High/Low 9/6

Time for a high/low for the week. Thank you A First For Everything for hosting.

I had a nice talk with the kids I work with about what art is. To have some unique art in my classroom I printed out screenshots I had taken from World of Warcraft of pretty scenes in it. 

I like World of Warcraft a lot, mainly because it is such a bright, pretty game. The kids asked me about the games that I play, and I told them what game I like, and pointed out the screenshots on the wall.

It made me a little more relatable to the preteen boys I work with in my EBD classroom and got us talking about art in video games.

When given free time in advisory one of my students created with with domino pieces. He said that it reminded him of pixle art. I gave him a pride ticket for working diligently on it. Dilegence is one of the core values of the school that I am teaching at.

I went to a local elementary school and advertised for Girl Scouts at their open house. I got a lot of people who were interested. I'm always happy to let the community know that Girl Scouts is available and that troops are in the area.

I remember a few years ago someone I worked with asked if there were even scouts anymore. 

I got involved in Girl Scouts again because of my neice. I'm glad that I have found it though. I love to volunteer and working with the little kids is a nice break from being at the Jr. High.

I had my first fight in my classroom on Friday. Both of the boys got suspended. I really like both of the boys and hate to see them not able to participate in school.

I learned a few things from the experience though to get me through the rest of the year.

1. If a kid comes in looking tired and dirty (as one of the boys did) make sure that I stay in close proximity to them in advisory.

2. Do not have games or free time in advisory on Friday. The kids are too emotional about the weekend. I'm going to give them free time for being good in a Wednesday instead.

3. No matter how minor the fight is (and it was a minor fight) the kids see it as a major event in the day. To them it was a huge FIGHT, even though to me as an adult I saw it as one poking the other and then the other one punching him in the arm, then them shoving once before I broke them up. Be sympathic to their feels about it, not matter how minor it actually was.

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.