Attention Student Teachers or New Teachers: 6 TIPS for the first year!

This post may be a bit early for those new teachers on the job, but I'm hoping this can be of some help and reach out those who are student teaching now, in the future, or those teachers that will just be starting out.  Time has flown by for me as a teacher...15 years!  That got me to thinking about my student teaching experiences and the first year or two as a teacher.  There are MANY things I remember and probably many MORE that I have forgotten, and with probably due reason.

I wanted to do a post where I could give my thoughts or advice to help those just starting out and things I learned along the way that I wish someone would have told me.  Grab a snack and a drink.  This will be a LONG one!  So here we go:

1.  ASK QUESTIONS and ASK FOR HELP!!!  I'm going to be honest: YOU CAN'T DO IT ALL ON YOUR OWN!!!  I certainly tried and I know you will to.  But, you may need to rely on your team members, mentor teacher, administration, or parent volunteers.  It's okay to say no to being on a committee...it's okay to focus on your classroom.  There will be A LOT of new things, so ask questions...yes, write down the questions you have so you don't forget, but ask your team members.  They have all been in your position before and will help you out!  They are the best resources to go to!  If you're lucky to have involved parents, they are willing to help you out in any way you need...trust me!  Create a rotating schedule for parent volunteers, have them help make copies, sharpen pencils at home, cut out laminating at home, etc.

2.  DO WHAT YOU KNOW!  When I first started teaching, I started three weeks after the school year started.  My students had already gotten in the groove of other teachers' routines, structure, and schedules.  Then, they had me!  Well, they did better at the transition than I did!  I was fortunate to have some administration, team members, and other district staff help get my room set up before I started so it wasn't a blank slate.  While that won't happen for everyone, the big thing that helped was I took what I knew from my cooperating teachers (student teaching) and my former assistant job.  I made homemade posters, games, or worksheets.  They didn't include cute fonts, clip art, and weren't the most attractive to look at, but they worked.  The kids learned their sight words, vowel sounds, math facts, etc.  I used classroom management routines, organizational tips, and other things I observed with my cooperating teachers.   I was determined to get new things, I knew I had to watch how much money I spent.  Now, don't get me wrong, I spent too much PLENTY of money on things for my new classroom.    This leads me to #3.

3.  UTILIZE THE PEOPLE AND RESOURCES AROUND YOU!  Like I mentioned earlier, talk to your colleagues...they have TONS of resources and will be more than willing to share with you.  Ask fellow colleagues if you could observe them teach a lesson or look around their room for ideas.  You don't have to spend so much money when it's time for resources in your room.  Now, we are so fortunate to have TpT (Teachers Pay Teachers).  If you're on a small team and need more ideas, this website (along with Pinterest and Instagram) is a hub for resources!  You can get many items for FREE or for a low cost!  I use this site now and only wish I had this 15 years ago!  Who knows, maybe I can get some things posted on TpT inthe future.  You will want things to be engaging for your students to use, but remember...start out simple and easy for you to manage.  You can always change things later.  The Goodwill, Salvation Army, or garage sales can help you add items for your classroom for an inexpensive price too...indoor recess games, classroom library books, bins/baskets, book shelves, stools, etc.

Here are some teacher blogs/websites that I have found over the past few years and love seeing what they are doing and creating in their rooms....awesome inspiration and teachers!  (I hope they don't mind me mentioning them here!)  There are so many more out there too!

What The Teacher Wants

Pocketful of Primary

Fabulous In First

Smitten in First

Fun in First

4.  GET TO KNOW YOUR COLLEAGUES!  Every school is different and some schools are smaller/bigger than others.  No matter the size, get to know your teammates, school secretaries, nurse, etc.  These people are just as busy as you, but can be just as helpful!  With this tip, the best advice I can give is eat lunch in the teacher's lounge.  Not every teacher takes his/her lunch break to eat in the lounge but give yourself a break...you will need it!  If you feel as if you can't or don't want to take that time to eat and you'd rather get some work done, that's fine.  But, make yourself a goal of maybe at least twice a week using your lunch time as a break and a time to EAT (you will need to EAT, trust!)  By sitting in the lounge, you will get to know the teachers, share stories, and build relationships!

5.  YOU WILL NEVER FINISH EVERYTHING....there is ALWAYS something to do in the classroom.  I have to admit, I still struggle with this, but I have gotten better over the years.  You may choose to come in to your classroom early or stay late, but remember you need to give yourself a break or two during the day, and know that whatever doesn't get done will be okay and you always have tomorrow!  It can be hard, but prioritize...make lists!  In one of my first posts, I showed a picture of a weekly planner I found and recreated to better fit me.  This has helped me so much!

6.  DO YOUR BEST TO STAY ORGANIZED.  Some teachers have those dreamy, Pinterest perfect classrooms and others, let's be honest...there's so much going on in there, you don't know where to look first!  No matter the way your room looks, you will have your own routine, way to organize, and manage your room.   A teacher binder is one way to keep track of important things.  If you are a frequent user of Pinterest and now that you are familiar with TpT, you can look up different ways teachers stay organized with a binder.  Using a binder can help locate daily schedules, student schedules, calendars, curriculum organizers/outlines, standards, lesson plans, etc. You can have that all in one place and refer to it easily when needed.

Finally, just remember to take care of yourself, make sure you're getting a good amount of sleep, eat, and relax...it will all work out, you will get things done, and your kids will love you no matter how many cute posters you have in your room or if some games are homemade, or in black and white!  Things can always be changed for the next year.

See you next time!

