It's All Changing - Again

Kindergarten, my passion, my love, where my heart is… for 8 years I have taught kindergarten. I have been in two different schools. I have taught 2 different ELA programs, 2 different phonics programs and 3 different math programs. I have felt empowered. I continue to learn each year trying to make myself better. I have done research. I have read books. I have scoured the internet and blogland for information, activities and programs to try with my students. I have worked hard to establish myself as a well respected kindergarten teacher who others can come to for advice. And now… now it will all change….

When we return to school in September I will not be in my classroom that I have called home for two years. I will not be with my kindergarten team whom I have come to love. I will not be holding the hands of little ones who have never been to school before and showing them the way. I will not be hugging parents promising that their child's first year of school will be enjoyable and that they will learn new things and grow. All that I know will not be anymore in September.

I'm no stranger to change. At the conclusion of the 2012-2013 school year I packed my things one last time and said goodbye to the school I called home for 6 years. I needed a change, it was no longer the right place for me. I could not grow, or shine there any longer. Where I landed surprised me from an affluent successful school to a lower income title one failing school… and yet I shine. I love going to work. I have the freedom to try new things and even if they fail I am given permission to try again. It's ok to try and fail as long as I learn and move forward. It is exhilarating knowing that as long as I can show logic and reason and prove how something may benefit my students I can try anything I want (within reason of course!) From this I know change can be good. Change can be exhilarating. Change can be challenging. Change can be rewarding. Change can be scary. Change can be good!

Keeping this mantra in my mind and heart I have spent the past week packing my classroom. Putting 8 years of Kindergarten materials in boxes. I watch as someone else comes in my room daily and moves her stuff in, my heart sad as I know she will have my job in September. She will be the first teacher some of the incoming students will have. She will set the tone for their learning. I will not be going far but I will not be the one preparing students for the roller coaster of school.

Next year I will be looping to first grade. I will be with my students again, and a few new ones. I am scared. I am excited. I am terrified. I am looking forward to new challenges and a new adventure. I am sad that I will not be in kindergarten any longer (or at least for the upcoming year…). I am overwhelmed. I am mad that all the time I've put in to organizing and making the curriculum work for me, all the binder I've made and the focus walls I've typed are now going to sit in storage not being used. I am frustrated that I have to redo all that work. I have to type everything again for a new grade. I am excited because I can continue to grow and learn as an educator. I am looking forward to new challenges. I am hopeful. I am on an emotional roller coaster. Some of my fellow kindergarten teachers are looping with me, which brings me great comfort. I am looking forward to working with them again. I am sad to leave behind my other colleagues. We may have had our differences but we balanced each other out. We respected each others opinions. We yelled at each other like siblings do. We hugged each other on rough days and laughed together. We shared our families. We shard our lives. While I'm only going upstairs I know that the two colleagues I will be leaving behind won't be in my room daily to share the small moments any longer. I know when teachers change grades somehow bonds that seem so strong aren't as strong any longer.

The year hasn't ended and yet my mind is already focused on the fall. Since I am looping I know that I won't need to spend a lot of time going over the basics. My students know me - good or bad we know each other. Some of us work well together, others, well, we are working on it. I've got my classroom management down and won't need to spend hours upon hours teaching and reviewing my expectations. I will continue my guided reading and centers. I will need to find new ways to rotate and new ways to implement my centers as the room I'm moving in to is much smaller with individual desks not shared tables. I had planned to revamp my guided reading next year - I was looking to read more about the Daily 5 and begin to implement the program. I will continue with this plan… but now instead of learning and implementing one new program I will also have to learn an entire new Math, ELA, Phonics, Science and Social Studies curriculum. I have started to plan. I have started to recreate the focus walls I so painstakingly spent hours making for kindergarten. I will spend my summer getting ready for the fall. I will spread it out over two months so hopefully when the fall comes I will not be too overwhelmed.

Culture Shock and Donors Choose

I've been at my new school so far for 5 whole days! Three days were designated as unofficial set up days, and 2 days were official meetings and set up days. Everyone warned me that switching to this school would be a change... and they were 100% right, but the changes are in unexpected and surprising places!

