PICTURES!

I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FUN FOR YOU TO SEE PICTURES OF MY CLASSROOM. THESE WERE TAKEN BEFORE SCHOOL STARTED BUT IT GIVES YOU AN IDEA OF HOW WE ROLL IN ROOM 137! THE ONLY DIFFERENCE A MONTH IN ARE THE DESKS...UPDATES TO COME.

(REMEMBER YOU CAN CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO VIEW IT LARGER)

Apples

When you think of a teacher, when you go into a teaching store, or when you walk into a classroom you are most likely to think or see either apples or ABC's. Well, my classroom has both. Figuratively. The apples are on the door...each one with a student's name on it. The ABC's are posted in both upper and lower case letters high on the wall so that the students are reminded how to write each letter correctly.

The reason I am talking about these two very teacher-like objects is because believe it or not, I received my very first real apple from a student on Thursday! She came in holding, to her, the perfect green apple with two stems. It was so sweet. She told me when she picked it at the store she knew she wanted to being it in for me. That same morning I received a flower from one of my little boys. What a great day!

It is 6:00pm on Friday and I really, really appreciate a good weekend! Which is what I am about to do, go hang out with my other half! :)

***FYI...you can click on images to make them larger!

The Last 2 Weeks

I apologize to those of you who do read this blog often because I have been doing a terrible job at updating it. My September has mainly revolved around my classroom, organization skills, grading, and one specific student. (With the exception of my birthday of course :) )

The first 4 weeks have been running fairly smooth. The kids come in each day with a little bit more of an idea of what is expected of them. I am able to hand out less candy when trying to get them to do anything because now they are used to doing it. My bank account is thanking me. We are now into our schedule full on and I actually feel like they are learning things. I have to test them individually on their reading so every day for one hour another teacher comes into my room to take over. This way I can pull individual students to test. This has doubled my workload because I have to treat the guest teacher as a sub and make a lesson plan for that hour. Luckily the teacher coming in has been Mr. Ramadan, the kindergarten teacher I took over for last year. He told me he would come in and just pick up where I left off and then do a game or read books with them. When I test each day I get through about 3-4 students so as you can see, this is a long process. All the kids are required to be tested by the 25th and I only have 6 more to go!

Beyond the normal, every day chaos that happens in every classroom, we have had a small distraction. We have a very bright student who has needed some extra help and attention. Legally I am not aloud to go into much detail. The important part of me sharing this with you is to say that I have been tried and tested more than ever in the past 2 weeks with trying to figure out how to help him in the most effective way. There have been many meetings with a social worker, special edu. team and family to help this child become successful. Nate said it right - "This will not be your first time dealing with a situation like this"...I guess I should be thinking, "Bring it on!"

On a happier note, I celebrated my 25th birthday with 26 2nd graders and they were delightful. Many of them made me cards when they found out it was my birthday. And I received A LOT of hugs. :) One of my students even told me he would take me out to dinner to McDonalds. (Our school is across the street from a McDonalds) I brought in treats because isn't that what you do when you have a birthday school?? Each of my kids received an M&M cookie from me. Fitting right? As luck would have it, in math that day we talked about the quarter and how much it is worth. One of their clues was to figure out Ms. Stanton's age and they would know how much a quarter is...they loved this, and quickly got it right. :)

Ok, well I have to go get them from lunch...the next 20 minutes will be spent yelling (nicely) at or should I say over, them to be quiet because this is BY FAR the loudest part of their day....ahhh, deep breath, here I go...

1 week down...

So, today marks my one week of survival. As many of my teacher friends were waking up and having their own first days of school, I was off to my second week. I quickly found out that after the long holiday weekend, I too was re-doing my first day. I had kids coming in with their heads in the clouds, looking at me like they didn't know me, and wondering what to do...it was quite entertaining for about a minute. When I took the 2ND grade position I had in my head that these kids would be well above the kindergarten level. I am realizing quickly that they are still considered a primary grade for a reason. :)

I was planned and ready to go by the time the first kid walked into the room...by the time the last kid entered I had turned back to last week's lesson plans and found myself following the ones I had written for the 1st day of school. (So much for planning ahead) Not only were we back to square 1, but we were also back to remembering when to talk. See, my class thinks "stop talking" means "talk some more, and why not louder".

I may sound like I am complaining but after surviving the week, and the day I can't complain very much. It was fun to come back to them after 3 days. I think we are going to have a great year...we just may move through it at first like the tortes rather then the hair.

Some of last weeks happenings included:

1. A phone call home on day 1 for a naughty kid

2. A referral on day 2 for a potty mouth

3. Another referral for another potty mouth

And last but not least

4. My parents came to my class! They were in town and able to come into the room to see my classroom and students. I think they were enjoying the kids and their funny ways. It was fun for them to see this side of me. Now when they read this, they will have a better understanding of what life in my classroom is really like! ;)

The first few polls are closed now...thank you to those who believe I will survive the year! As for my class...my roster has 32 kids on it but only 28 have shown up so far. Please pray that the last 4 find a spot in another school. :)