I have no excuse other than school started back thus I have been obsessing over lesson plans and such. School is better this year now that I don’t have to do my internship. I have a great group of kids this year (overall). I also have a smaller class – 18 this year – which is totally awesome. I sometimes miss all the time I used to spend on Twitter, my website, and the internet in general but I really do enjoy teaching and spend a lot of time planning lessons and such.

Right now we’re in the middle of the Gingerbread Girl craze. She ran away on Friday. The kids were even more excited about it this year than last year’s group was. It’s really fun. We’ll be making gingerbread ornaments, and cookies, and cakes this week. Fun times! My mom made another gingerbread house around my classroom door and it is even cuter than the one last year! Way more color this time around. I’ll have to take a picture of it this week.

Christmas is right around the corner. I have a lot of shopping left to do. I also have many crafty things I am working on. I am working on adding items to my Etsy shop which has been ignored for a couple of years now. I am going to be adding some major cuteness to it, and I can’t wait!

For now I leave you with this yummy treat I baked up at Thanksgiving. More on my Flickr.

And the layout… it was coming along well, but then I got busy. And now I think I may have a new idea.

My last day with the students was on Friday. Since we missed so much school due to the ice storm, the teachers have to work until June 9th. We have three days of district curriculum mapping to get through and hopefully the rest of the time I can spend organizing my room and making preparations for next year. I am already excited about next year. I will be at a disadvantage next year in one way. This year I pretty much know most of the kids in my class from having them in computer lab. Next year I will know a couple of students by name, but I don’t really know what to expect from them. The kindergartners were a rough group this year. A LARGE group too. So large in fact that a second grade teacher is moving down to first so we’ll have four and a half first grade classes.

Since my summer is pretty close to actually beginning, I am hoping to have more time to work on my websites and to blog more often. I had to attend a school webmaster training the other day and they gave us a new digital camera and flip video recorder that I am dying to put to use.

Oh, in other news, Colin and I have found a house! Now, nothing is totally official yet (we’re still waiting on the final news from the bank and for the loan to go through), but if all goes as planned we could move into our house on July 19th! I really hope everything goes okay with the loan. I guess it’s freaked the bank lady out that she found out Colin is Canadian. Whatever.

Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up on the blogs I like to visit and get back in the swing of internet things. It’s going to be a busy summer!

So my husband finally has a Twitter account. He’s also been reading a lot of library blogs and he says he’s gonna start a LiveJournal where he anonymously will write about his job without using real names or places. I would love to have a completly anonymous blog where I tell what really goes on in my classroom on a day-to-day basis. Future teachers should know what to look forward to! College classes and practicum experiences do not prepare you for teaching.

Anyway, now that I’ve mentioned it, it’s not completely anonymous. Because now you know that I want to do it. And if I did, then you’d know about it. Hmm. Maybe I won’t tell any of you if I do it or not. Then no one will know. And I’ll just be talking to myself. Sort of like I am doing now…

My ear hurts.

I mean, technically I have been a teacher for four years now (even though two of them didn’t count as being a “teacher). As of March 10th, I have passed my internship. It feels good for it to be finally over. The final meeting didn’t last long at all. I basically walked in, got some hand shakes and congratulations, and then had a little chit chat. No one even looked at my portfolio one last time. I feel good that now I have at least one tiny thing gone I don’t have to worry about. All that’s left now is to take a copy of my committee report, a copy of my time sheet with my resource teacher, and a $35 check to the Board of Education so they can mail it off and I can receive my teaching certificate.

A few other things worth mentioning that have happened lately:

1. One of my students transferred to another school. I hated to see her go because she was one of the “good” ones- very quiet, smart, and well behaved.
2. One of my other students who has been a source of stress all year long has finally been formally identified as having an emotional and behavioral disorder and will be going to the EBD unit at another school (the school my mom works at actually). I hope the EBD class works out for him and that he can learn to control his behavior. His last day was Friday. It will be a whole new world in my classroom without him there.
3. My grandma had her surgery. Her right breast was removed. The doctor couldn’t even see a tumor or anything and said that it was completely surrounded by tissue so he’s fairly certain he removed it all which is great news. She may still have to have radiation but we aren’t sure yet.

I’m down to twenty students in my class. The other first grade classes have 22 – 23. This means that whatever new students come in to our school will be placed in my room. Hopefully if we do get any new ones they’ll be “good” ones.

