End of First School Year and Reflection

   Today was officially the last school day for teachers and yesterday was the last day with the students. I seriously can not believe how fast the school year went by. I feel like it was only yesterday that I first found out that I got the position. It felt really weird walking around my bare and semi empty classroom. 

   I will always have a special place in my heart for my first class (don't all teachers), though at the same time most of them are ready to go to first grade. It may be weird,but I am excited for next school year because I have all these new ideas that I want to use. I know that I will also be busy creating things this summer for next school year too. 

   When I think back over the course of the whole school year I am proud of my first year and thing that overall things went very smoothly. I didn't have issues with any of the other teachers and most importantly the parents. My principal evened mentioned how she was kind of surprise that she didn't get any complaints about me which she thought she would since I was late coming in, new to the school, and a first year teacher. It felt really good to hear that from her. 

Goals for next School Year:

- Planning - There was a brand new curriculum and not just for me, but for the whole county. I went through it once, so I know second time will be slightly easier. I want to be able to plan ahead and not just try making it day by day sometimes.

- Guided Math - I feel really comfortable with guided reading, but I don't feel that at all with guided math. I am going to be reading up about it from other teachers and see what will work best for me. 

- Games, Activities, and Centers - I plan for next school year to get rid of seatwork/independent work during guided reading. It was just a lot of work trying to find/create work for all my students and I don't want to do that next year. My students like doing it and I didn't like grading it. So next year they will get to choose two center options during that time. That means I need to find lots of fun game and activities for that to do. Luckily we have an amazing place called TPT with lots of wonderful creations. 

Only One Week Left

   I kept believe there is only one week left of my first year as a teacher. These last few months have just flew by. You can tell that because I didn't post anything on here during the months of March and April. 

   I am both sad and glad that the end of the year is almost here. For the past month the students have been making me a little stir crazy. They have not been listening as well and I think that is mostly from having indoor recess for almost three weeks in a row. 

   I also worry about if I taught my students all that I possibly could before they go to First grade. I don't want their teachers next year wondering why they don't know something when they should. 

   Teachers last day is on the 17th It is going to be strange not having the students walk through the door that day like they have been since September.

New County Interview

   So my interview was yesterday and it went well.... I think. I wasn't really nervous

because if I don't get into the county then thats ok since I already have a job. It would just be great to get into this county since it's a really good county and it is closer to my family.

   I was only nervous about getting their on time and knowing where I was suppose to go. I don't feel comfortable in situations where I am not familiar with the area. I just worry that I am going to miss a turn and won't know how to back back. But everything was fine. 

   When I first showed up, I was worried that I was going to be there a while because there was about 8 people already there before me. Though I was only sitting for a few minutes when they called me back into the room. It was so HOT there. I was sweating so much and couldn't wait to take off my suit jacket. The weather has suddenly decided to become more about weeks of cool and rainy days. 

   Now for this county there are 3 interviews; preliminary, curriculum, and job site. I was really worried when I started reading the questions that I had to answer. My mind at first drew a blank, but once I got talking then It started to come back to me. I have completed the first one and I have no idea when I will or even if I will have the curriculum interview. I worry about that because I am confused about what exactly it is going to be. 

I will update of course when I have the next interview for the county and how that goes. 

New County, New School?

   I can't believe that I am typing this, but I applied to a different county to possibly go to next school year. This was very unexpected because just the other day I didn't think I was going to do it, but I got to thinking about it and thought if I want to get into this really difficult county to get in then now would be the time while they are hiring. 

   I have a year under my belt and I feel that I have done good as a teacher with the situation and so. I just feel like I am going behind my principals back, which I am, but I have to do whats best for me. 

I don't know if I have said this before, but the county that I am in now seems to be struggling with their curriculum and there doesn't seem like there are going to be changes made. It is something the county designed and it is just awful. I feel like I have not take my students anything Science and S.S. related. And EVERYTHING is online. Kids now and days are in front of a screen enough. We need to put more books in front of them. I am not against technology, but we shouldn't depend on it from the beginning to end of the school day. 

I have an interview at one of their career events coming up next week and I am nervous and excited at the same time. 

5 Must Know Websites for New Teachers

   As it is coming towards the end of my first year as a teacher and new teachers will be graduating from college soon, I decided that I would share some websites that I have been very grateful that I found. 

   One thing as a new teacher that I was finding difficult was spending time trying to find worksheets and activities that I could use in my classroom. Now Pinterest is a great site and very resourceful for teachers, there is just sooo much that it can get overwhelming or I get distracted. I will be searching for one thing and stumble across others things that leads to all sort of things. I could be on there for hours. 

Below is a list of websites that you can download lots of worksheets and activities for FREE! Thats right, for FREE!

The Measured Mom- I have downloaded lots of the games from here. They were simple and easy to teach the students to play independently during reading groups. 

From Playdough to Plato- Again, another place where I gets lots of my education games that students play independently. 

This Reading Mama- I have gotten both great games and worksheets from here. One of my students favorite is the sight word guess who. 

The Kindergarten Connection- I have gotten most of my math games here that my students enjoy playing and learning. 

