or how to begin...

My grandfather was nice enough to help me move all of my teacher supplies and furniture from my bedroom to my classroom. However, when we did, it took up a lot of space and was a scattered mess around the room. Then, he spent another whole day helping me take down the previous teachers bulletin boards, and then begin putting up my own (although I think I am going to change them again).

I had mounds of curriculum materials left for me to go through, some outdated and some current. I have arranged things in one area, only to rearrange them somewhere else, and then again 3 or 4 more times. I brought in my own computer desk, leaving the old one sitting in a corner. There's a file cabinet I don't want, as well as too many desks that I cannot use. (Custodians cannot pick these things up until after they are done waxing the hallway floors).

Needless to say, my room is quite cluttered at the moment....

Yesterday we painted part of my room. We also decided that we will need to build a book shelf for the reading corner. (There's an entire shelf that has been ripped out and they are not replacing it. So as of right now, I have nowhere to put my library book bins).

To the right of those blue counters was where the old book shelf USED to be...

Walking into an empty room and not having my other first grade team there to guide me has been a bit overwhelming. However, ladies and gents, there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

My training on Readers/Writers Workshop has been going on this week, which has really helped me narrow my focus and visualize how I want things to work in my room. I have stepped back and taken a very long deep breath (more than once). A habit I have is wanting to do everything at one time as early and as fast as possible. NOT GONNA HAPPEN, JENN!

I decided to take the night off. I have been going to training from 8:30am-3:30pm, and then straight to work in my classroom until about 8:30pm (when the custodians kick me out). So I decided to just go home and breath. You really need that from time to time... Although, I am still sitting on my laptop working on stuff, or course.

You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you cant take the classroom out of the teacher!

I will post pictures of my room when it doesn't look like a post-apocalyptic-war-zone! I hope I am not the only one who has had a hard time getting her head around things within the first few days of being in her room! If you all have any advice on how to get it all together, or any stories of your disaster zones, please do share!

Classroom Crafts- Five for Friday

Alright ladies and gents... I have been a busy busy bee the past couple of weeks. I have been outrageously motivated and I have kind of started to feel the panic mode settling in. I had my first day of training on Wednesday, which means the first day of school is closer than I had thought! Aug. 12 is on its way!

Anyhow, I figured I would share some of the things I have checked off my to-do list with a good 'ol fashion Five For Friday!

Click this image to go to the link-up.

Pencil Bins!

I don't know about you, but the sound of the pencil sharpener drives me banana-sandwich. It's especially obnoxious when 22 students ask every day if they can sharpen their pencil. In my classroom, my answer will [almost] always be N-O-P-E!!!

I made these pencil bins to help prevent these situations. I mean I know banana-sandwich sounds good, I mean they ARE good, but no one wants to see Miss. Elliott driven banana-sandwich!

As the students feel that their pencils are too dull or they break, they will put them into the "Dull" bin. I will have one student each day (or possibly each week) assigned the job of sharpening pencils. This job will most likely take place in the morning time before we all dive into learning (plus, I think I can manage to tolerate the sound of the sharpener for just that little bit of time ONCE a day). They will then place the pencils in the "Sharp" bin where students can take from as their pencils break throughout the day.

Doggie-Dog Groups!

These are classroom decorations with a function! They will hang from the ceiling above each table/group as a group-identifier. The group name will be whatever color dog image is above their table. (Pink group, yellow group, blue group, orange group, and green group).

Each one has a different type of dog silhouette image. This is an idea I borrowed stole from the lovely School Girl Style website. Click here to see the whole classroom design she created that I will be stealing from quite a bit. ;-)

Scooby-Snacks!

This is something I got from Rachelle Rosenblit over at TPT! It's an adapted version of "Brownie Points", which you have probably seen all over Pinterest and other teacher blogs. This was a free item she had created and I was very excited to discover it. It will fit into my classroom theme SO well! Please go visit her store and her blog (her button is on the right). She's got some great stuff!

Now let me explain how this works. Each time the class as a whole receives a compliment or a good report from anyone in the building, they will receive a Scooby-Snack. This can be a compliment while traveling through the hallway, a good report from the specials teacher or the lunch monitor, or (my favorite) an overall good report from the substitute teacher!

After the whole class earns 12 Scooby-Snacks, we will have a party. At the moment, my hopes are to have a Pajama Party, but I need to check the school policy and discuss with the principal what my options are as far as class parties go.

I am very excited to utilize this in my classroom. I think it is really important for the kiddos to know that we are all a team and how important it is to support and work together towards a common goal.