I can’t wait for spring break to get here! I have so many things I want to do: clean, organize, plan out the rest of the school year, relax, have fun and work on hobbies. Have the rest of you out there had your spring break yet?

*huge sigh of relief* :content:

March 10th is my final meeting and then my internship is over! Whoooo! I can’t believe it! This will be a huge load off of me.

Next week is a lot of other big things too: parent teacher conferences and a major meeting about one of my students being placed in an emotional behavioral disorder unit. This school year is flying by!

Also next week my grandmother is having surgery to remove one of her breasts due to breast cancer.

It is going to be a busy week next week and some major things will be happening. Hopefully when things calm down (who knows when) I can work on this blog!

We finally caught our Gingerbread Girl.

Two weeks ago we started this Gingerbread Man theme in my class. The kids absolutely loved it! We read tons of different versions of The Gingerbread Man and made lots of gingerbread man goodies. We created a big Gingerbread Girl out of brown bulletin board paper. We folded the paper in half to make her so she would be symmetrical. I actually traced the body from one of the other first grade teachers’ Gingerbread Man who had to hide in my file cabinet. Well, because I traced hers, then mine also looked like a Gingerbread Man. One of my students told me to give her a rainbow skirt so she’d be a girl. I happily complied! I even gave her red hair because in the book the Gingerbread Girl she has red hair made out of licorice.

When the kids went to specials, our Gingerbread Girl left!! We found lots of her hair in the hallway. We don’t know how she escaped since our classroom door was locked. She left us clues each day. My mom came and decorated my classroom door as a gingerbread house. The whole first grade was in on it though. We had a missing Gingerbread Girl, one of the other teachers had a missing Gingerbread Man, and the other had a missing Gingerbread Baby. We even made Gingerbread House traps to try and catch the baby. I think the baby is still missing.

We found our Girl in the special ed. teacher’s room on Wednesday. She turned back into paper and left us some Gingerbread Man cookies and gingerbread man tattoos. The whole thing was so hilarious. The kids told the funniest stories. One girl said her bus driver ran over one of the gingerbread people. Another girl said she saw the boy and girl on her street and she tried to catch them. Another one said he dreamed that all gingerbread people would come to life, and then they did! They were really so into it.

One week left. This week is going to be crazy. I’ll be glad when it’s over.

I miss my website. I miss free time. I don’t have much free time these days like I used to. Being a first grade teacher just really takes away any free time you may have I guess. Lesson plans are almost always on my mind. Let me just say something to all of those people out there who think teaching is easy and that you get summers off and get to go home at 3:00 p.m.: you are idiots. Seriously, if you are someone who is thinking about going into the education profession please talk to as many teachers you can and go and spend time in schools. It’s crazy times in education these days.

But enough with the negativity, I do like my job overall. My class definitely has some stinkers in it (that’s putting it nicely). I also have some really funny, sweet, intelligent kids as well though. They are so talkative. The whole first grade group is actually. The only time they are truly quiet is when I am reading them a story. (Maybe I mentioned that fact before?) It could always be worse though. (And some days it seems like it is.) I am looking forward to the upcoming winter break though. Our last day is December 19th.

Although… my time off won’t be all fun and games. I’ll have to be working on several things for my portfolio. I am having to complete Cycle II of my internship in January. That’s almost insanity. To give you an idea why, I did Cycle I from August to December. So yeah… I am going a whole cycle’s worth of work in one month (which includes three observations). It’s going to be very hectic for me in January. On the plus side, my internship is going wonderfully thus far, and I forsee no significant problems arising.

I’m hoping to have some time during my break to spruce up my site a bit. I think there’s a lot of junk on here I could do without. I’d also like to blog here more often. Maybe if I do, I won’t have to repeat my many school stories as often. Maybe my husband could just read them here and save me the time and breath. Hee hee!

I am hoping to take some great pictures tomorrow at school and post a truly hilarious post tomorrow. Stay tuned and watch for it. It has something to do with a certain cookie-esque character who likes to run….

One more week to go until Fall Break. Thanks God. I need a break. I haven’t really had one. My Friday evenings include me and Colin working in my classroom until 7:00 at night and my weekends are spent working at home on lesson plans and whatnot. Oh course, I will be doing some work on my break, but it won’t be as stressful I don’t think.

Going back to my previous post and some of the comments made, I can’t really switch my schedule around too much. Our literacy block has to be 90 minutes, uninterrupted. I can’t fit reading and math in the morning. However, I may try to fit writing in the morning and do calendar time in the morning so that will leave me to do 60 minutes of math in the afternoon instead of 90. Then, hopefully I’ll have some time for Social Studies and Science in the afternoon as well.

