First Year Teacher- no more

My first year in my own classroom is finished. It has been an exhausting, trying, and educational year. As difficult as some challenges may have been, I would not have traded it for the world. I have really learned a ton and I'm excited that I'm not a "first year teacher" anymore.
It makes me excited for next year to possibly have an idea of what is going on. This year I lived in a disoriented state and I could not have done it without my precious 1st grade team. They are unbelievably encouraging and life giving. I'm beyond thrilled that I get to be with them next year.

In one sense it feels like yesterday that I was putting up these items in my room and hanging up my name plate, but in another it feels like a lifetime ago.

Now, it is summer and I am going to sleep because I am EXHAUSTED!

All About...

It has been FOREVER since I have written anything on my blog.
Here is what has been happening in my life since leaving student teaching.
The year after I graduated I started working part time as a gifted specialist and then homeschooled a 1st, 2nd, and 7th grader. I was working a lot and it was a fabulous learning experience. It was really great to see the gifted side of education.
After that year, I got a job at the school where I student taught! Yay! I was so super excited to be at my dream school. I have been teaching 1st grade and it has been exhausting and wonderful. This year has had many many many trials, but I know it is only growing me as a teacher. I have a wonderful mentor teacher and an incredible team. They have really made my year.

We are wrapping up the year, and I am excited to regroup and figure out what I want to do differently next year. I have been consuming teacher blogs, Pinterest, and TPT like crazy.

These last couple of weeks we have been studying habitats amidst all of the paper work. I wanted my kids to do some independent research on an animal and write about them and their habitat. I quickly created an All about... book and let my kids get started on Pebblego.

Here is a link to my free book on TPT.

Pictures

Here are a couple of pictures from student teaching that are long overdue.

My version of the teacher toolbox.

Watching worms turn leaves into soil.

The Water Cycle song, which the kids adored.

We did a sand mountain to learn about erosion and weathering. The children wrote about the process and drew pictures to go along with it.

Bulletin Board

Legendary Leaders bulletin board.
This board is huge and it took forever to do, but I love it. I put the children's President Project on the board (The ones that were turned in on time. The rest are elsewhere). I like this for my first bulletin board though. This was so much fun to do.

Tattle tank

My class LOVES to tattle. My CT and I decided to put a tattle tank in place, so this is what I made.

It may be one of my favorite parts of the day reading the humorous tattles. Oh the hilarities of what children think is important.

Student teaching

First, I would like to say that I can't believe I get to do this everyday. I absolutely love student teaching. I was placed with a fabulous 2nd grade class, and I am matched perfectly with the teacher. I feel like the teacher makes or breaks the experience and mine definitely makes it. My class, although they are precious and I love them, they are quite the wild bunch. We have a lot of strong personalities. I am learning about the real world of teaching for sure. I am exhausted at the end of everyday, but I am constantly being confirmed that this is the thing that I am supposed to do.

My cooperating teacher is fabulous and lets me do as my heart desires. She allowed me to make some behavior management tools for the class. I made two bored boxes and a respectful reward raffle box, where they can put their name into a drawing for a prize if they have by gotten in trouble at all during the day.

To sum this post up, I absolutely love what I do. Joy is being had to the max.

Student Teaching

Today I found out that I will be in 2nd grade for my student teaching internship next semester. Yay! I can't wait; I love second grade.