Lets start with my room - it's HUGE!! I have two double door coat closets for the kids. Then I have two single door teacher closets. One with shelves and the other is more of a coat closet. I also have cabinets about my sink. I have a teacher desk (WOW! Haven't had one in years!) and a small 2 drawer file cabinet. I also have more book shelves than I know what to do with (no I'm not complaining because I am certain by the end of the year they will be filled to capacity!) I have 6 kiddie tables in the room and theres room to spare! I have a small round table for conferencing and a small extra desk for my computer. Did I mention that I have 12, yes 12 bulletin boards!?!?! Oh and 2 more in the hallway! Do you know how hard it was to cover all of those boards and figure out what to put on them? I still have one blank board and I have no idea what I'm going to put on it!!! The stores are all out of sets I like so that board will have to wait another week or two.

Another huge change - the atmosphere. Everyone seems so relaxed and happy at this school. Yes I realize the kids haven't come in yet and that feeling may change but for now... it's a warm, inviting, relaxed atmosphere. Even the administration have been warm, welcoming and helpful! One of our AP's actually helped me hang bulletin board paper on my hallway boards! I don't think in a million years I would have ever expected that! This same AP has made it a point to remind me that in this school I wont have to walk on egg shells or look over my shoulder wondering if I'm going to make a mistake. He has reminded me over and over again, make a mistake, so what! Learn from it, move on (and never make that same mistake again! HA!) I'm loving this philosophy! They also believe that the weekends, holidays, etc. should be family time... leave your work at the door and go enjoy your family. What an opposite feeling than my other school where the admins would have loved for teachers to stay at least 2 hours extra every day to do work every day of the week! I can feel the tension and stress starting to slip away, the uneasy feelings I used to have of being afraid to try new things slowly disappearing. The eagerness and excitement of a new year is gradually sinking. I'm actually looking forward to a new school year!

The last big change has been a bit of a shock for me. At my old school we were spoiled (I didn't realize this until the last few days). Anything we wanted for our classrooms we got - you need chart paper, no problem, scissors, pencils, markers, pens, computer paper, construction paper, copies, colored copies, books for your library, math manipulatives... we even had laptops to bring home and use for work as well as classroom printers. I spent very little money on my own supplies for my old school - the philosophy was anything in the building should belong to the school not the teachers. Don't get me wrong I bought bins and posters and rewards and fun stuff.... but the necessities were always given to us. Not so much now... I've already spent a couple hundred dollars and I'm no where near ready for Monday! I've had to buy every single supply that you can imagine - chart paper, teacher scissors, staples, tape dispenser, I even have to purchase notebooks for my kids! (Insert shocked face!) This weekend alone to get ready for the kids coming in Monday I need to go buy at least 10 (probably more) baskets from the dollar store for my library which is unleveled and all stacked in piles (did I mention I have to level the entire library on my own time! What a job that is going to be!) I also need to locate a ones, tens, hundreds pocket chart for counting the days in school, I need bins to organize pencils, crayons, scissors, glue, table top bins.... then I need to purchase a ton of ink for my home printer as I will be printing like a mad woman this weekend so I can finish my bulletin boards and have my first day of school papers ready! We can't get everything copied so I'll be paying for copies this year.... which leads me to a question - Donors Choice... has anyone every requested anything? How does it work? Could I request help for the basic supplies I need for my kids (you know like the notebooks, a classroom sharpening, etc?)

I may be spending a LOT more money than I ever intended to for my classroom - but I'm hoping the payoff of working in a nurturing, caring, loving, fun environment is what I will get! I'm excited to see what the year brings and can't wait to meet all my kiddies on Monday!

And So It Begins....

Yesterday was the first chance I had to go and visit my new school since I was hired. To be honest, when I started the process of interviewing at new schools I was a bit overwhelmed. The thought of leaving the comfort of my old school was scary, not to mention I hated the idea of leaving all my friends... but there comes a time when everyone needs to move on, and this was my time. When I interviewed at my new school I asked few questions and didn't even look around the school because I honestly didn't think the interview went that well and I wasn't convinced I would get the job. Silly me! After being offered a full time Kindergarten *YAY* position I realized how foolish I was and spent the whole summer wondering what exactly my new school would be like.

