New Year

Summer sure flew by... but it always does! Now it's Friday of teacher week and I think I am ready for Tuesday. Here are some pics of the class..

and some of the little details....

now the deep breath before the plunge!

YAY!

I'm Ready!!!!....sort of....

Finally! I can post pictures of my finished classroom. It's been a lot of work (but it always is) but I am definitely pleased with the results. So here we go! (sorry in advance for the blurrier pics, my camera battery died so some are from my phone)

The door as you enter from the hallway:

The other side

The Bathroom tags: They put these on their desks while they are in the washroom.

The back counter:

The back wall where I will hang their art.

Mailboxes with FROGS binders and Theme books:

Cubbies:

Our entry door, and view from the door (ya, that's my car, only one in the parking lot).

Now back inside to the reading corner

View from the reading corner

The front counter:

 Birthday chart

My desk (it will never be this clean again...sigh)

 Side counter and theme bulletin board &  My little piles of first day activities
                                      

Close ups of the desks:

Their pencil baskets: where they can keep all their writing and colouring supplies

                                     

There we go, hope you enjoyed the tour, now I am going to crash on the couch and watch TV!!

A few more things off my list...

I have been busily getting stuff done at school. One week till teacher meetings (gasp), and I am leaving tomorrow for a mini vaca to San Fran!(woot)!

I put my back to school bulletin board up, ARRR you ready for grade 2?". I will add ships with student names once I get my class list.

I also added a border to my chalkboard, which I use as a giant magnet board as I DISLIKE chalk! It looks so colourful now!!

Then I made instruction labels for my kiddos to look at instead of asking me a gazillion times whether they can use markers or not..... This way when they are doing a project they can remember to colour first, then cut (and not ask what to cut their paper with!!!!!), then glue, etc.... It was a great way to use up the BAZILLION school related stickers I have in my scrapbooking drawers!














And the last thing I will leave you with is the new dance I will be doing this year! It's just too fun! My kids will love it!!

Teachers Don't Really Have a Summer Break...

All those people that say, "It must be nice to have 2 months off...." I say, "we never really leave the classroom behind" When I'm shopping, I look at things and think, "Oh, I can use that for my classroom" I cannot step inside Chapters without going to the kids section to see what new picture books are out and how I can integrate them into my units. I am on Pinterest A LOT looking for new teaching ideas. As one pin put it:

So you see, we really don't have 2 months off, we have hours, or maybe a day or two at a time where we are "off" but good teachers are always thinking about how to make learning come alive. Case in point, this blog. My goal for this blog is to share the things we are doing in my grade two class, and hopefully learn by reflection on how to be a better teacher (which will be hard cause I'm pretty awesome, and modest). So I am hoping that at some point along the way, you will find an idea that starts your teaching juices flowing... and if it does, let me know!