When Thursday

Once again I'm here linking up with Blog Hoppin'. Today's topic is based around our daily schedule. There have been several changes to my schedule this year. The biggest one has been starting 20 minutes earlier!! Students can now arrive on campus starting at 7:15, but our contract time starts at 7:25. Now some kids eat breakfast in the cafeteria and some eat in the classroom. It's a bit confusing. Here's my schedule.

7:15 - 7:30 Buses arrive and students eat in the cafeteria

7:30 -7:45 Students are sent to the classrooms to eat. This is new this year. So I am trying to need to have something for our friends to do when they are finished eating breakfast. In the past my kids would have completed some of A Teeny Teacher's morning work pack when they entered the room, but I'm having to figure this out. Right now, I'm thinking my friends will eventually start the morning work. Then they either write in their journals, read a book, or on Fridays watch something special while we wait for the official start of our day. 

7:45-7:55 Our day officially begins with the pledge, our school PBS Whiz Kid Pledge, and the news, which is put on by the third, fourth, and fifth graders. 

7:55-9:30 English Language Arts - There's a lot that happens during this time: Phonics, Phonemic Awareness, Whole Group Skill based instruction, Daily 5 centers, and Guided Small Groups 

9:30-10:00 Writing Instruction 

10:00-10:30 Immediate Intensive Intervention (iii) Reading Instruction - This time is set aside to directly instruct students in an area they are deficient in. This year every teacher in my pod is have this at the exact same time and will be sharing kids based on their needs. 

10:30-10:50  Calendar Time - We count, we sing, we count the number of days we've been in school, we review different math concepts

10:50-11:02 - Math Centers Part 1 - Just like we have Immediate Intensive Interventions for Reading Instruction we also have it for Math. 

11:07-11:32 Lunch

11:35-11:50 - Recess

11:50-12:50 - Math - We learn about numbers, shapes, sorting, addition, subtraction . . . you know the standards.

12:50-1:40 - Specials - We go to PE three days a week, art once and music once a week for 50 minutes. 

1:45-2:00 Math Centers Part 2 - My students have several minutes after coming back from specials to finish up their centers from earlier in the day.

2:00-2:35  Science/Social Studies - My goal is always to connect what we are learning in science or social studies so that we can spend as many afternoons with hands-on activities. Some weeks it works out perfectly and some weeks . . . not so much.

2:35-2:45 Prepare for Dismissal

That's our day. Head back over to Blog Hoppin' and check out how everyone else structures their day.

Why Wednesday

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' once again! Today's topic is about being organized and WHY it works.

I would like to think that I am very organized . . . possibly bordering on OCD. One of my summer projects was called Operation Organize which pertained to going through tons of resources that I have acquired since starting kindergarten. Here are three of my best tips.

Jump Drives
I actually have three drives which range from 8G to 16G. One holds all of my stuff from when I taught Second grade, the other holds all of TPT documents that I have bought, and the last one is what I call my daily jump drive, which holds lesson plans and any documents I might need each week. I have numerous folders, and am known to keep documents in multiple folders based on the skill, theme, or multiple documents that are a part of a series such as monthly writing centers. Keeping my jump drives organized means I know where I can find any document I might need and I'm not wasting time searching. If I ever lost (or washed) one of my jump drives I would devastated. This last May, God must have been watching over me because I did wash my daily jump drive, but thankfully after a bag of rice it still worked! Thank you God!!!!

Centers
In Kindergarten all of my centers are standards based, but they tend to have a monthly theme. So, I organize centers by the month. Each month has one or two 12x12 storage containers where I may store any important books for that theme and all of the centers that I already have printed, laminated, and ready to go. This saves me tons of time digging around for centers. As you can see, I do dig through each box . . .

Letter Boxes
This was a part of Operation Organize. After two years in Kindergarten, I realized that while I had my letter stuff organized nicely, I was getting one thing from over here and another thing over there. I was spending 15 to 25 minutes each week pulling out and putting away the different resources from all of the locations around the room. While it may not seem like I lot, I knew there had to be an easier way - Letter Boxes! I purchased a bunch of photo boxes from Michaels this summer. Next I sorted through the variety of letter resources. I mod podged two to three letters on the front of each box based on the order it is taught in our district. Once they were dry I placed all of the resources that pertained to those letters inside. So next week when we start with the letter M, I can pull out the first box, and within two minutes everything will be ready. Plus everything for the next week as well when we move on to A and S.

Where Tuesday

I'm not sure about anyone else, but the first day of school just about wore me out. I am now up to 11/13 friends showing up for our class. It's more than I had on Friday when I left. This week I have realized, I am not the energizer bunny and the thought of four more days right now seems crazy. Somehow I make it through each year, but man am I wiped.