As far as my internship goes, I have had one observation that went quite well. My second one is tomorrow. The principal is coming to observe a math lesson. I’m not too worried about it. Whatever happens just will. I’ll be fine whatever the outcome.

Things have been going okay overall. My class is still so needy and talkative, and I really don’t think those things are going to improve very much over the year. I’ve gotten three new students since school started (can’t remember if I mentioned any of these). One is a student who was supposed to be in my room originally but was told he couldn’t come to our school since he was out of our district and is a behavior problem. Well, he’s back in our district, so he’s mine again. One of my boys has been suspended like 5 times since school started. Another one “speaks bird.” One cries just about every day multiple times. Fun times. Never a dull moment.

The long term sub that has been at school since day 1 will be leaving next Friday. It’ll be her last day and then the real teacher will come back. She’s been out on maternity leave. I will really miss the sub. She’s taught for 35+ years, and she and I have been good buddies this whole time. I get along really well with the other teachers I work with too. It’s really good.

I’m always busy or have something to do. This is because I have to do a internship portfolio and since I never taught first grade before, I’m having to learn as I go. Next year should be a lot smoother. On fall break, I plan to get together with one of the first grade teachers so she can show me how she teaches with themes instead of following the textbooks so closely. I am excited.

I straightened my hair yesterday. I borrowed my mom’s flat iron. It took me like two hours. I like it though. I haven’t brushed my hair since 9th grade probably. I have to pick it out or comb it since it’s curly from perms. However, I think I may try the straight hair thing now. I bought myself lots of brushes today and my own flat iron. I’m excited to see what the teachers and kids say about my hair tomorrow.

Hope everyone out there is doing just fine and enjoying your weekend. I can’t believe it’s October. It’ll be Christmas soon!!

My class usually has pretty good mornings. We do reading in the morning. After reading, we have lunch, recess, and then specials. After all of that, the kids are done. They are ready to go home. This means that writing class and especially math are very difficult. The kids have difficulty focusing, concentrating, and generally just following the rules in the afternoon.

I spend my entire weekend planning lessons and centers. It’s a lot easier to plan lessons on paper than to carry them out in class. I have a select few students who cause disruptions for the whole class therefore not allowing me to teach how I want to and how I feel I should. I feel so bad for the kids who have to constantly listen to me call others down.

I’ve gotten tougher, but it’s still hard. I’ve been advised to be “mean” and “put on my big boss panties” but it’s easier said than done when that is not really my personality. However, I am learning I think. It comes to a point where enough is enough though.

I’ve had one student in SOS (a sort of in-school detention) three or four times. He was actually suspended for half a day too. I have one girl who cries at the drop of a hat about everything. One girl is totally spaced out most of the time. The kids can’t sit still. They constantly pick at themselves and bleed. One student of mine got sent back to kindergarten (he only completed to months of kindergarten anyway), and I have already gotten a new student. I may be getting another student next week who was originally supposed to be in my room at the beginning of the year but then went to another school. He’s a handful and has a disability, and he may stress me more than I already am stressed.

I’m just so tired. I need a vacation. Thank God I finally got paid the other day. That made it a bit better. I know things will get better. I know it takes time, but I am totally exhausted. :shame:

I don’t even really know where to start! I have 21 students enrolled in my class. Two were new students that showed up the first day. School supplies were everywhere. Transportation was crazy. I’d had bus duty. I’ve only had half of my planning time two of the three days. I only eat yogurt for lunch (the first day I didn’t even eat anything for lunch). Some kids I thought would be behavior problems aren’t, and kids I thought would be fine have behavior issues. My special education student is hardly ever in my room. Doing arts and crafts with first graders is insane. My kids are basically still kindergartners right now. Many don’t know all of their letters, sounds, numbers, etc. It’s going to be a challenging year (especially having to do my internship over again), but I am excited about it all and I know it will get better as each day goes by. I feel a lot more organized this time around. I have more support. I actually spend my lunch time with other teachers and enjoy myself. It could definitely be a lot worse overall.

