Five For Friday: Week Before School starts

So this week has been crazy busy, but also crazy exciting. Here it goes.

1. I started out the week with training on PBIS. That is positive behavior support. The school I am at is on top of it, as they seem to be on top of everything. I'm lucky to be going into a school that has such a great community and such a rich school culture.

2. I then had the official school district training. I am officially a part of the school district, yay me.

3. I got together my classroom. It still needs a lot of work, but that will come as I am able to purchase some furniture pieces that are missing and add more stuff to make it look more inviting. The room will fill up, even if it does look a little empty now. 

4. I experience my first 12 hour day as teacher. I had an 8 AM training and an open house that lasted until 8 PM. It was a very long day. I got to meet a lot of the staff members at the school and got a lot of work done. I also enjoyed meeting a few of the students that I am going to be working with this year. Here is a picture of me at the end of it. I was so tired, meeting a ton of new people can be exhausting.

5. I went to a local gaming/comic book shop, Olympic Cards and Comics, and found out that the added a second floor gaming area to their shop. I'm not that into gaming or comic books, but by adding that space that makes them the largest gaming shop in America. It's kind of cool to see a local business become so successful. I was there picking up Magic cards to use as an incentives game with my EBD students. 

Back to School Memories

Linky with Always a Teacher, Forever a Mom on her Sunday Night Whispers Linky. I was a quiet kid, and I always remember that I was never comfortable in school until at least a month into it. Here are three of my memories.

Buy 2 Get 1 Sale

For the month of September I am having a Buy 2 Get 1 sale.

Happy shopping.

High-Low Linkie 8/23

Time for a weekly linkie with A First for Everything. Here it goes, here is my high and low for the week.

I saw my new classroom and got introduced to some of the amazing staff members and the principal at the school I will be working at. Also, I had a friend up to visit for the week, so get to share the experience with him. I am super excited to be starting at a new school and in a new community that I don't know as well as the ones I have working in previously. It's a new challenge and a fresh start.

I found out how extremely busy the next week is going to be with trainings, meetings, and getting my classroom setup for the next school year. Goodbye summer, you were wonderful.

My New Classroom before pictures

I went to see my classroom yesterday. The room is large. I definitely have a lot of work to do to set it up, but I love that it is a blank canvas at this point. 

The room is a portable, so I'm going to need to be really creative in my storage solutions.

Eventually I am also going to need to invest in some small table and shelves. That can wait until I have a few paychecks under my best though.

I'm excited to have my own space. Last year I was a long term substitute. I walked into a room that was cluttered and full of resources that were not needed. This year is a chance to pick and choose what goes into my classroom.

My goal is for everything in the room to have a purpose. Down to every piece of paper in the room being there for a reason.

Girl Scouts Elsa Badge

This week the girls in my troop worked on the Elsa badge for girl scouts. It was a great meeting. The girls were all really engaged in the activities and the parents are great.

The girls made frozen snowflakes by folding paper and cutting shapes into them to create unique snowflakes.

They then painted them with a mixture of dyed shaving cream and glitter which my co-leader provided.

The girls loved doing something crafty and it gave the girls a chance to get to know us better as leaders.

My contribution to the meeting was to bring my guitar and play music from Frozen for the girls. I didn't practice enough, but the girls didn't seem to mind. They thought it was cool that I still knew how to play guitar, as I told them that I had taken lessons when I was their age. 

We also played a game of hide the frozen object. The little girls loved this game, although they didn't get that you were supposed to walk away from the object after you hid it. It was so cute to see them play it. It's going to be a handful having 3 5 year olds in the troop this year, but it will be fun as well.

Several of the parents are going to go to the Frozen sing along that is happening in our community this Friday. It's a good feeling to know that we also are helping the families link up to events in the community, as well as events through Girl Scouts. 

Girl Scout I Love Horses badge

I Love Horses

I am a Girl Scout Leader. I did Girl Scouts as a kid, and now am a co-leader for a local troop. This summer we have been working on doing things with the kids that they have a lot of interest in. All of the girls love horses, so we did the I Love Horses patch.

When doing the patch the kids did a packet of information on horse. The packet is available on my TPT store. 

Horse Pack

Here are some sample pages from the information pack.

The girls had a great time learning about horses.

We also played a do as the leader does game, where one person makes a horse noise and the other people have to copy it. The game we played was like follow the leader, where the leader did one horse gait and the children copied it. 

The games were a great way for the girls to get to know each other. The activities got them talking about something that they all were interested in and had past experiences about. 

It was all in all a really good opportunity for the girls to get to know each other a little bit better.

August updates

The summer is flying by.

I just got a call from my new principal saying when I could go see my new classroom and to sign up for the before school training sessions. So excited to be beginning a new school year.

For me this will be a total change, as the school I am going to is in a community that is a very different demographic then the ones that I have taught in before. I live along the I-5 and near a military base, so am used to working with a population that has a high mobility rate. 

The school I will be working in is in a community that is 30 minutes from I-5. It is in an old logging town, but is more like a suburb or bedroom community now. 

It will definitely be a new adventure. I'll post pictures of my new classroom soon.

I've been working hard to get done with the current project I am working on for Teachers Pay Teachers, which is word work for Trophies Grade 2. I am also working on several fall products that I hope do well. I created a few holiday products last year, but no seasonal ones.