Short & Sweet

We are back from the beach and some much needed time away...and this little diddy will be short and sweet this week!

COFFEE! 

"Hello housekeeping, can you please drop off more coffee, we have been up since 5am with our little stinker who is sleeping in our room and knows if she stares at us and cries long enough from her pack-n-play we will get her. Great thanks Bye" 

Yes that is my second mug of HOT coffee that I drank at the pool on top of the cocktails menu! Bless!

And a little something from Jen Hatmaker and her book For the Love. She speaks from my soul!

JESUS!

And when the hard times come, we know this to be true! For the Love! 

 With everything going on I really urge you to watch this! Who can heal America? I might know a man...

FIRST GRADE! 

Our job is personal. We care about what are students do, how they feel, how they "perform" if they are making friends. We bring work home with us...We are forgetting about ourselves. We have to be filled up in order to give. Don't let yourself run dry! Calling ALL people in education! Listen or read about her story! You will be inspired! Let's all get on a plane....we're all going!

Check me out!!! Teachers Pay Teachers

Busy Week and its Friday!

COFFEE!!! Its 2pm and I am just getting my coffee!!! WHAAAAAT! I know I am about to lose it! I could drink coffee all day! I lit some candles on this rainy day just to make it feel like the house is more clean than it really is! ha! Anyone else do that?

JESUS!!! I am trying to read in my "free time". I say this as my shadow sits here next to me while I type with her favorite snack "fishys". 

I am reading For the Love by Jen Hatmaker. I am reading it with my cousin. Our own little book club! I really do love it! She is hilarious and its a fun read! Follow her on all social medias! And one more book...this is a time of my day I simply cherish! We are reading this book for the second time! We read it the first year of our marriage and then again! It is a nice little 1 page read for the end of our day. We get to talk about us and spend a few minutes not talking about our baby or work. It's perfect! 

 

FIRST GRADE! We have been very busy at school in our new space!

Our classroom library will be a shared library. Lots of books and lots of great authors that are part of our weekly author studies. We are still working on making it more cozy but we have a great start! We will also have a shared word wall. Under the word wall we have pockets where students can have access to words that are on the word wall or students names. This is something my teammate Sue has done in her room for years. If a student needs to write a letter to a friend, he or she can go get their name, take it to a space for writing and copy it correctly.

Classroom Library with authors that we spotlight and leveled books where students can book shop.

This space is still a work in progress. I need to figure out that wall! I am hoping to get some funding from our Donors Choose project Wildcats Working Together in 1st Grade! to help with that wall and other spaces. 2 tables will be lowered to crate seating and 3 will be lowered to floor seating! The 2 tables that are against the wall are at standing height. Lots of options!  

So here is our space! I am standing against the wall and looking all the way down. Classroom #3 is down by the windows on the other end by my teammate Sue! :) The left side of the picture is our shared calendar space. Students will run calendar once we are well into our routine. They can reach everything and write on each piece. I love this time of the day! 3 kidney shaped tables (no teacher desk), 4 BIG rugs and lots of flexible seating under way!

We still have lots to organize and put together but we are excited for the transformation so far! I will add more pictures as we go! In the mean time, check out what else I have been up to this week in my TPT store! 

Have a happy weekend and thanks for taking time to read my blog! :)

And so it begins...

Coffee...because that is how I get through the day. Jesus...because that is how I get through the day! And First Grade because that is where I am all day! Can I just say that these are three things that I LOVE so why not write about them? Maybe even throw in a few pictures of the 15 month old princess that runs our house too!

So here I am taking the plunge...a few years ago my principal said "when will you start writing a blog?". I thought, what's going on in here that is so special? My mom says, "you better write all of this down so one day you can write a book!" ha! ok mom! Well both of them are right! So many special things are happening right now in our little first grade world, how could I hold back? None of this would even be happening or possible without my amazing teammates. We work together, plan together, laugh together and cry together. Really, it is a dream!

I decided to start writing a blog because so much is happening right now in first grade at our wonderful Wilson Elementary! We are making a huge shift in first grade and we couldn't be more freaked out and excited!

Let me just throw a few words at you that will sum up our year next year:

flexible seating

1:1 iPads

sharing students

5 sections

small-ish class sizes

only one year left in this building and then it gets torn down (more about that later)

one really big room

PTL for a supportive principal who is letting us run with it because here we go! 

Let me start with our room. This is not your normal classroom with 4 walls and a door. Oh no! I don't even know what to call this room and maybe we will come up with a name for it once we hit the ground running in August but man oh man will this be an adventure. Pictures coming soon so you can get a better idea of what I am talking about! This room was made with 3 "sections". We are putting 3 teachers and hopefully no more than 60 students inside. (hello Mr. SUPT. we love you over in 1st grade with our small class sizes) ;) 

Attached to our big room is 2 other first grade classrooms that are the traditional size with 4 walls and a door. There are even windows and we can peek over at each other during the day....how fun right? Our doors and windows will be open at all times and students will have the freedom to choose seating based on how they learn best. They will be moving in and out of spaces during different parts of the day. What does that look like? Well we don't know yet! AHHH!!! 

This is our summer focus, how do we share students but also make them feel like they have a "home-base", a safe place to learn, to feel like they are cared for and loved, to have a sense of community? How will we group them and how often will groups change? Will we start out slow and which subject first? 

We are reading everything, Pinterest is our best friend, here we come IKEA, crossing our fingers for a grant and away we go!

If you have any experience in any of these areas I would love to hear from you!