This is my first blog entry since I started teaching. Since I started, I’ve survived my first field trip, administration observation, progress reports, grades, and parent-teacher conference. I haven’t gotten sick, yet (knock on wood-I hope I didn’t just jinx myself). I’m making it a point to keep on running, eating well and taking my vitamins. My weekends and weeknights have been consistently dedicated to lesson planning, putting systems in place such as forms, parent communication tools, research online for best teaching practices, etc. Most of the time, I feel as if I am learning the material along with the kids!!! Speaking of kids, I have 17 1st graders. A mix of those who are bilingual/Spanish and monolingual/English. I have a little mini-me who makes sure to remind me when I forget a part of my routine. I have a little Professor whose vocabulary is off the chain. I have my Scientist who wants to grow plants in the classroom, I have a Hypochondriac, an Artist, a Know-It-All, my Iron Boy (always meticulously dressed), my Star Student, my Helper, my Lil’ Diva, My Jitter Bug, my Busy Body.
Time flies…a new quarter starts on Monday and there are several things I want to do differently. Specifically:
1) Get a system for grading where I grade as I go vs. waiting until the last minute
2) Daily assessment/anecdotal system in place to monitor student progress and how my teaching is helping/not helping
3) Get ahead of writing lesson plans
4) Develop a consistent structure to help us reach our goal of reading 1,000 books by the end of the year. The kids set this goal for themselves. I promised that they could each throw a pie in my face at the end of the year and that we would have a pizza party and movie/popcorn afternoon. I need to keep them motivated throughout the year and develop a Library Lending Log to make it easy for them to return/take out books from the classroom library.
5) Collaborate/Collaborate/Collaborate with other teachers. I work in an amazing school with such talent that I want to visit with other veteran teachers more often and beg, borrow, and steal what they do/display/process, etc. to engage their kids and be awesome teachers.
6) Meet each and every child’s parent.
My classroom is constantly changing and was recently painted so pictures will begin to trickle in. In the meantime, I will continue to take one day at a time. I hope to get to the point where I feel comfortable with the material and can steer away from using the day-by-day/step-by-step lesson guides. Don’t get me wrong, they are extremely helpful but I’d love to inject some me in there, you know?
My commitment to myself and my reader (s:)) is to post a new entry every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In this way, I can write with experiences fresh in my head and look back on this blog in a way that when I go back to reflect on my first year at the end of this school year or 5 years from now, I’ll have lots of experiences I didn’t remember having.
Monday we have a field trip so my entry should be interesting!
Damaris
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