We must be really special! Yesterday was the second day of school and also our official "Open House!" Don’t forget that we JUST had our “Sneak Peek” where our parents could come and meet us and bring school supplies. I stayed at school until 8:10. Then, I had to make a Dollar Tree run. I couldn't find everything that I needed, more specifically - yellow, green, and blue electrical tape. Yes, this is for school. I did make it to the store before it closed and stayed until it closed. Then I headed to Wally World. Of course, I was able to find my beautiful electrical tape at Wal-Mart, but I also paid almost $3.00 more for it! While I was walking around the store, all I could think about was to get home and take off my shoes because my feet hurt so badly! You have to understand that for two days, I have stood on my feet the entire day with the exception of a couple of minutes when I went to the restroom and met with the other teachers in my grade. When I got home, I tried to write this blog and was so extremely tired that I was falling asleep as I was typing. I finally decided to save the first three sentences and just write it tonight.
Well, I arrived at work yesterday at 6:30 a.m. I had so much to do. When the students arrived, I started class with the calendar activities. I try to incorporate graphing, comparing numbers of girls & boys, and counting. Then, I spent more time reviewing the classroom rules. I am thankful that I have a PE break at 8:00 am because I have the opportunity to do anything that I may have forgotten about the night before or early in the morning when I first arrive. Anyway, I have been meeting with the other teachers in my grade and discussing what we are doing in class both for academic activities as well as for controlling behavior. After our break, we worked on reading/phonics and writing. I actually had my students write the ABC both upper and lower case letters as I walked around and observed. From what I had already seen based on the writing during the first day, I knew that writing (legibly) was a week area. I gave them print handwriting paper. Not only did the students not form the letters correctly, but also many of the students didn’t hold their pencils correctly. This little assessment made me aware that I would have to focus more on letter formation. When students finished this math assessment, I let them work in groups of two or three, playing adding games using double dice. They really love this and it gave me an opportunity to see how they followed my instructions in a less formal setting. I have several children who I will have to make sure that they stay on task which was the case in this activity even though it was an activity that you would think would keep all students involved. I also have a couple of students who have a lot of energy. I will need to provide plenty of movement activities. I have been using music as transition cues and that seems to work.
I tried to provide some activities that the students could do independently and free me so that I could do some things in preparation for Open House. I failed. My students NEEDED my help. During my afternoon break, I met with the other teachers in my grade to discuss what we would do for Open House. We figured that we spend a few minutes with our own parents and then we would put them all together and discuss our newsletter. We planned to work on that later.
After school, the teachers in my grade did meet together. We wrote our newsletter and planned who would discuss each topic. I had a few minutes so I threw together a slideshow containing pictures that I had taken of my students during these first two days. I even had some pictures of my students with their parents. I set the slideshow to play continually. Then I hurried to help do a few things for my co-worker who was working on the Prezi. The parents started coming a little after 6:00 even though our Open House was not scheduled to start until 6:30 p.m. Our new principal kicked off the meeting in the cafeteria. Of course she introduced us and then sent us to our rooms. I'm not sure what the parents were told but I'm certain that she told them how excited she was to have the opportunity to work at our school. After the parents were released from the cafeteria, they came to our rooms. We talked to them a little individually and answered some specific questions and then we had all of our parents go in the same room and we used a Prezi to highlight details of the topics in the newsletter that we passed out. I thought we had an awesome turnout. However, after looking at my "sign in" sheet, I noticed that several of the parents who had attended the "Sneak Peek" had not returned for our Open House. I think my grade was the very last to leave the building. We kept our parents long enough to go through the newsletter, explaining our expectations in regards to both academics and behavior. In all my years of teaching, I believe this may have been the best "Open House" in which I've participated.
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