Doggie Clip Chart

This one I am VERY excited about. However, I have to admit AGAIN that I did not dream up the idea nor create it on my own. This ADORABLE dog-themed clip chart is an item for sale at Katie Mense's TPT store! Isn't it just precious!?!?! I am so excited to use it. You guys should also go visit Katie's TPT store and her blog (the button is on the right).

My kiddos will each have a clip and start in the middle green section (Ready to Learn) and may move up and/or down all throughout the day. Some teachers choose to make it so that if a student makes it to a certain point on the negative side, they cannot move back up. I, personally, want to allow students the opportunity to correct their behavior and earn their way back up the chart. Otherwise they may shut down completely, and the last thing I want is for my kiddos to give up on themselves.

The top four sections of the chart will earn them a sticker on their behavior chart. The blue section will also award them a free mechanical pencil to use whenever they please (you would be surprised how darn exciting those little plastic pencils are to these first graders). The purple section will earn them the sticker and a visit to the treasure box! The pink section will earn them the sticker, a treasure box visit, and a brag tag!

The three sections toward the bottom are not-so-great. When bad choices are made, they will move down to these sections. The yellow section will result in a conversation with me about why they are there. The orange section will result in a conversation with me, some sort of consequence, and POSSIBLY a phone call home. The red section will result in a consequence and a definite call home. This section may also require a visit with the principal.

Coupons, Coupons, Coupons!

I mentioned in #4 that the students can earn stickers on their behavior chart. I do not have that chart made yet, but I DO have these coupons made!

The reward coupons will be awarded to students once they earn 20 stickers on their sticker charts. I have 3 sets of 8 different coupons. I only made three sets because for now, I anticipate there only being 3 (or less) at a time to earn them. I will have them look through the coupons, bring me the one they want to use, and then return it to the ring. That way they can be reused and I wont have to print and laminate any more of them.

The coupons that I have are...

1. Eat lunch with the teacher and 1 friends

2. Extra iPad/Computer time

3. Take you shoes off in the classroom

4. Wear your favorite hat to school for a day

5. Sit at the teachers desk for the day

6. Read your favorite book to the class

7. Choose the brain breaks all day

8. Pick an item from the Treasure Box

I still have plenty more to do, but I am excited for what I have done so far! If you all have any tips or ideas for adjusting anything I have shared here, please leave a comment and let me know. Also, please share any other classroom and/or behavior management strategies you plan to use! I love learning everyone's strategies and style!

Have a wonderful weekend, ladies and gents!

3-2-1 Teacher Bio!

I know I JUST blogged yesterday after a 75 day disappearance, so blogging two days in a row is CRAZY! However, I saw this linky over at A Sunny Day in First Grade and just HAD to join before this month is over! Plus, this post is going to be fairly short.

So, without further ado, here is my 3-2-1 Teacher Bio!

So I Guess You Could Say It's Getting Pretty Serious...

Ohhhhhhh my golly good gosh!!! When summer hits Jenn, it hits her HARD!

It has been a whoppin 75 days since I lasted posted anything on here. In those 75 days I managed a money-draining trip to Las Vegas, a good old fashion trip to the lake, and a trip to St. Louis. Needless to say my funds are beginning to grow bone dry. However, I have been having a BLAST! I deemed this summer to be the last summer I have (at least for awhile) to spend my money a little irresponsibly. After I start my big girl teaching job this August, my big girl pants will go on and stay on!

Now, despite having a summer of fun, I have been working on getting prepared for the school year as best as I can. To give you an idea of some of the things I have accomplished so far, I decided to take part in Tara's (from 4th Grade Frolics) wonderful Made It Monday linky!

In attempt to familiarize myself with the curriculum and standards that I will need to follow this year, I decided to put together a "Curriculum" binder. It has my districts year-long curriculum map and goals for my kiddos for every subject in each quarter. Some of it will be subject to change in the coming months, but this is just a start!

This is something I have worked pretty hard on for quite some time. A few months ago I bought a teacher binder template from Keri Brown's TPT Store over at Enchanted Kindergarten and spent a lot of time editing and adding pages to suit my style and needs (Click here to read my blog post about the struggles I overcame editing this wonderful notebook!) I have finally printed it all out and got it organized in a cute little binder. I am so excited about having this resource to keep myself organized all year. I just hope I consistently make myself use the darn thing! ;-)

This is an organizer I bought from Office Max (only my color combinations were a bit different. You can pick and choose how you want to put it together). I made small labels for each container and filled it with those items. I was pleasantly surprised by how much actually fit in each little container!

This is a set of drawers I bought at Walmart to store my brag tags. I labeled each drawer by category and put the brag tags inside. That way when a student earns one, they will be easy to find!

