My First Day of School

I am officially a grade 5/6 teacher at Central Elementary School!!

I guess I have technically been hired since June but there is something about having students in my classroom that really makes it official. I AM A TEACHER!!

After school today my mentor texted me and asked how my day went.. "First day rating: 1-10... 1 being awful - why did I become a teacher!? and 10 being best day ever!!" I told her it was probably about a 7 or 8. I had an overall great day and am so excited for this year but I am not going to pretend that I have nothing to work on with my students. I can not wait to get going on the curriculum with my students and do some more planning now that I know a little bit about them. Today spent a lot of time chatting with them and they are all so awesome. This morning after all of them got there I had to remind them that it was okay to talk.. I mean what kind of fifth and sixth graders have to be reminded to talk!? 

The day started out great. I met most of my students at the door or outside my classroom and in the beginning they filtered in slow so I got to talk to them one on one which was nice. It also gave me a chance to meet a few of their parents which was good because that was one thing that I was really nervous about. For those of you who don't know, I teach in the mennonite program at Central. It's nice because I have little to no classroom management issues. I does make me nervous because I don't know the culture very well and just based on today there is a big range in how devout my students are to the religion. I have been really up front with them and told them to confront me if anything makes them uncomfortable. 

As soon as we got settled into the classroom and the announcements were done a boy in my class turned around in his chair and puked all over the floor. Gross!! I think the kids were still really nervous and so basically no one reacted. I didn't even have any "EWE, GROSS" haha. Instead, the boys around him just backed away and I grabbed him a chair and the garbage can. He finished puking and then headed to the office to call home. They say that every elementary teacher has to deal with puke at least once a year... I guess I got mine out of the way early! LUCKY ME!

The rest of the day went good. A few of our classroom routines need some work but I think that might just take some time. The kids really bought into a lot of the activities I planned which made me feel good about the rest of the year because we did everything from skits to individual work.

Here's to a great year!! I LOVE TEACHING

My New and Improved Classroom

Well, It's official... I have the best mom and sister a girl could ask for! Kelti and my Mom drove down this weekend just to help me set up my classroom. We had a very productive weekend and my classroom is actually starting to look like the real thing! I am so lucky to have such a supportive family.

 

It is such a relief to have my classroom relatively ready. I am starting to get really nervous for school to start (one week from this Wednesday! Yikes!!) I can now spend the rest of this week getting my unit plans ready and my first weeks completely planned.

Waterton Camping Trip with the Family

For the past few years my family has camped in Waterton during the summer. I love the trip especially the time I get to spend with my family! This year we had a little bit of every type of weather possible... hail, rain, wind, sun. No matter what my family always makes the best of the situation and as my mom says "we make memories". 

We got to Waterton late on tuesday night. On wednesday we hiked bears hump and then played in the water at the sandbar and the driftwood beach. On thursday the weather was terrible and we spent the morning walking around town. In the afternoon went swimming at the pool and played rook in the tent. On friday the wind died down a bit and we hiked to Wall Lake where we did the ice challenge for cancer. Kelti's brother-in-law dared them to do it. It started in New Zealand; there they dump buckets of ice water on their heads and donate money to cancer. We decided we would just jump into the freezing cold water, it definitely was freezing but it was lots of fun. Saturday we floated the St.Mary's river which was also freezing! Jude even came, he had a rough time but we all survived even with the sunburns. 

It was an awesome trip! I can't wait for next year. 

First River Float of 2014

We Love Floating the River!!!