I woke up this morning with a sore ear and sore throat. I am hope I am not getting sick already. I’ve gotten home around 5:00 each day so far. Colin actually came after school on Wednesday to help me sort through supplies and everything. :love:

It’s going to be tough keeping up with everything though. I am going to be so busy. I have new teacher meetings every month at the board office. I have special meetings with the director of elementary education every month. I have to spend so many in class and out of class hours with my resource teacher. I have to manage the school website as well as my own. I have to lead the technology committee, and I am a member of another committee as well. Oh yeah, and I have to teach first graders! It’s going to be crazy I tell you!

I may start writing some password protected posts. I don’t want to share any personal information about my students, but I probably would like to just comment on a general issue or something that’s happened. In that case, I will probably password protect certain entries just to be on the safe side. I’m still working on my classroom website, and when it’s more finished I’ll post a link to it here.

I’m tired. I have a lot to do this weekend though. Not having to wake up at 5:45 or 6:00 this morning was nice though. :content:

At the beginning of the summer, I honestly had plans to work a lot more on Rainbow Stuff. I was working on a new layout and came up with a cool logo. I had planned to catch up on some of my favorite blogs that I have fallen behind in reading. I was also going to try to blog more often. What happened? Well, life happened I guess. When it became official that I would be teaching first grade this upcoming school year, I spent like two straight weeks at the school every day, all day working on my classroom. When not at school, I’m usually shopping for things for my classroom or working on stuff for school. If I’m not doing anything school related, I’m either playing Wii (especially Mario Kart. I so need to unlock Dry Browser!), doing Quilting Bee things, or… just doing nothing and trying to chill! School starts in a little over two weeks, and I feel like I haven’t even had a break. People who think teachers have it easy by having the summers off are sadly mistaken.

I do want to include a little eye candy for everyone out there who is kind enough to stumble upon my website and read this commemorative 200th blog post. The below picture is the picture of the calendar image I created for our school calendar page in the district calendar. It’s pretty much the same idea as the one I did last year. Instead of a corkboard feel I went with a chalkboard feel. It’s pretty good I think. (Apparently I don’t have a copy of the final calendar image on my computer at home. I’ll have to get it from school on Monday.)

The second first picture is of my classroom door at school without the fabulous curtains I made with my mom’s help. I did post some pictures on Flickr of my classroom. A LOT has been done in my classroom since I took those pictures, so on Monday I plan to take some new ones. And the third second picture is of Pouncy just because. She had her 18th birthday at the beginning of July (the 5th).

So, as I have mentioned twice now, I will be going to the school on Monday. Why? I have an interview at 10:30 on Monday. Not an interview for me though. I will actually get to be on the other side of the interviewing table for a change. Our first grade special education teacher got a job closer to where she lives (gas prices are a killer), so we need a new special ed. teacher. Since I am going to be working with this person, I was invited to come and take part in the interview. I think only one person is being interviewed, so it must be someone good or someone that someone else knows or something. I’m not sure. Anyway, I’m sort of excited that I get to take part in interviewing someone else for a change.

Let’s see, what else is going on? Well, tonight my dad is racing. It’ll be his second time racing this season and my first time getting to see him this season. Hopefully I can get those pictures I mentioned on Monday and post again then. I’m not making any promises, but I will certainly try. I hope everyone has a great rest of their weekend!

Me and my mom have been working in my classroom this week. There is so much junk in that room. Dust is only the beginning of it. There are books in there from the 60′s. Come on people, if you want to get kids reading, showing them an old black and white picture book with blurry pictures from the 60′s is not the way to go about it. There are also about four old sets of reading series materials: the student books, teachers’ manual, practice books, etc. If the teacher isn’t using them anymore, why keep them?? I stacked them up in the hallway for the janitor to do something with. Some of the books are ones I had when I was in first grade myself. They’re like over 20 years old people!!

I have a big pile of stuff to get rid of: old rugs, a dollhouse, some blocks from the 60′s – 70′s, old Legos, tons of very outdated teacher resource books, and the list goes on. It’s just overwhelming how much junk is in that room. It’s also amazing how a little bit of colorful border and bulletin board paper can really liven up a room.

I am grateful that there is also a lot of good stuff in the room. When I taught in Lexington three years ago, I walked into a completely empty room. I had no materials at all really except for the reading series and some Social Studies books. I am lucky that I am going to be teaching in an awesome school, with awesome teachers, and “stuff.” ‘Tis better to have junk than nothing at all? Then again, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure? Whatever the case may be, my room is going to be the rockin’-est room in the school.

(I will have to edit this post later (hopefully) and post pictures of the progress!)

