Students Have Arrived

Today my students arrived.  I have 17 students enrolled and assessed. (9boys and 8 girls )  Parents dropped off their students with cameras in hand.  I had several crying most of the morning but that was ok.  I don't think my teacher assistant liked the crying.  I even had a mom cry cause it was her last baby to start school.  These are my students very first time in a school setting yeah some of them have been in daycare but that isn't a school.  Many of these students are also siblings of past students i have had. It feels good and I am honored that  parents want their child to be in my classroom. So I have a good feeling about this year.  They are testing high and can sit through a story.  I taught them three songs today that they wanted me to do over and over. Today we went over a few procedures like how to walk in the line, how to play with the blocks and dramatic play things, and the procedure during lunch time.  The biggest thing that I enjoyed the most about today was the fact the students sat through a story and listened to it.  Last years class had a very difficult time sitting to listen to a story all year long.  Fingers are crossed this lasts.

Assessment day

Today was the first day of school but I only had to assess students today by appointments only.  Every one that was scheduled showed up.  It looks to be a great start to the school year.  I have returning families with younger siblings this year.  I am excited to be working again with these families and their little ones.  The students are showing great promise as to what they can learn this year.  I think it will be one of those school years where they are going to keep me on my toes with finding new and exciting things to teach them.  Many of the students already are naming letters and numbers.  YEAH!!!  I just finished up preparing my call log book for this group of students and scored their assessments so I am trying to stay ahead of myself and not get behind.  I meet my new teacher assistant.  This is a long line of TAs (teacher assistants) I have had for the past 6 years at my school.  Hopefully this one shows promise and as much passion as I do for the children.

First Friday

Today was the first Friday of my school year.  I spent all morning in our meeting with the principal and staff.  Lots of stuff to go over and refresh ourselves with procedures.  Today was the first day that I actually felt glad to be back at work.  The other days I was having a difficult time getting things done and started.  Today I brought my sons to help me in the classroom.  While I was in meetings I gave them tasks I wanted them to help me with.  My youngest son helped me make flags of different countries (Pictures when all are done).  My other son helped with my bulletin boards by taking down the old ones and then putting up the new.  Thank you boys.  I brought several things home to be completed before the first day of school. My mom got me a display of a school bus from her job for me to use in my classroom.  See pictures of what I did with it.  I hope the kids love it.

Moving Day

Today i finally got to get into my classroom at about 1:00 today.  My boys and I started moving the furniture back to where i had it last year.  I really want to make a change to the layout but decided to go with what works for the room.  So after working to 5:00 we got the room arranged and ready for me to work on the small details like posters, bulletin boards etc.  I still don't know who will be in my class and the times are not set up for their assessments for Monday and Tuesday.  While arranging the classroom I had to kill a lot of large spiders who I guess decided to spend the summer in my room.  I let my principal know so spraying can take place before students arrive on Monday.  My students will have their first day on Wednesday of next week.  I will be assessing them for two days.

First Unofficial Day of Work

Today was the unofficial day of work for the 2011-2012 school year.  We are still not able to get into our classrooms because construction is still going on but we might be able to work in our classrooms tomorrow.  Today a group of ladies I have been helping work on our new discipline plan for our school meet today to prepare the items needed for each teacher to successfully implement the new plan.  We were working at the Creation Station our district has set up for teachers to be creative in.  While I was there I also used the Die Cut to cut out globes and continents for my classroom.  The small globes I cut out in black and will glue then onto colored paper to represent the girls and the boys in my class.  This will be used as their name tags for the table.  I also cut out large globes with North and South America on it.  I will be using these to place on their daily folders. 

I will be trying to figure out a new Rise and Shine procedure for our school.  Thanks to my friend Kari she suggested having a Rise and Shine committee made up of students (two per grade) that will be the ones leading us in the Rise and Shine.  So tonight's goal is to put it down in writing and then get approvals.

Around the World With Pre-k Theme

I posted the question to my Facebook friends about new and exciting ideas for the coming school year and my friend Jenny sent me two websites to check out.  Thanks Jenny. While I was checking out one of the sites there was a theme of "Around the World" , it dawned on me that should be my theme for the coming school year.  I took Great Expectations this summer in June and one of the classes I signed up for was "Around the World with GE" so there you have it my theme for the school year.  I am going to focus on a different country each month while trying to connect it with any holidays or celebrations within that month.  For example, May-Mexico(Cinco de Mayo), March-Ireland/Scotland (St. Patrick's Day), February-Africa (Black History Month), and January-China (Chinese New year) are some examples.  I need to figure out the other countries for the rest of the months we have in school.  I will then take each month and break it down into aspects I want to cover each month with each country.  This might be a lot of work for me to chew on but I think I can do it and make it work.  I will post the full year and what countries I will be covering later.  So the researching begins to find ideas, books, etc .

How can I?

I am sitting here at the computer trying to prepare myself for the up and coming school year and just can't get motivated and excited about the new school year.  I have had a very rough summer trying to find a home for me and my two boys.  After three months of looking I finally found us a place and moved in on July 26th.  With the  move out of the way I was hoping my mind could focus on preparing for the first day of school but i can't.  I try and try everyday.  Next week we report back to work and i pray this year will be a smooth year.  Our school district has made many new changes and hoping these changes don't cause people and things to change.  I feel that there will be a lot of negative comments and feelings this school year and I don't want to deal with that.  I want to focus on my new batch of students and on the old ones as well.  So I thought blogging would help me out this year with my thoughts and feelings as well as help me improve myself as a teacher. 

So How can I prepare myself for the new school year when my mind isn't on thinking about it?  ??????