I'm continuing to link up to Blog Hoppin' for Teacher Week. Today is all about where I work and spend my time so here I go.

I had no plans to change my classroom this year until I showed my husband a bulletin board idea. Then, everything changed to SUPER HEROES! Here's a peak inside.

This is the view when you walk straight into my classroom. I have the carpet area sectioned off with our classroom library and book display. A few of our math manipulatives are stored under the Smart Board, and my desk is in the far corner. It's really nice and cozy. 

 If you look to the opposite corner from the front door, you can see our table area. Each table has their own buckets. I found it was so much easier when two friends shared versus four friends constantly learning over to the other side. We're very blessed to have four student computers in our classroom as well. The back door that is open leads to the pod office I share with three other amazing teachers and some of the best paras around. One of our paras created a coffee and tea bar for us. The other door with the white poster leads to the student bathrooms. You can just peak the corner of the kidney table in this photo. I keep my small group area right by the front door so I can see both zones and the computers while working with my small groups. 

 These photos were taken from the office door in the back corner.

 Here is the front of the classroom. 

 

Here is an up close look at our word wall. Tomorrow all of my students' names will be on the word wall. 

The state of Florida has some pretty strict fire codes. Two major codes involve us not hang anything from the ceiling or blinds and only 25 percent of non-bulletin board space my have paper covering it. One year I really though about that and visualized moving everything I had attached to the walls to just one wall. It's not a lot of space and requires some creativity. So, I try to use every flat non-wall surface I can find. I use my cabinets, I use the back of book cases, and this year I figured out a way to use my windows. All those windows are quite nice, but most of the time they are closed due to student distractions and the gleaming sun on the SmartBoard. Well, I attached 3M hooks across the windows and made my own clothes line without the clothes. I have three different levels that I can hang everything on. The first one I placed my favorite numbers on so it was eye level for my friends. Every other spot I thought about would have put them up high and my little friends just would not have been able to study and explore each number. Let's just hope my idea continues to work this year. 

I have not had a chance to dig through or even think about getting my materials out for centers. I am definitely only bringing out what we need as we use it. Eventually everything will be up and running, but for now it's just one day at a time . . . maybe a week at a time. 

Thanks for taking a peak of my classroom. Don't forget to head back to Blog Hoppin'.

Who Monday

I'm happy to be linking up with Blog Hoppin' for their Back to School 2014 - Teacher Week.

I just feel like I blogged about myself a few weeks ago, but here we go again.

Today is the first day of the 11th year of teaching. I had no clue how many things could happen in the 11 years. There have been amazing highs and deep lows, but through it all I have come to love what I do even more than I ever realized. I started teaching a middle school remedial reading class. Since then I have slowly moved my way down down down. In addition I have taught kindergarten, second, third, and fourth grades.

While I grew up in Northern Illinois, I now live in a town 30 minutes from Tampa, FL and 30 minutes from Orlando, FL. It's pretty nice that there's always something to do, but man the summers are brutal. This also means that anything cooler than 70 degrees is now cold. A few years ago we took our Florida dog up north for Christmas. We had to shovel the snow so he could see the frozen ground and know where to go to the bathroom. He doesn't like cold weather either.

My husband and I have been together for eleven years and married for eight and a half years. He is my number one cheerleader and support. There's no way my classroom would have been ready this year if it were not for him. He even is taking another vacation day today to help in my room on the first day of kindergarten! He is incredible and really does anything he can to help support my friends and myself. He also might realize that it's better for him in the long run if he just goes along with my whackadoodle ideas. I'm super lucky!!

I learned to play the piano before I knew how to read. My mom was actually signing my sister up for lessons and the piano teacher persuaded her to enroll me at the same time.

I love strawberries!!! One benefit to where we live is the large commercial strawberry fields in the area. I am supplied in berries from right before Christmas through mid-April. If I can't have strawberries, I'll settle for blueberries, nectarines, or watermelon. I love fruit!

While I love me dog and cat, I'm not really an animal person. I don't like frogs, snakes, lizards, or many other animals unless we are at the zoo. I am known to walk from the entrance to the exit in the reptile house, the aviaries, and anything to do with bugs and bats. Yuck!

I love math! I am a visual learner who loves order and patterns. To me, math is all about order and patterns. When I was ready to get my masters I actually completed an online program through Walden University so I could specialize in K-5 Mathematics.

I really don't know much about Super Heroes. That's correct! My classroom theme is Super Heroes, but I don't care for the wonderful Heroes all that much. My husband is a fanatic, along with most of our good friends. So on opening weekends after church, we go see the releases when they come out. I could live without seeing the movies, but because I love our friends, I go.

Make sure to head on over to Blog Hoppin and see what is happening over there this week!