Last Day of my First Job

Today I finished my first ever "big-girl" teaching job. Yes, it was only 5 weeks. Yes, it was just summer school. Yes, it was just reading. But OMG it was a reality check.  There was no mentor teacher to watch teach or ask questions. There was no one to watch my class when I had to go to the bathroom. There was no one checking my lesson plans and giving me feedback. There was no one telling me whether my lesson was going to fail or not. There was no one checking to make sure that I was meeting standards. There was no one else disciplining my students. It was all ME.  There were SO MANY KIDS. I had over 80 kids in those short 5 weeks. That's a lot of kids when my student teaching only had 10. I learned most all of their names.  But... I survived! I always had a lesson prepared. The kids had stuff to do when they finished early. I got a student with autism to actually sit and participate in my lesson with enthusiasm. I got students that swore they hate reading to tell me "it's not so bad." I had kids tell me they loved my class. They followed my rules and respected my discipline. They talked A LOT... but that wasn't something I minded to much. They wrote me letters, drew me pictures, and told me that I was the best reading teacher ever. They improved in their reading, their ability to find answers in a text and referring to the text in their answers. They learned!  And now... it's over. By noon today they will be gone and on their way. They will have their report cards, their portfolios, and will set off to prepare for the school year. My classroom will be cleaned and packed and ready for me to move into my next room.  I will miss this room dearly. It was a HUGE room on a top of a giant hill. Nothing blocking my wonderful island breezes. We were never hot (which is important in Hawaii). I will miss my ocean view from my desk and my ocean view on my drive to school. 

Now... on to my next teaching adventure! Classroom set up begins on Monday!!!

July Currently!

It is now July, and as my mom kindly reminded me, that means it's time for another Currently with Farley!

Listening: Summer school is starting soon. The kids are running around outside. How do they have so much energy in the mornings?!

Loving: Between school all last week, cheer camp all weekend, and now school again... I'm ready for a day off. Hooray for Friday!

Thinking: Last Friday was a SPED team meeting at my new school. I got to go in and see my new classroom, take pictures, and see what I am looking at. All I want to do now is set it up!! 

Wanting: If I had the keys, ^^ would actually be possible! 

Needing: I just looked at my "To Grade" bin and there is a huge stack!! Oops. Guess I should get those graded before the kiddos come in. 

4th Plans: My roommates family got a hotel room right in front of the fireworks in Waikiki. We are going to spend the whole day there, and then watch the fire works at night! 

Substitutes!

Monday is my first day since becoming a real teacher where I will have a substitute in my classroom. She is great and I know my kids will love her, and I totally trust her with my class, but OMG. There is so much to do as a teacher when you are going to be out for a day!  I've known that this would be the case... I've watched my mentor teachers prep for sub before. But it is sort of overwhelming. I had to make sure all my copies were done today, the kids are prepared for a different person, notes and directions are written on the board, my lesson plans are done and printed, she knows where she is going, etc.  AND I am still coming in on Monday morning, before school starts, just to make sure that she is ok and understands what needs to be done.  It is literally more work to not come to school. 

Five for Friday {First Time!}

I am trying to link up with as many linky partys as I can that way people can see and maybe even follow my blog! So here is another one... 

It is time for five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

 I finally got some student work up on my boards in my classroom. So now it doesn't look so bare! Yay!

Wednesday was a holiday here in Hawaii so we had the day off from school. I went with a group of friends to get breakfast from this place in Kailua called Cinnamons. They have THE BEST guava chiffon pancakes. They are so incredibly good. Like dessert but for breakfast. Yum! That was great.

22 Jump Street comes out today. I am pretty excited. I want to go see it today, but I don't have time. So I am going tomorrow. :)

I spend one of the days earlier this week organizing all of my photo albums and backing them up to drop box. I found baby pictures of all of my 3 fur babies. I am glad they are now backed up and going to be saved for ever! Here are some of their cute baby pictures.

I made it all week without going to Starbucks. I made my own drinks at home before I left for school. But this morning, I caved. I went to Starbucks and got a bagel AND and and Oprah Chai. It was wonderful, and well worth it. Made this Friday go by much faster!

