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?  ??????