Currently….September 2015!!!!

Yikes!

I have not posted here since last month's Currently. That's craaaaaazy!!!!!

I am really not sure where August went but I am happy to welcome September!

Once again I am linking up with Farley for her fun Currently Linky Party. (I don't know what I will do if she ever decides not to do these any more. I so look forward to them!)

Anywho, here goes September!

Listening….. to the sound of lights humming 

I am doing this month’s Currently at school because I killed our computer at home. It was an unintentional killing but it is dead all the same. 

sigh...

Until the hard drive is returned to life or a new one is purchased I am computerless at home. Oh well…there are worst things to be!

So, I am at school in our teacher’s office typing away. It is veeeeery quiet. Well, except for the buzzing lights!

Loving… My hearing aids 

(hence the reason I can hear the buzzing lights!)

I’ve had them about a month now and I am hearing sounds I had totally forgotten about it. For the most part I am happy to hear better. When it is the baby crying in the apartment above ours, not so much!

The real test will be using them in a classroom full of kids!

Thinking… I’m ready to go home… 

I have been here at school every day this week. (And a whole lot of other days prior to that!!!!) 

Today I’ve been here for almost 5 hours. I am so done. My classroom is still a mess but I am out of here as soon as I finish this post!

Wanting…. my classroom set up to be finished!!!

See above! 

It will get done by Friday but I am pretty sure that there are a couple more looooong days ahead of me. Sigh….

Luckily, the sun has disappeared this week and rainy weather has arrived so I don’t feel like I am losing the last days of my sunny summer break!

Needing… to get up earlier every day… 

During the summer I stay up late....like 1 or 2 a.m. late and sleep until 11 or so each day.

During the school year I have to be up at the disgusting hour of 5:30 in order to get in a workout before going to school. (Trust me working out after school does not work!)

And every year I say that I am going to start getting up earlier every day in the couple of weeks before school opens so that I won't be exhausted as my body clock adjusts.

And every year I don’t do it!!! 

Then I work the first few days on something ridunkulous like four hours sleep each night.

This year, I am doing it. Got up at 7:30 today. 

7:00 tomorrow!!!!

3 Goals...

Running… I have been running all summer at the gym and I want to keep it up. Don’t want to lose the momentum I have going!

House…I need to start making some decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of at home. In a month or so, we’ll be emptying out my mum’s house and I need room for some of the things I want to keep from there!

Cooking…I need to dig out my heart healthy cookbooks and start planning fall menus that are good for my hubby (and me!) I want his post-stroke health to keep getting better and good nutrition is a part of that!

And there you have it! I promise you’ll hear from me more now that school is starting (well, in 6 days, but who’s counting?!?!)

I am super excited about this coming school year and that I have a straight grade 1. So, so, so excited!!!! I can't wait to blog all about my lovely new class and all of our adventures in learning. Stay tuned!

Cheers!

Olwyn

Get ready for a long post!!!!!

Well, we are two days into the week with our official class. I have grade 1's ( I love, love, love grade 1!!!!) and so far, so good. I am sure that we are still in the honeymoon period but I am hopeful it will last for awhile. They are really a lovely group of kids and I think that we will have a lot of fun together this year.

I was thinking to myself, "If I was a parent in my class, what would I want me to know?"  What would be information that needed to get out and could not wait until Meet The Creature Teacher Night?

So, here is the list of Can't Waits...

1. Send a pencil case to school with your child ASAP!!!!! They will each have a box of crayons, scissors, glue stick and pencil to keep in their case so make sure it is big enough to hold all of those things. Here are a couple that have already come in. You can see how roomy they are and how easy it is for the students to get at their supplies.

2. We started our Spelling Program this week and more info will come on the parent evening but the gist of it is that your child gets 5 words a week (for now). They write these in their planners on Monday. They work in class on the words all week and then have a review on Friday. At home, you can have them practice the words by spelling them out loud, writing them down each day, finding the words in their reading, spelling the words with Alphabits (did you know that one bowl gives you 50% of your daily requirements of Vitamin B6? Me neither!!!!!), or whatever works for you.

