Making progress...

First day jitters... a week before the first day. If it's supposed to be nerve-racking for students, it's probably at least 100x that for me! What I’ve learned so far:

• Conferences are a truly wonderful way to meet new teachers and educators! I am amazed at all these great ideas for classroom management!

• I could spend a whole day cutting, laminating, punching out die-cuts, and gluing, and more cutting. In fact, I did that Monday. Alll day and night. Then had to get up at 6am the next day. Yep, summer’s definitely over! PS, a calendar set like this seems like a beautiful idea:

Calendar pieces: Post-lamination and pre-cutting bonanza!

Until you realize all the little parts you have to laminate and then cut into these little pieces. Lovely! So now I have these delightful calendar pieces ready to go for the school year!

Finally! All neatly organized!

• My daily dose of coffee or Diet Coke has started up again. I’ve limited myself to just the days I have to get up via my alarm though. And it’s been EITHER coffee or Diet Coke...so far! We’ll see how long I last until both are consumed in one day. I have a feeling it shall be Monday because...
• As some of you already know, I will not be able to move my classroom things into my room until 2 days before the first day of school. I have mere ideas of what it looks like, but I have not seen it...so c’mon, August 1^st! I have been so spoiled this summer with zero priorities, sleeping in six days a week, and staying up till whenever. Honestly, I am ready to get back into a routine that involves WORK! I really am a workaholic, although my summer has not shown to be so. I’ve played hard, now it’s time to work hard! I plan on being at school working non-stop in my room, even if it means late into the night!

• Teachers make mistakes. I do anyway, and I’m not afraid to admit that! I created this for the hallway next to my door, and somehow lost my “r.” You should have seen me at the Teacher Center making mistakes, um I mean, learning opportunities! I’ve been doing die cuts and laminating since my RA days, but it’s a little different when you know these will be displayed for kids, parents, and administrators!

Yes, I know the “r” is missing...it’s somewhere in that giant bag of laminated items!

Again, I’m sticking with a star theme. It’s classic and sometimes considered overused, but can I really turn it down when I got all this star stuff and more at a yard sale for dirt cheap? Seriously, these items (and lots more stored in the one of 20 boxes I have) were 10-cents to 25-cents per item!

I could not turn that down! Many thanks to the now retired teacher I got it from last summer!

Application from conferences::

I have also made a Check-Off List (COL) poster for my students, entitled Stars at Work. Check it out here. Another Rick Morris-inspired classroom management strategy I learned and will implement is classroom sign language. You can read about it on his website. He has the sign language PDFs free to download there.

As teachers, we need to use strategies that work for our students. Using sign language helps students self-regulate their actions and behaviors in the classroom. It also helps teachers understand students’ needs more readily and efficiently. Think about this: when you ask your class to answer a question and see 15 hands pop up, what are the chances some of the children have an answer? What are the chances they have a counter question? What are the chances they have a general comment rather than an answer you’re looking for? What are the chances they have an emergency and need to use the bathroom?

In this particular situation, sign language helps us figure out which students genuinely have an answer related to the posed question, which is what you’re really looking for initially.

Signs students can use!

Signs teachers can use to communicate with students.

I’m excited to use these tools! I’ll keep you updated on how sign language goes in my classroom!

• Lastly, I’ve learned that ‘Nsync and the Backstreet Boys are the best to jam out to when you’re cutting number 59 of 200 calendar pieces. That’s all I got for now!