Teacher Talk Tuesday

Words of Wisdom for First Year Teachers:

• Set your expectations from the get go. Life will be sooo much easier and you won't waste time later correcting behaviors that you let slide during the beginning of the school year.
• Share and Take! My first year of teaching, I had an AH-MAZING group of ladies to work with. We shared ideas and took each other's ideas and made them our own. It was wonderful! Then...I got married...and moved...to a tiny school where there were only two 2nd grade teachers. While my colleague was the sweetest little lady alive, she was also set in her ways, and close to retirement. Let's just say, I didn't have anyone to "share" with!! Well...good news!! I now have a FABULOUS partner in crime to plan with and share ideas with and life is good again!! Don't be afraidto share ideas or borrow those of others!!!
• Communicate!!!! Have some sort of daily communication with parents. I use a take home notebook where I stamp the conduct daily, write encouraging notes, and let parents know of any concerns I am having with their child. Keep records of all communication...it might come in handy later.
• Read Aloud to Your Kiddos. It doesn't have to be for AR or even to have a purpose. Just read. You will be exposing your students to so many new words, experiences, and feelings just by opening a book.
• Love! Find one thing to LOVE about each and every one of your students. On those days that they are driving you CrAzY, stop and think about what you love about that child and smile!

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Meet the Teacher

Meet the Teacher

Tell us a little something about you:

I have been married to my amazing husband for just over a year. We have two “kids”…our black labs, Chance and Lexi.

How long have you been teaching:

This is my 3^rd year teaching…but my first year teaching First Grade. I LOVE 1^st grade so far and am blessed so have such a wonderful class!!

You might not know........

That I am a baseball wife. My husband is the head coach at the high school in the county and baseball consumes our lives in the spring!

What are you looking most forward to this school year?

I am most looking forward to the new adventures in teaching 1^st grade. My mom also teaches first, so I am looking forward to sharing ideas with her!

What do you need to improve?

Differentiated Instruction. I hope to implement more centers that reach the needs of the diverse learners in my class.

What teaching supplies can you *not* live without?

Chart Tablets: I love using tablets to make charts and lists for my firsties!

Elmo: I use my Elmo ALL the time! It’s great for doing worksheets with the kids.

Coke Zero: YUM! A little burst of energy to get me through the day J

Now it's your turn! Hope on over to Blog Hoppin' to link up and tell

Reading Street

I have already been in school (with my sweet firsties) for TWO WEEKS!! Time sure does fly!
The first two weeks were spent getting to know each other, reviewing kindergarten skills, and baseline testing for reading and math. Whew...what a time!! Luckily, I have an AMAZING group of kiddos and they did a fabulous job keeping up with the steady flow of work.

This week we will start the first story in the Reading Street Series. While it takes a lot of time and energy to plan, I am SOOO ready to be on a "normal" schedule and get into the swing of things. We are starting fluency work this week also, so we can make sure all our firsties reach their benchmark in the fall and spring. Our school uses the Aimsweb Assessment along with Discovery Education for the lower grades. Each week, our kiddos will read two announced passages and one surprise passage on Friday. In order to easily record the data each week, I have created the following document for Unit 1. I hope other Reading Street Teachers can use it too! Click HERE to check it out!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend and taking time to enjoy their families :)

Happy Saturday!!!