My Teaching Station- I have been using this website recently for my seatwork worksheets for my students. They have a good variety of worksheets that make it easy for me differentiate the work for my students too. 

Side Note: For some of the websites you have to look around for the link to download or you have to give them or email. 

My First 100th Day of School!

   Now, I have celebrated the 100th day twice before at my internships, but this is different because it is with my students. I came prepared for this day because I knew it was coming and wanted to get things done beforehand instead of last minute like I have been doing with all of the holidays. 

   I had my parent volunteers help me make my 100 counting mat for the snack and the 100 crowns way in advance. I am just so pleased at how to crowns turned out. I had a moment of doubt that I wouldn't be able to make them, but I did and was very proud of myself. They took so work on making them, so I think next year I will do things differently. 

We made crowns just like these that can be found at A Spoonful of Learning.

  I was going to make a banner of the students entering the classroom, but then decided I wasn't going to and then on the day of I changed my mind. I was crazy running ll over the school trying to get it done in time and the students really ended up liking it. I of course kept it, so it can be used next year. 

Overall the students really seemed to have fun and enjoy themselves that day and it made me feel really proud. Also I hate to admit this, but I felt the others teachers were a little jealous of the crowns. 

Easy, Simple, and Cheap Literacy Centers

 

   I don't know about other teachers, but as a first year teacher I am trying not to spend a lot of money, though this can be difficult. While doing reading groups it's important to keep the other students engaged and learning independently. 

   Since becoming a teacher, I am constantly searching for new activities and ways to do this while not becoming bankrupt at the same time. I only keep a game or activity out for two weeks at a time or else students become bored with it. 

   I have found some really great and cheap games that I wanted to share with teachers, especially new teachers. 

Typing

For this activity you will need some computer keyboards. I had some extras lying around in my house, but you can always go to the thrift store and get them cheap. All students do is practice typing their sight words. 

Play doh

There are so many things you can use play doh for, so spending a little bit of money will go a long way. Students can use it to make letters and words, but can also be used for math. You can find free mats for making sight words and letters(click on the links for the ones I use). 

Game Boards

There are a ton of game boards for students that you can find for free to build students skills. Here are some ones that I have; magic e, cvc words, sight words, and beginning sounds. 

Clip Cards

Again just like game boards, there are lots of clip cards and all you need is clothes pins that you can get a big bag of them at Walmart for a low price. I have rhyming, vowels  and beginning sounds. 

Sensory Bottles/Shakers

For this you need empty bottles, some type of sensory, and printed words. Students search for words in the bottles/shakers, read and write them. I made a recording sheet that you can get for free here.  

Write/Read Room

Reading and writing the room. Students walk around the classroom looking for words that start with a certain letter or they can look for words they know how to read. You can make this more fun by giving students pointers, wands, or even fly swatters to help them search. 

Popcorn Words

You can get popcorn containers from the dollar store and I just took construction paper to write the words on. Then just crumple up the words and place in the container. Students then take one out, read the word, and write it down. Click here for free recording sheet. 

Go Fish

I found this fish cut outs at the dollar store and knew right away what I would do with them; sight word go fish. Though they can also be used for other skills too like word families and the alphabet. 

Telephone

I found this idea from Kidscount1234. Students pretend to call their partner and give them a sight word to write down. There is a free recording sheet from the website. 

First Snow Day

   So it is official! We have had our first snow day, though to be fair it should have been a normal day. We already had Monday and Tuesday off before the storm, but Tuesday was a teacher work day. That day is now Thursday, so no students and that uses two of our days, which I find really unnecessary.

   I feel like we are wasting snow days for nothing. I mean, I am sure that lots of teachers have been working and doing things from home, so we don't really need that work day. Or couldn't they picked a different day for it or even turn one of the PD days into a work day instead because we have plenty of those.

   Though, I think this is happening is because teachers need a day to complete report cards and they can only do that at school. Lucky for me, we don't have to give out report cards this semester.

   Hopefully, we do go in tomorrow for our teacher work day and the comes come in on Friday or else we have then missed a whole week of school. 

Anyways.... I thought I would share some pictures from the blizzard. 

My car got completely covered and can barely tell that it is blue not white. 

Just to give you an idea how much I got. 

Can you spot the road? The snow is so tall that you can't tell it was been plowed. 

   One really great thing about all these snow days is that I am very ahead with making products for my TPT store. I have products made all the way into April, though I am only uploading one product a week. For right now that is all I can manage, but I feel very proud of myself and one less thing to worry about. 

Parent Volunteer

   Well I had the parent that doesn't like make volunteer for the first time this week. I was so nervous and I think I was worried that she was going to say something to be about my teaching or worse to one of my bosses. Hopefully she won't be around very long. She is just trying to get her son to open up more because whatever. I on the other hand am trying to get the student to learn all his letters and sounds, but apparently that doesn't worry her. 

   It went completely fine. Which was really surprising to me. I thought for sure she have something to say about my teaching or something. I figures out that she was there for 3 hours! That seems like a lot of time to me and I wasn't expecting her to be there that long. 