Well yesterday I finally got the chance to stop wondering and actually see it. It a relatively new building so that means AC in every room (WAHOO!) and new furniture. My new classroom was imaculate. I have NEVER moved into a classroom that was that cleaned out before. I'm not sure yet if the teacher left the building or moved to a new room, I'll have to find out today. Either way I want to thank her! She did an amazing job cleaning up and cleaning out the classroom. She was kind enough to leave up her bulletin board paper incase I didn't feel like changing it. I'm still undecided about that. Last year I put up fabric using liquid starch but I'm afraid that might ruin the brand new boards and I sooo don't want to do that my first year at my new school, even thought I REALLY want to cover my boards in fabric!!

What shocked me the most about my new school was that they collect the library and math supplies before summer break... so literally the room is completely empty! They wont be handing out the classroom libraries until next week!! Not knowing how many books I have or math supplies it's hard to decide how to set up my book shelves. Another thing that took me by surprise is how many supplies the teachers have to supply. I guess I was spoiled in my old school.... my former principal believed that anything that entered the building should be property of the school so he supplied us with A LOT - down to pens, pencils, dry erase markers/erasers, scissors (for teachers), various kinds of tape and dispensers, staplers, etc. I had to go out yesterday and purchase a stapler, tape dispenser and good teacher scissors for the first time... only to get home and realize I forgot to purchase dry erase markers and a desk organizer for these supplies! Guess I'll be going back to Staples for the 5th time!

Yesterday I spent the day wiping down the shelves in all the closets and organizing the few items the previous teacher had left... todays job - BULLETIN BOARDS! I have so many and I am a bit overwhelmed but I know I'll get it all together and LOVE having so many beautiful boards!! I'll be sure to post some pictures of the before and after later this week.

First Day of School and a Winner!

I did it! I survived my first two days... and not only did I survive but I LOVED them!! My class is sooo adorable and wonderful and all kinds of good that I'm super excited. I have a few students that I already knew... One of which is the little sister of a boy I had my very first year at my school! I remember when she was a teeny tiny itty bitty little baby sitting on her mommy's lap during conferences and now I have her in my class!!

I'm sure a lot of you know that no matter what you plan for those first few days of Kindergarten NOTHING seems to go the way you expect! That's pretty much what happened to me. First off one of the wonderful Paras in our building wasn't assigned a "home" yet so she joined my class and what a HUGE help she was... but since I had the extra set of hands I decided I had to revamp my plans for the first half day. Usually I do a lot of activities at the tables so I can collect and organize supplies... WELL with my wonderful helper I was able to teach and do fun things all day and she amazed me by collecting, labeling AND putting away ALL of the kids supplies! Every paper towel, baby wipe, baggie, folder, notebook, etc. was either placed in their spots in the closet or into the bins for the next day! It was AMAZING!!

I broke a few of my rules that first day and didn't teach my class rules or use any real behavior management system. I haven't done anything like that since my first year of teaching, BUT the difference this time was I did it intentionally and had a plan for the next day. My first year I didn't teach any of those things because I was very overwhelmed and didn't have a good plan. Instead on the first day of school I read Miss. Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten. I LOVE this book, and so did the kids. This year they really seemed to get that I had to set up the room just like Miss. Bindergarten did in the book. We did the name tag game I mentioned a few posts back - I don't think they came out that great and I ended up using traditional name tags the second day again. While the children worked on their name tags I began to work on their portfolios that I will be trying this year. I'm super excited about them. I purchased them on Teachers Pay Teachers at the end of last year from Katie Mense... you HAVE to check them out! (Click the title of the picture below to go to her store and see what I'm talking about!)

Kindergarten Portfolio and Memory Book

I only had them write their names on the September page... hey it was the first day and we only had a half day! I could only get some much done in one short day. My plan for Monday is to get the Alphabet writing done, ok started, and hopefully by Wednesday I can move on to the number writing page.

