Time to Breathe (& 5 for Friday! – on a Saturday)

WHEW!

Yesterday marked the end of our first 6 weeks of school, and also the reason why I have been M.I.A. from my blog!  I can honestly say that the first 6 weeks has been a complete whirlwind and I feel like we just started school this week.  The best new is, now that I’ve met all my kiddos, let me say I LOVE them so much!  They are such a great group of kids and they make all of the long nights and weekends so worth it.

I knew that my first year of teaching was going to be a huge time commitment, but I don’t think I had any idea how much time I was really going to be spending creating lessons, grading papers, trying to organize my classroom, and everything else that goes with teaching!

While the beginning of the school year has been great for the most part, I have found myself struggling in one area.  Have you ever felt stifled as far as being creative or trying new things?  I keep finding myself feeling this for some reason.  All through grad school I never had a problem sitting down and creating a unique, fun, and purposeful lesson.  Now, I can stare at my computer for an hour and a half and not even get through one days plans for math… I had a talk with our dean of curriculum yesterday about it, and said I thought the way I was feeling was potentially coming from within the 1st grade team.  I really get the feeling that some individuals would prefer me to use the plans that were used last year.  She assured me the reason why I was hired was to question how concepts had been taught in the past and help utilize better techniques.  Hopefully I will start to feel like my creativity is appreciated. 🙂

Of course I have to include a 5 for Friday with my post 🙂

1.  This didn’t really happen in the last week, but since my last post we closed on our house and moved in!  The home buying process was definitely stressful, especially with it occurring as school was starting but it was so worth it!  We have been spending the majority of our free time trying to get things set up around the house so that we can have a house warming party in October.  The cow skull project that we’ve been working on for several months is finally finished and hanging in our bedroom!

2.  Again not in the last week, but here is a picture of me and the rest of the 1st grade team at Open House night!

3.  Being that it is almost October (my favorite month!) and almost Fall (my favorite season!) I am feeling super excited!!!  I’ve gotten a ton of decorations for the house and classroom, but one of the most exciting things about the fall is the return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte!!!  I think I’ve literally had about 30 since it returned earlier this month.  I’ll admit I love them I’m addicted.

4.  I’ve been on a mission to find some better activities to use while my scholars are at centers.  We’ve done rainbow words to practice weekly spelling words, computers, silent reading, etc. but I want to find some more engaging activities!  Does anyone have any tips or pointers for resources that can help me get the most out of centers time?

5.  I found some GREAT mini-posters to add to my math strategies wall as we head into addition and then subtraction next week.  I’m literally so excited for the upcoming lessons that are planned (we are doing some really fun stuff with 2 MathStart books)!  Since I plan math for all of 1st grade I’ve been on the lookout for great resources; here’s the link to the mini-posters I found from Once Upon a First Grade Adventure.