Hi All,
So my classroom LOOKS all ready for the students, and that is certainly half the battle! I have been planning activities and lessons for the first few days as a time to build our classroom community, with the hard hitting curriculum starting after Labor Day. Today was the first day - a welcome back to school with the whole district (my Super and Asst Super are Amazing, relaxed with a great sense of humor.) I am more excited than ever to work in this fantastic place! Humanities work completed the day, and I am feeling fairly prepared for the students to arrive Wednesday. Tomorrow is the welcome day for staff at my school, and I know it will continue the greatness. I have phenomenal teachers to work with, and two other newbies in my school to commiserate with about new teacher trials and woes.
Fun things in my room, I can't wait to share with the students - Hogwarts Houses based on personality inventory that the students will be "sorted" into to work towards rewards - Reading and Writing time daily - Book and Author Share Fridays.
I have a few more things to do - including the set up of a webpage to keep parents informed of the goings on in the room - a birthday chart - locker tags - and the conversations with my 5th and 6th grade teams tomorrow.
Happy learning folks! Keep reading and writing :)
Ms. Kenney
Monday, August 26, 2013
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Fundraising and planning
Hello again!
The remainder of the week in my classroom went fairly well. I feel that the room is nearly looking ready for students, as you can see in the picture below. This week's time will be spent on planning the activities and lessons the students will be undertaking as school begins in a week and a half! (Yikes, so soon!!) I'm not feeling a hundred percent ready yet, but there is still time and I keep being told by the lovely ladies I work with that they are no where near ready either. :) The commiserating helps my stress level!
As I prepare, I was lucky enough to make it to Ruth's Reusables opening day today! That place is amazing, and I can not be more thankful to have places and people who support teachers, particularly as my school district is not wealthy in the least. I got some great needs (paper, folders, sheet protectors and a new teacher chair, a desperate need as mine broke on Friday).
One thing that my classroom, and school in general, is technology. As you might have noticed, I have blackboards in my room. There are no Smart Boards, no class sets of ipads, no laptop cart. There is one computer lab for school-wide use, and I have 4 ipads (I think, I have yet to see them), for my room to use. So I have joined Adopt-a-Classroom.org, in the hopes that people (maybe you?) would be willing to help fund some technology for my classroom. If you are interested in adopting my room and give a little or a moderate amount (I hardly expect a lot!), then please travel over here: http://www.adoptaclassroom.org/poom/index.aspx?teacherid=186922
You will have to register, but you will get regular updates on anything purchased for my students. Every penny goes directly to them!
Thank you if you do donate, and your support either way, it means so much to me.
Love and learning -
Ms. Kenney
The remainder of the week in my classroom went fairly well. I feel that the room is nearly looking ready for students, as you can see in the picture below. This week's time will be spent on planning the activities and lessons the students will be undertaking as school begins in a week and a half! (Yikes, so soon!!) I'm not feeling a hundred percent ready yet, but there is still time and I keep being told by the lovely ladies I work with that they are no where near ready either. :) The commiserating helps my stress level!
As I prepare, I was lucky enough to make it to Ruth's Reusables opening day today! That place is amazing, and I can not be more thankful to have places and people who support teachers, particularly as my school district is not wealthy in the least. I got some great needs (paper, folders, sheet protectors and a new teacher chair, a desperate need as mine broke on Friday).
One thing that my classroom, and school in general, is technology. As you might have noticed, I have blackboards in my room. There are no Smart Boards, no class sets of ipads, no laptop cart. There is one computer lab for school-wide use, and I have 4 ipads (I think, I have yet to see them), for my room to use. So I have joined Adopt-a-Classroom.org, in the hopes that people (maybe you?) would be willing to help fund some technology for my classroom. If you are interested in adopting my room and give a little or a moderate amount (I hardly expect a lot!), then please travel over here: http://www.adoptaclassroom.org/poom/index.aspx?teacherid=186922
You will have to register, but you will get regular updates on anything purchased for my students. Every penny goes directly to them!
Thank you if you do donate, and your support either way, it means so much to me.
Love and learning -
Ms. Kenney
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Hi all,
So two days in my classroom and I equally have a lot done, and SO much left to do! I have my Twitter Board for student use (to-be laminated Sentence strips for each student to write on with dry-erase markers) ready to go up on the wall tomorrow. Most everything is put away and tidy, except all the paper, glue and markers I have been using to decorate the bulletin boards. I put up some artwork and if I do say so myself, it looks pretty cute so far.
Although there is a lot decorated, I had a bit of a panic moment (ok, longer than a moment) today realizing that I have no print outs ready as of yet. I don't get my official school laptop until next Wednesday, and as such have no access to the printer at school, which would make life a tad easier, but adapt and overcome, right?
As the majority of decorating is done or nearly so, tomorrow and the rest of the week will be spent planning lessons and creating the things needed for the activities I have planned. Eeek! I did get out my summer letters to students with their back-to-school supply checklists today, so its pretty official that I will be their teacher :)
Best accomplishment of the day was definitely the Chalkboard Boggle game for students to challenge themselves when they have completed a task. Teehee.
Love and Learning,
Ms. Kenney
So two days in my classroom and I equally have a lot done, and SO much left to do! I have my Twitter Board for student use (to-be laminated Sentence strips for each student to write on with dry-erase markers) ready to go up on the wall tomorrow. Most everything is put away and tidy, except all the paper, glue and markers I have been using to decorate the bulletin boards. I put up some artwork and if I do say so myself, it looks pretty cute so far.
Although there is a lot decorated, I had a bit of a panic moment (ok, longer than a moment) today realizing that I have no print outs ready as of yet. I don't get my official school laptop until next Wednesday, and as such have no access to the printer at school, which would make life a tad easier, but adapt and overcome, right?
As the majority of decorating is done or nearly so, tomorrow and the rest of the week will be spent planning lessons and creating the things needed for the activities I have planned. Eeek! I did get out my summer letters to students with their back-to-school supply checklists today, so its pretty official that I will be their teacher :)
Best accomplishment of the day was definitely the Chalkboard Boggle game for students to challenge themselves when they have completed a task. Teehee.
Love and Learning,
Ms. Kenney
Sunday, August 11, 2013
New Teacher, New Blog
Okay all you friends, family, acquaintances Teacher Friends, and general people checking out this blog. I am a new teacher in the lakes region of Maine, teaching 5th and 6th grade Humanities and this is my attempt at keeping people up to date on the goings on of my teaching, fun stories from the classroom and connecting with professionals.
Tomorrow I start in my classroom, getting things ready for the students to arrive on the 28th. I am super excited to get in the room and get things set up. I have, so far, sketched out my curriculum for the year, and planned the first couple days for community building/expectations/routines. I just signed up for an awesome (I Hope) classroom Library app, called Classroom Organization by Booksource, with which I can scan all the ISBN barcodes with my phone. The books are automatically entered into an online database in my account of my library. Students can access the app and check out/return books and add reviews when they have done so. Hoping to utilize the entirety of the program, but it might just be my database for book ordering also.
Oh, and because being a brand new teacher, with two grade levels of curriculum to plan and assess, I volunteered to take on an after school club starting the end of September, which will be an Arts and Craft club meeting once a week. Excited to share my love for all things crafty (with some extra ideas modified/stolen from Pinterest.
For those on twitter, follow me @22kellyk for day-to-day (or at least more nearly so) updates.
Till next time, stay Dorky -Ms. Kenney
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