I decided against doing a full tour of the school on the first day. Instead I just took the kids in the hallway to see where the boys bathroom was. They did a great job learning where it was and the boys were able to go by themselves to the bathroom without myself or my lovely helper having to take them. I didn't have to show the girls where the bathroom is because the girls bathroom is in our room. At the back of my room is a bathroom that joins with the class next to me. It has 3 stalls and a sink... since it has three stalls and is shared with another room we couldn't have the boys and girls share the bathroom, that could have caused some major trouble!

We also did a mini math lesson... I introduced the calendar routine, our weather routine and counting the number of days in school. We added 1 straw to our ones, tens, hundreds pocket chart and the number 1 to our 100s chart. This year I am going to build the hundreds chart by adding one number each day until we get to 100. I like this because the children will be practicing counting different ways every day. With the hundreds chart we will be counting by ones every single day until we get to the 100th day of school. With the ones, tens, hundreds pocket chart we will be counting by tens and ones (after the 10th day of school of course!).

Towards the end of the day I had my wonderful helper read First Day Jitters and I took their first day pictures. I always take a picture on the first day of school, but this year I made a really cute bulletin board AND I had the kids write their names on small white boards. The pictures came out really cute.

 Isn't this a cute picture??? I love how this little one "wrote" her name! Every one of my kids wrote something on their boards whether it was letters, lines or dashes! Here is what the full board looks like without anyone in front of it.

I have a bunch of apples that I will be writing my kids names on this weekend and adding magnets to, YUP, this board is magnetic!!! I will probably take another picture of each kid without the board in front of them to use for my attendance cards. I am hoping to get some leaves, snowflakes, flowers and who knows what else to use to decorate this tree each month. I may and that's a BIG may put the number of days in school up there once a month and take a picture of each kid... its a good thought, but who knows if I'll remember to do it each month. I'm going to try really hard though! 

By the time we finished the book and taking pictures it was time to go home. The kids had a GREAT day and so did I!!! Now the only problem is how tired I am.... I have to get used to these crazy hours again! 

Before I go for the night I wanted to share the winner from my Clipboard giveaway! 

  

Entry #157Kerri S.

Congratulations Kerri! Let me know what theme/style clipboard you want!! 

Rainbow Conferences

When I first started teaching Kindergarten I had a wonderful mentor teacher, Mrs. S. She taught me so much that first year and I'm fortunate enough that she is willing to continue to mentor and guide me whenever I need some help. One of the things we talked about was the importance of scheduling reading and writing conferences.

You see when I first started Reading/Writing Workshop I found that I was constantly conferencing with the same children over and over again, which unfortunately meant certain children weren't getting enough conference time with me. Mrs. S. suggested that I figure out a system of keeping track of which children I conferenced with each day. I loved this idea and I sat down to figure out a way to keep track of my conferences.

My first year I created a simple calendar grid that I used to track my conferences, but over the years I developed it to become what I now call my "Rainbow Conferences." So what is "Rainbow Conferences"? It's a two system method of keeping track of whom you conference with and when.

The first part is a monthly calendar.

I make one monthly calendar for reading AND another one for writing. I think it is very important to maintain two separate calendars. The calendars are color coded to help you keep track of which days during the week you are supposed to conference with each children. For example - if Samantha's name is in row 1, then I know I conference with her on Mondays so any box that is red means it is a day I am supposed to conference with Samantha. It looks more complicated than it really is, I promise! The bright colors help draw my eye to the correct boxes to help me keep track of my conferences. 

For reading and writing I use similar keys to help mark my conferences. I always mark a capital 'C' if I had a regular conference with a student. I mark a 'G' or write the word 'Group' across any boxes I may have held a group conference with. I also keep track of any assessments I do with the students as well as if a student is either out of the classroom or absent for the day. I find that by keeping these calendars all together I can quickly glance and see when I did an assessment with a student last and if I need to do another one. I keep these in my teacher binder. Below is an example of how I would mark my reading conferences:

The second part of my conferences is a poster I created that is also color coded. I print and laminate these posters and hang them on my wall. I fill in all of my student's names on the correct day of the week so I can clearly see who I am supposed to conference with. 

I really love this system for keeping track of my conferences, they have helped me over the years make sure I get to all of the children in my class as much as possible. 