Monday Made It {First Time!}

Yesterday was my FIRST DAY teaching summer school, and my FIRST DAY having my very own class with out a mentor teacher. It was so much fun yet so incredibly terrifying at the same time. Luckily... it went really well! My kids were well behaved, they followed my directions, they told me they loved my class at the end of the day, and they got their work done! I call that a success! Having my kids enjoy this class is really important to me. I am teaching summer school at a fine arts summer program, but my class is reading class for students performing below average. So they go to all these fun classes (like dance and ceramics and PE), and then they come to reading. If I can keep them interested and having fun- my job is complete!

Time for my first Monday Made It! I know it is a day late, but better late than never! Thank you to 4th Grade Frolics for putting this together! 

I'm pretty excited about the one thing I made this week... but it has a lot of parts. I made.... MY CLASSROOM!!

Yes my first every classroom is decorated and ready! I'm pretty proud of it. It started completely blank with all the furniture stacked. I had no idea how much I would have to set up for summer school, but now I love it! So here are all the pictures of my new classroom. 

^This is the front of my classroom. It has the alphabet at the top (which I made), the 1-2 grade library on the left, my READ table on the right, and the behavior chart. 

^These are the birthday sticks that I made for my students. They are just crazy straws, and they get to pick one when it is their birthday. 

^This is my desk area. I LOVE that the bookshelves were already painted yellow, considering it is my favorite color. It's kind of organized, and kind of just stuff thrown in bags... oops. :)

^This is the student work wall for my 3-5th grade class. They each have a folder hanging, and as they finish work, they will add it to their folder so it can be displayed. Also, this shows my 3rd-5th grade library. 

^My READ table! I made the letters myself. They are just wooden letters covered in scrapbook paper. This is the table where our pencils, erasers, and highlighters live. Each student picked a folder when they came in on the first day. Each folder had a parent letter and an "about me" paper for the students to fill out. 

^This is where I have my rules posted. I am using the whole brain teaching rules with my class this summer to see how they work out. The rules are:

 1. Follow directions quickly.

2. Raise your hand for permission to speak.

3. Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat. 

4. Make smart choices.

5. Keep your dear teacher happy. :)

^This is my anchor chart bulletin board and my behavior chart. I am planning on leaving this anchor chart up. In my reading class, we are doing close reading as our "curriculum." These are just the basic steps for close reading so that my students can refer to them. 

The behavior chart I got from That's So Second Grade. I love it! The levels say: Parent contact (red), teachers choice (orange), make better choices (yellow), ready to learn (green), great choices (pink), and outstanding day (purple). All the students start on green, and can move up and down the chart through out the day depending on their behavior. 

^This is just another view of the front of my room. The display folders for my 1st and 2nd grade class are located below the white board. 

^Another view of my 1st/2nd grade library. 

^The view of my room from the door! My roommate made all of the pom poms for me that you see going across in the back.  That's it! I hope you all enjoyed my room tour for my first ever Monday Made it!

My First Currently... June!

Since my blog is now up and running and it is June 1st, I am just in time to link up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade to do my first ever currently post! 
So, here it is!

Listening- Seriously, the Pandora 2000's hip hop radio is the greatest radio station ever. Flashback to junior high/high school for me!
Loving- That my hard work payed off! I love my new blog. 
Thinking- Wednesday is my first staff meeting for my first big girl teaching job. I am so excited, yet so not prepared... haha! I have no idea what to expect!!
Wanting- I spent yesterday making some DIY projects for my classroom, but I want to make more!! Starting as a first year teacher means I have NOTHING for my room, so I have tons of ideas and plans. But all those ideas involve money... Ugh!
Needing- Lunch! I have spent all morning and afternoon working on this darn blog, and I seem to have forgotten to eat. Oops. 
Summer Bucket List- 1: Thinking about maybe taking a trip to Maui. 2: I need to go through all of my books that I will be taking to my classroom, and label/sort them. 3: Since I have a few more days off, I want to create some fun and yummy things to cook/bake. 

Happy June Everyone!

Makeover!

After nearly 24 hours straight of trying to create my own blog design/layout, playing around with colors, sizes, etc... MY NEW BLOG IS COMPLETE!!!

Now that I have a big girl teaching job, I am going to try my best to get my blog out into the teaching world to see if I can make some blog friends and find some more resources to help me as a first year teacher.

Now- I'm off take make friends. Internet blogging friends of course. :)