Track Out

Being a year round school allows me to take some great breaks. :-) 

My break started on Tuesday October 22nd. (Monday was a work day) I got a lot accomplished that first week. I even went BACK into school that first week to get some things done in my classroom! Work nerd... party of one? 

Anyways this past week I got to go spend time with friends and family! I went trick-or-treating! I carved a pumpkin! I even got to spend a few hours in my student teaching school! I crashed the fourth grade lunch and got to see all my children from last year! Then I went and spent time with my mentor, visited the rest of the 3rd grade team, and a fifth grade teacher. I had a blast! I've missed that place and those people! 

The biggest thing about going home is that I didn't take ANY work with me. It was very odd for the first few days. But I got to actually relax and give myself some space from constantly thinking about work. This did wonders for my sanity!

Now that I'm back home, and have spent over half my pay check to pay all my bills.... (hate that part) I am ready to finalize my lesson plans, tie up some loose ends, and grade my life away again! REEEE-freshed! 

Check out this pictures from my break! I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween! 

My wonderful city!
It was exciting to see the familiar skyline again! 

My cousin Mason's pumpkin

My cousin Kendall's pumpkin

My pumpkin!

All three pumpkins proudly on display!

I was Beetle Juice for Halloween....
Like my makeup?? 

Jack the dog became a
JACK-O-Lantern!

Quarter 1 Review

Well folks, I did it! I made it through my first quarter as a fifth grade teacher. :-]
I still love it! Things are SLOWLY coming together. The moment I feel I have it together, something new gets added to the mix. However, that is what I can expect for the rest of my career. :-] It is the nature of teaching.

Here are the highlights from the rest of quarter 1!

Outdoor Movie Night
We had a movie night this quarter. They were able to show "The Lorax." This was incredibly coincidental because I had used the book and clips from the movie for several weeks in ELA lessons! I had fun hanging out with some of my colleagues and seeing all this kids!

Daily 3
I did finally get Daily 3 up and running. However, it never felt like it rain smoothly. I am making one more change. See the next post for more details on that!

First Observation
I had my first observation of teaching this quarter! My principal came in and observed a math lesson. (This is pre-planned out, for the record) I did VERY well! It was exciting to hear my principals feedback and positive commentary on how I run my classroom. YAY!

Testing
That's almost a dirty word now days in education... to parents, students, and teachers alike! Anyways, we have some testing we do each quarter that are like mini EOG's (end-of-grade tests given by the state). It is supposed to help monitor the progress of students. Day 1. 10 Minutes into the "testing session." I had a student get sick. As in they threw up in the room. This prompted the whole "if you're going to be sick, just run!" discussion. I told students to just get up and run. I give them permission to ignore any teacher until they are able to talk without puking. However, I am very proud of myself in the way I handled it! I didn't get all grossed out, which means my students didn't get all grossed out! They we able to finish their test with minimal time lost after the incident!

Report Cards
Technology is both a wonderful, and terrible thing. In this case, it was terrible! Our report cards are done through our online gradebooks. There were so many glitches that they ended up getting delayed 2 weeks so that everything could be finalized and printed.

First Quarter Celebration!
I had my room mom (Thank goodness for my room mom!) organize some snacks and parent volunteers. In the middle of a testing week we got to take a time out and celebrate finishing first quarter. It was fun, and I will more than likely continue to do that each quarter. I even wore a crown!.... I told my kids that I was the queen all quarter. So it was only fitting that I wore my crown!

--------- There was a FIRE DRILL towards the end of the celebration. I had to walk all my kids and parents out to our waiting area. I did all this... still wearing my crown. Oops! My room mom actually has a picture of this and I have a feeling it might end up in the year book!

My crown! 

Anyways, first quarter ended and all has been running relatively smoothly!