Now I'm sure you are wondering, "How do you decide which children to conference with each day?" Well that one was actually very simple for me. Since I teach Kindergarten I don't have a good judge of what levels they are on so for the beginning of the year I set up my calendars in alphabetical and reverse alphabetical order. For example if my reading conferences are alphabetical than my writing conferences would be reverse alphabetical. I may swap around a few names if I have too - I ALWAYS make sure that I am not conferencing with one person for reading and writing on the same day! That is very important to me!!! 

As the year progresses I group my students (whether it be formally or informally) and use these groupings to help organize my conference days. In reading I organize my students by their reading levels. We use colors and letters for our reading levels - so I schedule all my "red dot/level A" readers for the same day, if there are more than 5 students on the same level then I schedule the remainder of the students on the next consecutive day. Some months I just line my kids up on my calendar from beginner readers all the way to advanced readers. Other months I make my groups based on their reading levels and than randomly assign a day of the week for each group. 

For writing, again, in the beginning of kindergarten I don't have a good judge on their level so they are just simply scheduled alphabetically. But as the year progresses, similar to reading, I schedule them in groups based on their ability. 

The reason I group my students and then add them to my calendar is to help make my conferences run more smoothly. If I know I'm meeting with all beginner writers on Monday I have the option of 1) pulling them as a group and working on a skill they all need to improve on or 2) have my "bag of tricks" ready with activities and lessons for beginner writers and meet with them one-on-one. I find it a lot easier to be thinking and focusing on one level of writing (or reading) rather than meeting with a beginning writer, followed by an advanced writer, and then some average writers thrown in too. The skills they all need are so different and having to change gears so often during conferences is not very easy. 

So that my friends is what I like to call my "Rainbow Conferences!" I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into what they are all about! If you are in love and want to learn more about them, including some tips and tricks, plus get an entire set of 2012-2013 school calendars for both reading and writing already mapped out for you then head on over to my Teachers Notebook Store or my Teachers Pay Teacher Store and pick up your copy today! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this system or how you organize scheduling your conferences!!! 

Thanks for stopping by today :)

Back to School Giveaway!

I can't believe the summer is coming to an end... many of you have already went back to school and some of you, like me, will be starting soon. It's hard to say goodbye to summer... BUT there is something exciting about the beginning of the year. Decorating my classroom, new school supplies (yes I love new school supplies), and meeting my new group of kindergarten kiddies! As sad as I am to see summer come to a close I'm excited for this new adventure... 

This is a big year for me, after 5 years in my classroom watching it go from a small room to being fully rebuilt to a very large full sized room I am moving next door to a new classroom. I am taking over my good friends room since she is switching grades. This "new" classroom has so much potential in it and I  can't wait to get started with organizing and decorating it!!! I'm still teaching Kindergarten so I'm super excited about that. My little princess is also starting school for the first time this year, I know she is going to love it and although I'm a little sad to see her growing up so fast I'm so happy and excited. She asks every day to go to school and she loves doing "homework" (a.k.a. workbooks). I know she is going to love it and that makes it all the better. 

To celebrate the beginning of the school year I thought I would give away one of my clipboards. (Please be patient with me, this is my very first giveaway and I am sure there will be some hiccups along the way..) I made them last year for all the teachers on my grade and they LOVED them!!! You can choose from one of the designs I already have or request a color/theme and I can do my best to accommodate (I don't have a Silhouette Cameo or other cutting machine, although they are on my must have wish list! So keep that in mind if you are a winner, everything has to be either hand cut OR I have to find awesome scrapbook paper!)

Here are the clipboards I made last year:

 

Now here is the best part... I currently have 16 followers! If I hit 25 followers by the end of this giveaway I will give 1 clipboard away, if I hit 50 followers I will give 2 clipboards away, if I hit 75 followers I will give 3 clipboards away, and so on!! So the more you share my giveaway and the more people who follow my blog the more clipboards I will give away! The possibilities are endless, and so is the amount of clipboards I will give away!!

After you enter don't forget to leave a comment on my blog with your email address!! I need a way to contact you incase you are the lucky winner :)a Rafflecopter giveaway