My class this year is comprised of 10 boys and 9 girls. 1 of these boys, was brought to me the first day of school, from the Dominican Republic. He does not speak English and my Spanish is limited to what I can remember from High School. Thankfully, I have 2 adorable students who are bilingual and can help this little guy out. First Grade is probably the hardest grade I have ever taught (and I have been teaching it for half my career), but it is also the most rewarding. All my students are excited to learn Spanish words, when I am trying to translate.
In Addition, I have an ASD student pushing in for my Reading Block without a para. He is brilliant, and adorable, but doesn't want to work....yet. I spoke with my ESE chairs and they gave some encouragement and advice. I am so happy to say that yesterday he worked, listened, conversed with students at his team and left with a caterpillar sticker happily stuck to his little hand.
Of course there are always hiccups in any school year, but I am determined to be Unshakeable and enjoy my students and my calling as their teacher.
I usually do a little linky party for showcasing classrooms, I've just been so swamped this month with getting things ready for the year that I could not do my usual link-up. However, I invite you to take a peek inside my classroom below.
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| Decided to use Creative Teaching Press' 6 inch dot cut-outs to make line spots on the floor. |
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| A view from the door. |
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| My daughter posing! She was a big help putting this room back together again. |
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| A view from the back. |
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| The AC broke on the 2nd day of school, thank goodness for fans! This is where I house my books for Reading Groups and my Reading response notebooks. My classroom faces the playground, and gets a large amount of sun, so we usually keep the blinds closed. |
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| Love my easel |
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| Library and word work storage |
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| Calendar, Library, Fabulous First Grade Work and Self Portraits |
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| Schedule-Cara carroll freebie and Jobs board. Creative Teaching Press library pockets and border. I made the numbers. |
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| Don't worry, there are goals up there now. lol! the first couple of days my only goal was to follow the rules! |
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| Our hallway bulletin board. I enlarged Melonheadz graphics and printed with the poster option. Letters and border are from creative Teaching Press. Teachers Names are on the music notes. |
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| This is my AWESOME first Grade team on pre-planning week. We all brought in something for breakfast and spent the morning planning our our 1st quarter! |
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| First Grade Rocks!! |
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| Do you follow me on instagram? Here's advice I would give to anyone just starting out. |
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| Cassie Thompson at Adventures in Teaching is a doll. This pack is perfect if you are getting ready for open house. I suggest you get some bright colored paper (Astro-brights is brilliant) and go and buy this Meet the Teacher Pack right now! |
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| 1. Stitch Fix is so convenient and easy especially if you are so busy you don't have time to shop. They sent me the dress, I wrote a note to my stylist telling her about Open house. I paired it with a pink cardigan and my new aerosoles shoe.sandals. If you want to get your fix click Here or on the link above for my referral. 2. Our Pod is one in a Melon!! Thank you Jennifer, you are 1 creative girl! 3. My new student and I were so happy to be matchy match. |
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| Before: The first day of school. Again thanks to Stitch Fix, I was matching, stylin' and comfy for the first day of school. Get your Fix Here |
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| But First let me take a Selfie! Son starting 4th grade!. Daughter Middle school, 6th Grade!! Lord Help me! |
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| Can you tell i'm not good at these? |
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| No explanation necessary! |
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| Wake-up Work Poster (on the back is Pack-up procedures) someone remind me to take a pic of that please. |
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| My dear Kindergarten friend Jennifer gave me this great idea. She read that it's good for little ones to be down low on their bellies or even sitting on the floor. She and my other pod-mate Amanda, lowered my table for me! Thank you ladies!! See those pillows...I made them!! What? My other first grade teammate Kim, convinced me to buy a sewing machine. I bought 10 yards of fabric--yup, (insert Jerry Seinfeld voice) Do you know how much 10 yards of fabric is? |
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| Yes, I still have a teacher desk. I am not sorry to say this at all. We get about 20 emails a day, and I'm the team leader. I need a separate space to organize myself, or it would be nightmare! |
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| Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum |
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| I've been doing this craft for a few years now. I'm happy to say that I still love it. Even though each student gets the hearts cut for them, the way the glue the ears, draw the eyes and bow, make it an individual product! |
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| This adorable 7th grader is my peer mentor. One nice thing about working in a K-8 is having responsible hard-working students to help out in your classroom. He helps me so much! he cut out all the hearts for the Chrysanthemum craft, pulled all the math homework out of the math books, sorted it and hung up all the work you see hanging in the pictures. Bonus---He's my cousin!!! Such a blessing! |
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| Mrs. Berggren is out of this world!-Did I mention I love teaching 1st graders! |
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| Jitter Juice on the first day of school. 7up, fruit punch and sherbet. |
Hope you all have or have had a great 1st week too!
I've linked up with Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd for #2getherwearebetter
I love your classroom. It's so cheery. My daughter helps me set up my classroom each year too. She teases me because I rearrange things like 20 times and end of liking what I did in the first place best.
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