The last item that I am SO excited to check off my To-Do list are the brag tags themselves. This took me FOREVER to finish (as in I just finished them today and started them back in April). I designed each brag tag myself, printed them on card-stock, laminated them with my brand new fancy Scotch Laminator (you can purchase one for yourself on Amazon. It was not too expensive and it was TOTALLY worth it!), and cut each one out.

I have all of the ball-and-chain necklaces ready for the kiddos, I will just need to hole punch the tags. However, the idea of sitting and individually hole punching each tag sounds about as fun and stimulating as watching paint dry. Therefore I decided that instead of doing them all now, I will hole punch them as I give them out! :-)

I still have a lot of things to do to get ready for the school year, but I am so happy to be done with these items specifically. The beginning of the yea is creeping up on me, seeing as I attend my first training session next week...

August 12th is coming WAY faster than I had anticipated. I CANNOT wait to meet my firsties! :-)

The End is Near!! (Five for Friday)

Hello ladies and gents! It is the end of yet another week and time for yet another link up. I will be joining a good 'ol fashion Five for Friday party with Doodle Bugs! (Yes, I posted this on Thursday. Approx. 2 hours and 28 minutes before Friday arrives. EEP! Sorry.)

 Living History Museum

The fourth graders in my current building put together one of the best research projects ever! They have to pick and research a famous Missourian, write a paper about them, and then put together a presentation. The best part of the whole project is that their presentations required them to BECOME the famous Missourian! 

During this "Living History Museum" other students, teachers, and parents pick a "famous Missourian", push the button on their hands (which is a sticker) and off they go.

Most (but not all) students memorized the facts about their famous Missourian and used posters as guides.

These kiddos are always SO creative and excited for this project and I have a BLAST seeing and hearing everyone portray their famous person. Some students put together presentation using other resources such as emaze.com and prezi.com instead of taking part in the Living History Museum. However, they still had to present and show their work to guests.

Art Show!

This week is the annual art show in my building. I love seeing all of the work that they are most proud of. Plus, our art teacher does a fabulous job putting together a great show

Rockin' the Rainforest

Bringing the focus down to my specific class (ELL)... Our second graders read the fiction and non-fiction Magic School Bus Books about the rainforest (we even let them watch the actual episode).

After we finished, we had them pick a rainforest layer (Emergent, Understory, Canopy, & Forest Floor). They had to find out what types of plants and animals reside in that layer and put it together in a poster. Each poster is a piece of one isolated tree in the rainforest.

Now, it took a little work on my part to help them draw the tree in a way that would allow them all to puzzle piece together, but the rest was all on them!

Despite the coloring being a little wack-a-doodle, the giant poster came together quite nicely. They were 10x more excited than I thought they would be to see each piece put together at the end. The lead teacher and I were proud of their work.

SUMMER PARTAAAAY!

Our last day of school is the 21st, but the last day we pull kiddos for ELL was this week. That means it is PARTY TIME!!

We decorated the room in a Summer/Beach/Hawaiian theme to get the kiddos excited and ready for their upcoming break. We also watched an episode of Magic School Bus while they had fruit snacks, juice, and popcorn.

 The lead teacher and I wanted to give our students the opportunity to keep their reading and comprehension skills sharp over the summer. So, as a part of the party, we had each student choose 3-4 books from our classroom library to take home and read over break. We gave them all a couple of addressed and stamped envelopes with a sheet of general comprehension questions. We asked that after they finished each book, they mail us their responses throughout the summer. They were THRILLED at the idea of sending us mail! I am overjoyed by their motivation.

Now, before everyone's stomach turns, we did not spend all of our money on these books. A lot of them were donated and the lead teacher set up a donation fund on DonorsChoose.org to raise money for them. Also, we asked that they please return them to us next year. (The ones who were graduating out of the building or moving next year just got to keep them for good.)

WHOA! Gettin' Fancy Over Here!

So in my last post I had a comment from this lovely lady name Deb Maxwell, who runs the Not Very Fancy In First blog (Go check out her blog. Now. Do it now. Please?). She pointed out that I did not have a visible BlogLovin' button so she couldn't follow me.

WELL DRAT!

I hadn't realized that my novice little blog was missing these social media links. So, of course, I was on a mission to add them! Sooooooooooo....

VIOLA!
(Scroll up to the top of my sidebar to find the actual buttons!)

You can now follow me on BlogLovin and Pinterest, you can shoot me an e-mail, and you can visit (and "like') my Facebook Page. Now, if you go to the Facebook page, don't judge it too hard. I just recently created it so its pretty barren. Bare with this wee-little newbie! :-)

Now, my next order of business will be to create a blog button! Don't worry, y'all, it's comin' along nicely here at this Dog-Gone Good Blog! :-)

Don't forget to visit the DoodleBugs and Not Very Fancy In First blogs!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!