"Hello, Teacher!"

(Mary said that to me to day..)

Lots of "real" teachers were at school today (I know I am technically a real teacher too but why, then, do the veterans seem so much more real?) and Griffith is starting to bustle with the start of school. Mrs. O"Brien was out and about meeting people and being seen. My room has come together in a big way. I arranged the desks that I have; there are only 30 and I hope it is enough but I haven't gotten a class list yet. There are only a few more minor decoration type things to do but everything is looking really great. I have shifted my focus to what I actually want to do in this beautiful room that I have created. My schedule still seems strange. Case in point, I don't think I am going to do math at the same time everyday because there isn't a regular block of time to do it. I would rather the whole lesson was at once then split it up throughout the day. I found this great resource book in my room that I can pull D.O.L. type activities out of everyday. I even found one for the first day of school. I think this will be good practice and we aren't going to do something exactly the same everyday. I want to vary the delivery of these activities. Sometimes they will be all together, sometimes with a partner, sometimes as a game, etc. Spelling is another thing that teachers are on their own for. I want to structure mine more like vocabulary than spelling. Have less words, the kids will look them up in the dictionary, identify the part of speech, write sentences. I want them to see these words as a tool for their writing more than just a grade in the grade book. So there will be a vocabulary activity everyday and when the kids finish it, I want them to illustrate the words in some way. Then on Friday, after we take a quick spelling test on the words, we are going to vote on our favorite illustrations for the week and display those pictures with the words. Cool! What else..we are going to write twice a week I think. I want to do some science every week. Social studies...the books are so old! I will try. I need to look at them more.

That is about it. Oh, the teacher next door to me totally ripped off my lettering idea. Now the writing on our doors look so similar. Jerk! I'm still getting used to seeing Ms. Barnhizer everywhere. So strange. I am going to make my outdoor bulletin board tomorrow, thank you mom for the borders. Since our school mascot is the giant, I am going to use the Newton quote, "If I have seen further (than certain other men), it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." Then I am going to put Welcome Back Griffith Students! I also need to put my name on the door and make a chart for the birthdays. I want to figure out how to use my computer so I can type up some things I want to hand out to the students the first day.

Count down: 6 Days.

Love,
Ms. Bee