School Days

School officially started on August 23. It has been exhausting, exciting, fun, frustrating, and everything in between. I have days when I feel like I need to quit, and then I have really good days that help me remember why I love teaching. I have definitely grown a lot already and hope to keep growing and learning from my experiences. I have some of the cutest, smartest, funniest kids in my class that make it easy to come back each day. For those of you, ahem, Kristen that would like to see pictures of my room, here you go! Don't judge its ghetto-ness, I'm poor!

 

Here is a view of most of the room. I have four big windows on the side that let in so much light, I love them! It also shows a view of the recess field which is really nice.

 

This is my rug area and library area. I started buying books from DI, but even that got expensive. I lucked out when three huge boxes of books were donated to me. As you can see, we've been working on our reading "stamina". I have gradually increased their reading time since the beginning of the year and we have made it to 45 minutes. I go around during Reader's Workshop and try to distract the students in any way by taking things from their desks, bouncing recess balls, having timers go off, etc. to see if I can get any students to break focus. They love this, even though Sean thinks I'm a weirdo for doing that. They have gotten really good at not letting anything distract them!

This is my area where I pull small groups to work with. I also wanted to show off my bulletin board, I thought it turned out cute. For back to school night each student had a nametag clothespinned to the strings. When they came they pulled their name and put it at a desk of their choice.

  

Here is a view of the front of the classroom, don't mind that my board is totally disorganized. Can you tell we've learned all about place value? Check out my poor woman's place value signs!

 

 Now here is a shot of my desk. It always looks this awful. I'm not sure it will ever look very nice. Also, please note my on-the-go breakfast. Frozen fruit and yogurt, breakfast of champions.

Before I go, I just want to add that I am so glad for the opportunity to teach in Utah of all places. It is such a treat because on a daily basis I hear something that is soooo LDS it kills me.

For example, one of my kids was reading the Guinness Book of World Records. He sees they have listed the oldest people in the world and says, "well I know that's not true, there are three people still around from Jesus' time!"

Another day for journals I asked my kids to write about the best present that they had ever received and who gave it to them. I can't begin to tell you how many kids shared with the class that their families were the greatest gift they had been given by Heavenly Father.

They wrote poems at the beginning of the year and one of the lines was, "I desire". . . and they had to fill in the blank. So many kids filled it in with 'eternal life'. Another line was, "I believe" . . . and I bet you can't guess what so many of them filled in the blank with. You got it, they filled it in with, 'the gospel' or 'in Jesus'. 

How precious are these little monsters?! Their testimonies are so pure and they are not afraid to share their beliefs. It is kind of awkward for me because it is school and religion is supposed to stay out, but how can you not love these little guys when they are so precious?