   But yeah, She was only in my room for maybe 10 minutes and then the rest of the time she was in the work room. I honestly didn't think I had that much stuff to do, but she did everything I gave her up until the every end of the day. 

   One thing that I thought she said was interesting was that she child didn't want her to come today. I of course didn't notice anything off from the students since the parent wasn't in the room. 

Christmas Fail and Winter Break

So I was a complete failure with my 17 days of Christmas and which turned into only 12 days. For starters I was late uploading things and fell behind schedule. I just could not keep up. Next year I need to start making things ahead of time like starting in October or earlier. 

Also I was so so so busy planning for the last three days of school before winter break. As a team we decided to do fun Christmas themed activities. So spent spent many of those days searching on Pinterest and then trying to get all of the materials ready. 

Sorry for anybody who was following along with that. I am thinking (no promises) that I might do another one sometime before the school year is over. Maybe. Will see. 

Anyways so far I have been planning and creating things to use in my classroom. We are getting ready to start word families, so be expecting that to be showing up in my store. I have been trying to get things ready like to center activities and worksheets. I have a new parent volunteer coming in to "help" and want to make sure that I keep her busy. In the copy room.

I feel very productive and relaxed at the same time because knowing that I am planning ahead makes me feel good. January is going to be a very busy month. I have to start checking students reading levels and then I have to do another assessment. Also sometime during the month I have my formal observation. The only I am not looking forward to is the lengthy doesn't seem very important lesson plan I have to type up. 

I hope everyone is enjoying their break while it lasts!

My Very First Conferences

The Night Before:
I can't even begin to express how nervous I am about having my first conferences. This will really be the first time that I meet the parents expect for my one parent helper. I am mostly nervous because I don't really know what to expect or what the parents will ask. I have talked by email or phone with some parents about students already and those went well. 

For the most part I am just worried about two parents based on the emails I have had with them so far. Those students are about behavior and no parent wants to worry about behavior. 

Most of my students are either on grade level or above, so I don't have to have those awkward conversations about the student not progressing. I have been told by my team that some of the parents won't even show, though I did get all my conference papers back saying they could all make it. 

The Day After:
Well I did it. My first conferences are over and they didn't go to bad. I only had two parents that didn't show up. Though I did have a few parents that were late. 

Most of my parents were fine and happy to hear what I had to and show them. I only had one helicopter parent, but I think I calmed her and told there was nothing to worry. Her child is one of my high students. 

I only had one problem with one parent and I just really felt at a lost for words because I didn't know what to tell her. On the report I basically put on that he needs to develop his language skills. This child barely talks to me or participates in class. He really only shakes or nods his head at me. She apparently has been told by people that he is very articulate, has really good grammar, and vocabulary. So now she is going to be "volunteering" in the classroom. What bothers me that she is so caught up on that when he still doesn't know his letters, letter sounds, and can't identify numbers. 

I am not going to let her bother me and my holiday. Besides another teacher was telling me the mom is strange when she had the older child and told me not to worry about her. 

Planning, TPT, and Other Teachery Things

I have just been so busy, which I am sure many of you know how busy being a teacher can be let alone a first year teacher starting after the school year. I feel like no matter how much I try to plan ahead for the upcoming week over the weekend, that I always fall behind, though my team feels the same way since we have a new curriculum this year. 

Overall things have been slightly overwhelming with things at work. Like keeping up with county assessments, planning, meetings, emails, and events going on at school. It's all just a lot and I never know who to talk to about all of this. I kind of have a mentor, who has been really great, but there are just some things that she doesn't know or I find out that she told me wrong. I just worry about missing deadlines for all of the county assessments and getting in trouble. 

I have one assessment that needs to be done by the beginning of November and all I have been doing for the past two weeks is assessing students. I feel like I am not teaching them anything, especially during math because that is the time that I spend the most assessing students. It has gotten so bad that I don't even know exactly where I am even at in math. After school this Monday, we are going to plan for math and I am just so thankful because I feel just lost at this point. 

Then I have started my own store on TPT which has been an interesting and new process, so far I have only free items, but plan to add paid items soon. I know that it will take time for my store to grow and when I add my paid items that it could take time for it to sell. I post twice a week and thankfully I spent my summer creating items, so I just had to add it to my store and I do not have to worry about creating activities. 

I know my store comes second compared to my students, but I do want to take my store seriously and hopefully it will become a little something. I plan to move sometime the beginning of next year. My commute is about 50 mins to 1 hr. drive and it is starting to take it's toll on me. I will soon be driving in the dark to work and then back home in the dark. 

Anyways I better get back to planning for this week. Luckily we have a half day on Thursday and then no work on Friday. I could really use a three day weekend. Also I am not sure about a schedule for my blog, but hopefully I get everything settled with work soon and can atleast post once a week. 

Kindergarten Teacher!!

I know just last week I said that I was working as a long term sub for a teacher's assistant, but know I officially have my own classroom starting on Friday!!!

This went really fast because the new school year has already begun and they needed a teacher fast. I get an email asking about doing the interview on Monday. Then Tuesday I had my interview and then today I was offered the position! 

I just still can't believe this. I am just SOOO excited. I know this next week is going to be crazy and I am ready for it.