One week down...

Oh my...after my first week of teaching I feel like I could sleep for days. It has certainly been an interesting week to say the least, and many things that I would have not expected..but I guess thats teaching for ya!

Let's start with Meet the Teacher, this was on Monday afternoon of this week. At the time I had 31 kids on my list, and 17 of them showed up. (For our school that seems to be a pretty good turn out). I was excited and ready to start my first day at this point....that was until the first day actually came.
Tuesday morning, I was cutting velcro for my behavior chart and cut my hand open just 10 minutes before the kids were to be coming into my room. Not my ideal start to the morning. I had 24 of my students show up on the first day...they are such sweet and adorable second graders, ready to learn! Except for one....

Let me remind you, this is my first year teaching and I am still getting a grip on everything. So to make a long story short, my little unruly friend decided to turn desks over and start kicking them. I had to have multiple people come into my room to talk to him just so I could teach the rest of my class. By day two, he was trying to flip the trash cans over and sitting on the floor refusing to do anything and listen to anyone. So, by the end of day 2 he was moved out of my classroom. My principal and CPT's both told me that if they had known he was on my class list they would have never left him in my class. I just really felt like I was in over my head with him, especially with my first year teaching. Since he left my class he's been sent to the office every day for being violent and disruptive. We shall see what happens to him the rest of the year....
Overall, I had a really great first week. I have a very chatty class so I am working on getting the talking and disruptions under control but I feel like that may come in time.
Any suggestions from other great teachers out there? What do you guys use to quiet your class and for disruptive behaviors??

Just a glimpse into my first week, I'm sure there will be more drama to come... :)

MY very own 2nd grade classroom! :)

I am so excited to share with my blog teacher friends my completed classroom! In my last post I was super overwhelmed and just starting my crazy journey of transforming my room..and now I get to share it with you all!

It took me 5 days, 6 hours each day to finally finish it all...but once it was complete I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. Our principal choses a school wide theme every year, Ours this year is "Oh the places you'll go" by Dr. Suess...and our school motto is a line from the book, "You're off to great places". SO I am warning you now, I went a little crazy with quotes from the book all over my room. But I figured the kids would love it!

Here is my room... :)

This is the front of my room...not everything was finished at this point but it's the best shot of the front I have.

My student work will go here! 

Team Work is for team points....My classroom helpers and then the "Today is your day" is my behavior management system. (Similar to the clip charts I've seen all over blogs, but I changed it a little)

The back of my room,  my reading wall and my ADORABLE banner from Parkers Prints. Go check her out! :)

My desk and bulletin boards

This is my finished room with a few labeled book bins. All of those other books were given to me by the previous teacher, I will one day have all of them in bins as well!

Math, Writing and Homeworkopoly!

Goodies on my desk...I painted my pencil jar at As you Wish and the adorable block sign is from one of my best friends!

Student supplies and easel..I'm still searching for the perfect place for my easel.

Larger shot of my room.

My DIBELS chart...very "Oh the places you go" :)

Calendar area



Well...thats all for now. I am SO excited to have my room finished and I cant wait to add the little extras I have before my kiddos come in just 11 days! :)

Setting up shop

Oooh my, today was my first day cleaning out and setting up my classroom. I. AM. EXHAUSTED.
I first saw my room about a month ago, and the teacher that was moving out had yet to move his stuff out...so I was thinking I would be walking into a much cleaner room today. Much to my surprise, I ended up spending 2 hours boxing up 6 boxes of his stuff that he hadn't moved out of my room. SO annoying.

The next 2 hours were spent cleaning and sorting through all of the 2nd grade supplies that the former teacher had left for me. I had no idea what a task that would be, I found so many duplicates of things that I now have no idea what to do with! I thought I might be able to clean and set up my room in about 2-3 days, looks like its going to be atleast the rest of this week if not longer! :(

Here are a few pictures of what I'm having to work with...

He left me most of that stuff to take down for him. And all of the stuff you see on the floor is what I am now having to sort through from the former teacher! 

Such a mess! You can see the huge task I have in front of me, these pictures are when I first saw it a month ago!

I won a Giveaway!

I just started blogging a week ago and I've already won my first giveaway! Thanks to the first winner that didn't claim their wonderful Camping packet I now get to use it for my 2nd graders next school year!!

Go vist the Kinderglynn Blog! for some other great classroom and teaching ideas from a creative teacher! And don't lose hope on winning one of those giveaways out there :)

My Dream Job!

I am thrilled to say that I am the new 2nd grade teacher at Westwood Primary School! I just received the phone call this morning and I am going in tomorrow to get all of my paperwork signed and figured out.
I cannot believe that I can actually call myself a TEACHER now! Man, have I waited a long time to be able to say that.

Once I get things squared away with the job I will be posting pictures of my room before and after, and getting it all ready for the kiddos in August! I am so excited I could just scream it from the rooftops, and I can't wait to start really teacher blogging with the rest of those amazing teachers out there :)

Blog world here I come!

I've been looking through hundreds of teacher blogs since I graduated from college 3 weeks ago, and I have been so inspired to start my own! This is my first blog of many more to come...I hope to be as inspiring as so many other teachers out there have been to me!
I am waiting (on pins and needles) to hear back from 5 job interviews so far. In my perfect world, I would love to end up teaching 2nd grade at the school I student taught at. Hopefully I will hear the good news in the next couple of weeks, I will be sure to keep you updated!

I of course have already purchased and made so many things for my new classroom, it has almost become an addiction and I don't even have a classroom or official teaching position yet, was anyone else like that before their first year of teaching?

Here's to the wonderful world of teacher blogging! :)