First Day of School

The first day of school.

Wow!  So exhausting!

Hard to sleep the night before.  I'm awake every few hours.  Too many thoughts running through my head:
Do I have everything ready?
Are extra materials handy for any possible new students?
Is there anything that needs to be copied?
Do I have enough planned for the day?
What if I oversleep?

At 4:30 my alarm pulls me out of my sleep.  I get ready and head to the gym.  During my workout I'm able to get focused and get some good thinking done.

Go home, get ready for school, kiss my son goodbye.  He doesn't start school for another week.

Make it to school and finish some last minute things.  Then finally, they arrive!  And it's a school supply frenzy!!

It's a great class with great personalities.  Morning goes smoothly.  When it's time to focus on reading in the afternoon I am feeling quite at ease.  I read The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires to the class.  We talk about the importance of persistence and not giving up when things get difficult.

And then I introduce my classroom library.  I talk about how it is organized and do a few unintentional book talks.  I have hands in the air from students wanting to know if they can read a book before I am even halfway done.  This.  This is what I love.  I love kids getting excited to read.  I love talking books with kids.

I have a feeling this class isn't going to disappoint me.

Slice of Life Day 14- March Madness

I love his time of year in college basketball. All the different tournaments going all, getting ready for the brackets. 

I've been watching as much of the Big 10 Tournament as I can. My Buckeyes have been giving me near heart attacks yesterday and today. Yesterday they squeaked past Purdue. Today they came back from an 18 point deficit in the second half to win by 4. This is exciting! And tomorrow we take on that team up North. 

It's amazing how much you can bad-mouth and cheer on a team all in one game. I can't imagine all the pressure those players feel while they are on the court. I know they say they can tune out a lot from the stands but I often wonder what some of those comments are that they do hear. I hope it's the positive stuff. 

Some people say that the negative inspires them to do better. I'm not sure if I am one of those people or not. When first thinking about it, I didn't think I was one of those people. But after some thought  I started thinking about times when that has been the case. Interesting. 

I wish my Buckeyes best of luck in the Big 10 Tournament. Hopefully I will be watching them on Sunday!  O-H!!

Slice of Life Day 13- A Long Day

Today was a long day:

Wake up at 4:40 to go to gym to work out. 

6:15 Get home to get ready for school and get son ready for school. 

7:45 Drop son off at babysitter. 

8:00 Get to school. 

7:45 Get home from school. 

Yes, a long day at school with parent-teacher conferences. Since I am not in the classroom, I don't have much to prepare. We were running our book fair this week and I was stationed there for the night. 

I have to say, I loved working the book fair. I had such a good time talking books and recommending books to students and parents. Making new connections with students was certainly a highlight. As kids were bringing up books to purchase I found myself talking to them about their purchases and adding books to my TBR pile.  Those conversations can make an evening pass quickly. 

But now, this girl is tired and ready for bed. Night ya'll!

Slice of Life Day 12- Greg Tang Author Visit

My mom teaches in another school district and yesterday I spent part of the day at her school.  As part of Right to Read Week, they had author and mathematician Greg Tang speaking to the students and later to parents at their Parent Night.

I have to say, I am a fan of Greg Tang.  He makes math seem so easy for the students (and adults!).  What he was able to have them do after a short time was just amazing.  I was able to see him working with K/1st, 4th/5th, and the parents.  Unfortunately, I missed the 2nd/3rd session due to a meeting I had to be at in my district.

In the K/1st session Mr. Tang really focused on two things: knowing combinations to make 10 and when counting objects group them together rather than count individually.  He told the students that each night, for two minutes, they should practice making 10.  When counting, a lot of times we count individual objects that can result in slow counting, which is very inefficient.  Students should be grouping the objects together to skip count.  He referred to his website quite a bit, specifically his books, which you can find HERE.

In the 4th/5th presentation he really worked with decomposing numbers to solve problems.  Mr. Tang said that after 1st grade students shouldn't be using their fingers to solve facts.  He said we typically go straight to algorithms when solving problems with larger numbers but don't really think about the numbers.  For example, when multiplying by 5s, such as 5 x 88, we should multiply by 10 and then halve that number.  So, 10 x 88 = 880, half of 880 is 440, which is the product of 5 x 88.  Much simpler!  He showed the students the game Kakooma on his website, which I HIGHLY recommend playing!  Great game for students and adults!

Greg Tang's parent session really reviewed what he talked about with the students.

If your school is looking for an author who will integrate reading and math I would certainly look into have Greg Tang come visit!  Well worth the money!

Slice of Life Day 11- School Visits

My mom teaches 4th grade in another district in a town in a neighboring county. Today her school, as part of Right to Read Week, hosted author and mathematician Greg Tang. I went to her school to see Greg Tang. My district is looking into having him come next school year. 

It was great to see Greg Tang work with the students, teachers, and parents at their Parent Night. I will post more about him and what he shared tomorrow. 

One of my unexpected pleasures was just to see how things are managed in another school district. I have been to other elementary schools within my district, but it just doesn't compare to visiting an outside building.

I enjoyed seeing their schedule; how they prioritize different subjects. Seeing how the grade level works together with the little things such as classroom management gave me some different ideas. The different kind of work displayed in the hallway was fun to look at and read. 

I didn't really notice anything huge that I just had to take back to school to have the teachers start doing now.  It was the small things, the day-to-day things that got me thinking about changes I could implement. 

I think that we, the teachers, need to visit other schools from time-to-time just to observe and see new things. It was refreshing. It was even energizing. It was needed. 

Slice of Life Day 10- Daylight Savings

I am not sure I understand the need for daylight savings. I'm sure there is a good reason out there. It seems I have heard at one time it was for the farmers.

All I know is that I like daylight savings less in the spring.

I lose an hour of sleep. And it seems as though the older I get, the longer it takes to recover. Getting up at 4:40 this morning to hit the gym was not fun. Sure, once I got there and started moving around I was fine. Moving out of bed, however, was a struggle.

As I looked around the school this afternoon, I saw more zombie-like teachers than normal. I heard a few teachers mention wanting to take a nap. So apparently it's not just me.

The only thing I do like about daylight savings is more daylight in the evening. I can go for an after-dinner run. Jacob can play outside longer.

I guess the longer evenings remind me that summer isn't too far off. That is something that puts a smile on my face.

Slice of Life- Sunday Mornings

Sunday mornings are me time. I tend to be an early riser. My family tends to sleep in.

I get to make my coffee, watch the news, read a book, catch up on Twitter and Facebook.

I have time to think about the week ahead and get my mind organized.

I do the grocery shopping for the week on Sundays so I am able to start my list without distractions.

I can check out my Pinterest exercise board and figure out what workouts I want to try this week.

All with silence around me.
This is my peaceful time.