3. Running shoes need to be worn to school EVERY day. We will be outside, in the gym etc. and students need to be safe during physical activity.

4. Send extra snack/lunch. Two days in a row I have had students who ate all their lunch at recess!!!! These young learners are Hungry with a capital H! Please send enough for lunch and TWO recess snacks. That way there is a little extra. Many afternoons we have a chance to eat another snack and, trust me, a lot of them are hungry again by 2:30.

5. Circle September 19 on your calendar. Make plans to come to Meet the Teacher night to find out more information about how things work in our classroom and in our larger grade 1/2 community.

And, last but definitely not least...

6) Become a follower of this blog or sign up to receive blog posts by email so that you never, ever, ever miss any of the great stuff we are doing in our community! For example, check out a couple of the fun things that the students have been doing during centre time so far.

 

p.s. If you are looking through the blog, please be aware that I need to update the A,B,C's page so the information may not be current. I will let you know when it is done (probably this weekend as there don't seem to be enough hours in the day right now on school days!)

Have a good one!

Ms. Hughes

Reading Area Done!

I have spent so many hours this past week setting up my classroom that it really feels like vacation ended early. Yesterday was a 6.5 hour day in the classroom. Can we say exhausted?

The first area I got done was the reading/library area of the classroom. I have my guided reading table in this area plus a couple of comfy chairs. Check it out...

Before....

And after....

The two tables together form my guided reading area. I can open the tables up and sit in the middle if necessary. I have it set up so that from my seat here I have a clear sight line to all the other work tables in the classroom.

I have most of my books packed up to move to the new school. In the first cupboard are a few tubs with books by Robert Munsch, Franklin books, non-fiction titles etc. (see photo below) I had nothing to put in the second cupboard so decided to use it for my pillows. These used to live in the turtle shaped wading pool that kids sat in to read but the pool is gone now as my turtle theme will not be moving with me to the new school.

 

I grabbed the blue chair from another teacher who was leaving the school. It is in good condition AND is a recliner! Score!!!!

These are my personal collection of levelled books plus some chapter books for those early readers. This will be what most of the students use for reading until we get into the new school in October. You can see some of the packing boxes on the left. I tried to dress them up with a poster but they still look like packing boxes to me!!!

My professional resources and guided reading supplies. The cupboard is very bare as most of my things are packed and ready to move. I just kept out the essentials to get going for the first 6 weeks or so of school before the big move.

 

 

The rest of the room is also done. I am as ready as I can be for Tuesday morning and a new bunch of students. I will post pictures of the rest of the room next week. I was so darn tired by the end of yesterday that I forgot to take photos. Not to mention, the custodian was literally shutting off the lights and kicking me out while I was still trying to finish off things!

 

Now I am off to enjoy my last few days of vacation. See you soon!

Setting Up The Classroom

It is that time of year again...set up time.

I don't know any other profession where people go in on their own time to set up their offices, work areas etc the way that teachers do. It is crazy! If you know anyone else who has to do this, please let me know so I know which professions I should be commiserating with each year!

In the summer, the custodial staff clean our classrooms and, in doing so, our furniture all gets stacked and pushed and shoved out of the way. I am always so happy to come back to freshly waxed floors and clean carpets!

But, I hate coming back to all my furniture all over the place and me having to move it all back where I want it to be. (And my back hates having to do it, too!)

Here is what the room looked like when I came back last week.

Walking in I found my cubbies like this... (aren't the floors shiny?)

 

From the cubbies, I walked into my room. To the right is my desk area...looking like this:

To the left is the art area...looking like this:

 

 

Straight ahead of the door from the cubbies the other ends of the room...looking like this:

 

Then, when I walk over to the windows and took a shot looking back at the entry. Here is what it looked like:

 

You can't really see it but there is a sofa in front of the windows on the left (I am super duper lucky in that I have windows on both sides of my classroom! Well, until we move into our new building.)

So, as you can see, I have a lot of work to do. Last week I spent about 6 hours. And today I was there for another 2. I am hoping that I can get it pretty much finished before Thursday. I hate feeling like my summer is over before it really is, you know?

Stay tuned for the reveal of the classroom in the days to come!