I Survived!

Week 1 is over! :) My two classes are great, each in their own way. My homeroom is well-behaved and eager to learn.. YAY! My 2nd class is.. well.. they need "reminders" about why they're at school, but we'll get there. They realized this week that I meant it when I said science could be boring (paper/pencil only) or fun (hands-on investigations + some paper/pencil). We tried fun Wednesday. Needless to say, we did boring Thursday. Then I put myself on a soapbox and talked for a good 15 minutes about what was expected of them. We tried fun again Friday and it went MUCH better.

Accomplished this week:
Math: geoboard rules, lines and angles learned, math journal entries (angles and lines), problem solving steps, multiplication facts 2s and 5s, review of place value to the thousands

Science: journals set up, safety contract signed by parents and students, guidelines pasted, two investigations on the physical properties of matter

Social Studies: read our first lesson "People Come to the Americas"

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As we get faster and don't have to spend such a long time on rules/procedures/reminders, I'm hoping to get more social studies in. I'm a bit behind already in everything, but I'll catch up soon enough. Now I need to go find petri dishes and BBs. Renewed inspiration from Tales of Frogs & Cupcakes.

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Tonight: Out for drinks and dinner (my friend is oddly craving steak) and a movie (Columbiana).

I love the weekends.

From Teaching 4th

Library Labels

I've been M.I.A. for a while.  Busy doing nothing.  I have this tiny plaque on my desk at school that says "I have not yet begun to procrastinate" -- it fits me to the T.  I've gone to my classroom for for the past couple of days and have managed to make it look worse, not better.  Eh.  I have a love/hate relationship with the beginning of the school year and setting up my classroom.

I did finally manage to decide on a design for my library book labels.  I don't have tons of books, and I manage to lose books every year, something I have decided to just accept.  I teach math, science, and social studies, but still want my kiddos to have a selection of books to read in my room.  Feel free to use these labels if you find them useful.

Library Book Labels

On another note:

I went to two different WalMarts today looking for composition notebooks (I have students who don't come in with supplies every year, so I always have a few on the side) and both were sold-out :(

And after dealing with the mess disaster catastrophe that was WalMart's back-to-school section, I realized I should've just gone to Target.

I walked in to Target and it was like the Heavens opened up.  It was clean, quiet, peaceful.. everything WalMart wasn't.  And alas - I found my composition notebooks... thank goodness :)

From Teaching 4th