Welcome back to my blog! It has been far too long and we have been very busy. As the title implies, we are LOVING summer. But that doesn't mean we aren't already thinking about and preparing for the upcoming school year! Before I dive into my most recent prep work, I'll give you a little update on life over the past few months.
In May we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl, Lucy.
photo: http://www.brittanytodd.com/
Charlotte is LOVING being a big sister. These girls keep me (and my husband) very busy and very happy! Most of our days this summer consist of food, adventures, relaxation, and coffee (lots and lots of coffee!) Here is my view on most days:
Summer is going by very fast and it feels like just yesterday we were packing up our classrooms and wishing each other a good summer. The upcoming school year will bring many changes, including a completely renovated classroom. I am SO excited to see how the room looks when they are done. Don't worry, I took LOTS of pictures and plan to share some before and after pictures once the renovation is complete. Although this is very exciting, it has been hard for me to not have a classroom to go work on/organize throughout the summer. Luckily, the girls keep me busy enough and I am blessed to have the resources I need to work from home during nap time and after the girls' bedtime.
Admittedly, I did go several weeks without even thinking about school and just enjoying time with my family. This week the fair is in our town, and this is always a nice reminder that summer break is halfway over!
Here is a picture of Charlotte loving on the animals at the fair. :)
Around this time each year, I get into "school mode" and here are some of the things that I enjoy doing as the upcoming school year approaches:
1. Spending WAY TOO MUCH TIME on Pinterest, educational blogs, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites reading about all of the exciting things people are doing in the education world. Izzy (my dog) likes to look with me. ;)
2. Stocking up on teacher supplies. Another good indication that August is approaching was when I went to the store and saw that school supplies are OUT! This is like Christmas morning for most of the teachers I know. Things I usually stock up on around this time include:
- pens
- pencils
- rewards (stickers, achievement certificates, etc.)
- printer ink ($YIKES$)
- notebooks
- cardstock
And...so much more! But I better stop there (since my husband reads my blog posts) ;)
This year with the renovations, I decided to switch the theme of my classroom. The past few years I have used an owl theme. This year, I did some shopping on Amazon and came across fun classroom decor that is black with bright colors. Here are some of the things I ordered:
I do a lot of my shopping on Amazon these days and it is so exciting when I see "Preparing for Shipment!" Using a new theme in the classroom means a new calendar, welcome banner, signs, and decorations. This also means a lot of laminating! Since I won't be spending much time at school during summer break, I decided to buy my own personal laminator to use at home. This is one of the best (small) investments I've made in my teaching career! It is so nice to be able to do my laminating leisurely at home.
Another project I have been able to work on in preparation for the upcoming school year is updating/creating all of those wonderful beginning of the year documents.
I hope to do another post all about "meet the teacher night" but here is a list of some of the documents I like to prepare prior to the beginning of the year:
- Meet Your Teacher (a letter from me introducing myself to my new students and their families)
- Student Information Sheet
- Student Interest Survey (I have parents fill one out at Meet the Teacher Night but I also have a separate one that students fill out in the first few days of school.)
- First Grade Expectations
- Rubrics for the Standards Based Report Cards (we started this last year and I am happy to share a post later regarding this topic!)
- A checklist for Meet the Teacher Night
I often hear the comment "it must be so nice to have your summers off." Yes, it is SO nice to spend more time with my family. But every educator I know works throughout the summer. Whether it be preparing/organizing their classroom, researching educational topics, preparing resources, or just pinning ideas for the upcoming school year. We do it because we enjoy it. We do it because we care about the success of our students. I saw this post on Facebook recently:
It is a great quote! We all deserve to do what we love. I really do feel this way MOST weeks. But, let's be honest, I'm human and sometimes it's just hard to get out of bed despite what day it is!
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and I look forward to starting up again and sharing my thoughts and insights regarding education with you. Please comment and let me know if there are any topics you'd like to read or learn more about!
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