I finally did some investigating last night. I found my tracking number on QVC.com and found out my package has been sitting at the UPS facility here in my town since June 11th. It said that “the customer called and said they would pick it up at their local UPS facility. UPS will hold this item for 5 days.” What??? I was surprised by that. I have called UPS and went to pick things up before if I missed a delivery. They always leave a slip on your door that says they tried to deliver your package and they will try again tomorrow or you can call and pick it up yourself. I never received a slip this time though, and I most certainly did not call them.

Last night all I could get was automated service, so I had to wait until this morning to call and speak to a human. I told them the situation and the guy said my package was there. I went to pick it up, and the lady was a little confused by the situation (after I explained) and said she didn’t know what had happened but that someone must have took my slip and called for me. I’ve lived in my apartment for over two years and I’ve never had anything stolen or any problems with mail or anything. You have to have an ID to pick up packages, so luckily no one actually came and got my package.

Anyway, I now have my makeup and I am happy. <3

I also got my 40 tubes of Winsor and Newton watercolor paint I won from Ebay. <3

And… it’s my anniversary. <3 Colin and I are heading down to the lake area shortly. We’re going to spend the night there, have a romantic dinner, etc.

P.S. I had my “official” interview yesterday. It went super well. I got the thumbs up. They aren’t interviewing anyone else for first grade, so I pretty much have the job. I should get the “official” answer by Friday though.

A lot of talk has been going around about possible teaching positions for next year. I’ve heard a kindergarten job might open, a K/1 job might open, a first grade job might open, etc. So far, the principal hasn’t said anything to me about any of these jobs. I suspect it’s because she doesn’t know people are retiring or trying to transfer as is the case with some of the supposed jobs. I love my job in the computer lab, as many of you know, but I am not paid as a certified teacher. Having a two year break from a regular classroom has been wonderful, but I think I am ready to have my own class again. (The pay increase would also be nice.) I’m just waiting to see what will happen. I guess if it’s meant for me to have my own classroom again, something will open up at my school. Time will tell.

Speaking of school, I finally got a chance to try out podcasting with some third graders! It was kind of a rushed thing. It was my first time trying podcasting, so I had to make a few mistakes in order to learn! The podcast has some flaws (which of course is going to happen when working with kids!) but for a first time, I think it turned out pretty well! It’s cute too. You can download the podcast here to listen to it if you’d like.

Last but not least, Sarah (of Cherry-Pip.net) has created a fanlisting for me! Can you believe it?! I know, I was surprised myself! It was a pleasant surprise though. Go visit the fanlisting and check out the colorful layout and rainbowy buttons. And, if you are a fan of me, join the fanlisting! Everyone who joins gets free rainbows! Thanks again to Sarah for being so awesome enough to create a fanlisting for little ol’ me. Maybe this will motivate me to blog more often.

The Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS) is designed to improve teaching and student learning in Kentucky. CATS includes the Kentucky Core Content Test, writing portfolios and prompts, alternate assessments for students with severe to profound disabilities…

Last year, I didn’t have to test any students. Instead, I had to cover a first grade teacher’s class while she tested someone. I found out last week that this year I will be testing a fifth grade special education student. I have to provide full accommodations for this student. I have to read everything to her and I have to scribe all of her answers. Fun times for me. The multiple choice questions will be no big deal. The open response questions might not even be so bad. I’m most concerned about the on demand portion. During the on demand portion of the test, students have to go through the entire writing process to answer a prompt. They have two hours to do it (and up to four if they need more time). Luckily, I get to do the testing in the computer lab.

I found out later in the week that I would also be having another fifth grader in the lab with me. This one needs no accommodations. It’s a girl who has been out of school and has been on homebound due to medical reasons. I’m not sure exactly what is wrong with her, but one teacher basically said she’s constantly in pain and could die any time. I think (or at least, I hope) that she was exaggerating. She’s going to be testing in the lab because she may need to get up and move around a lot, and her former homeroom teacher didn’t want her distracting any of the other students in that class. The girl was at the awards ceremony on Friday though, and she looked okay.

Testing lasts two weeks. Since testing will last from 8:15 until 11:00 every day, that means my regular lab classes will not meet at the regularly scheduled time. Instead of having classes for an hour they will only last thirty minutes. Short is good, but because of the fact we have to cram in all the classes during the week, my breaks will be fewer and shorter. It will be a busy two weeks for sure!

I’m sort of excited that I get to help with testing because it’ll be interesting to see how many of the answers I know.