New Year=Motivation

Happy New Year!  I guess I'm one of those who let the craziness of the holidays and winter break get the best of me.  My last post was two months ago...oops!  I'm hoping everyone had a great holiday!  I figured it was time to get back on the blogging train and get going with posting again...and hopefully gain some motivation to keep at it!!   When the new year comes around, we all think about what can we improve on, what will our resolutions be, etc.  I don't know about you, but I need some motivation in a lot of areas! LOL!  Along with my first graders, we are trying to get back in the swing of things this week.  We just got back from winter break on Monday after having two and a half weeks off!  Therefore, we're all trying to remember our routines and how to make it through a full day again (no snacks every hour, no mid day naps).

To my surprise, my kiddos have been doing great at remembering our routines!  But, as expected, the excitement of coming back and sharing what they did over break and with the shock of having to wake up early, we've had to work on those listening skills, showing good behavior and strengthening our stamina!

During this time of the year I usually read the story Stranger in the Woods.    Along with the story, I have my snowman friend aka: the stranger accompany me while I read it.

After I read the story today, I decided to change things up a bit!  For the rest of the day, the snowman was moved around to different students who showed appropriate behavior and who was putting forth great effort!  

Everyone worked hard to have the snowman visit their desk today!  While not everyone got a turn yet, we still have the rest of the week!   So, the stranger in the woods was a little motivator for all of the first graders!  Let's see how the rest of the week goes!  

Again, for those who this blog may get to, I appreciate you taking the time to read it!  Please share it with your friends/teacher friends!  I hope I'm able to give some ideas or tips along the way!  Thank you so much for your support!  

Happy Wednesday!!

Election 2016

Today's post is all about the election.  WAAAITT!! Not THAT election!  Let's talk voting in first grade world!  We had today off of school, so yesterday was our "official" voting day in first grade!  We started off by reading Duck for President.  The class discussed the qualities of a good president (oh those sweet innocent minds), the job of a president, and whether or not Duck should/should not be president.  They voted and here is the result...

Then, came the REAL voting....Oreos or Chocolate Chip?!?!?!?!  We discussed the qualities of a good cookie, flavors that may/may not make it delicious, etc!!!  Each first grader received a cookie of each type...I mean, how could they vote without a taste test, right?!  After they taste tested and gave it some thought, ballots were given and a choice was selected.  The kiddos got to go up to a ballot box to drop off their vote and received an "I Voted" sticker!  The votes were carefully counted and recorded and the winner was.....OREOS!!! 

Well, here's to Election 2016 and the OREO!!  Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!  







Pete the Cat and Cause and Effect

Happy November!!  I wanted to type up a quick post on an activity I have done in my classroom to help understand cause and effect.  For first graders this can be tricky so I looked up ways to help increase the understanding of this on the internet  (probably Pinterest).  I don't remember where I found this idea, but wherever it came from, thank you!!!  What group of first graders don't like Pete the Cat? My class does, so this was perfect!  I read Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes.  In the story, Pete wears white shoes but when he steps in strawberries, the shoes turn red.  When he steps in blueberries, the shoes turn blue!  You can see in the picture, that the boys and girls wrote the word "WHY" over "cause" and "WHAT" over "effect."  They were able to pick which event to write about (strawberries, blueberries, mud, water) and then tell what happened.  Once they were done with the writing, they made a picture showing the cause and effect!

I think using this story and drawing Pete the Cat would be a great anchor chart to help teach the little ones about cause and effect! Leave me a comment letting me know how you teach cause and effect in your classroom!  I hope everyone has been having a great Monday!!!

Pumpkin Fun

The past several weeks have been more than busy! Oh, who am I kidding?  Yes, it's been busy hectic with parent-teacher conferences and all, but as any teacher knows the feeling, there have been many nights of coming home from work, barely having enough energy to make dinner, and vegging on the couch (umm, can you say, World Series?? GO CUBBIES!!!)  I'm finally getting a chance to post about the pumpkin themed activities we did over a week ago.  Several years ago I came across the Pumpkin Unit from Mrs. Ricca's store on TpT.  I was able to incorporate some activities with my first graders and added some of my own.  Depending on the availability of parent volunteers I can have for that day, I can have the kiddos move around to different centers.  This year, we were only able to complete three, but had a nice mix of science, math, and reading.   One of my fabulous parent volunteers read a book about the life cycle of the pumpkin and then the groups completed the cut and sort activity.

On this particular day, the groups rotated around to: The Life Cycle of the Pumpkin, Pumpkin Math Facts, and Pumpkin Investigations.  The plastic pumpkin cups are from the Dollar Tree.  Two dice were added to each pumpkin.  The kiddos had to shake their pumpkin and roll out the dice.  Then, they had to add up two addends.  I created the corresponding sheet for them to use and write down the number sentence and sum.

I was going to wait and post this later, but didn't want to wait too long!  There's still time for those who want to use some of these activities on Monday!  We haven't finished the pumpkin investigations just yet!  On Monday, we will estimate How Many Seeds (click on the title to get the book) are in our pumpkin, put the seeds in groups of five or ten, and then count to see how many seeds were inside.  We predicted how many cubes tall the pumpkin was, counted how many lines were around the pumpkin, described if the pumpkin was small, medium, or large.  Lastly, the kiddos predicted whether the pumpkin would sink or float in a bucket of water. 

I spent some time with the whole class and we used the different sized pumpkins to estimate how many cubes it would take to measure each pumpkin.  This was such a great pre-teaching activity for measurement.   In addition to counting our seeds, the kiddos will use the Halloween themed word cards to unscramble the sentences on Monday.

My firsties had so much fun working on all of these activities.  They stayed engaged and enjoyed tying together math, science, and literacy!  How much better could it get?!?!  I hope this post can give some primary teachers some last minute Halloween ideas for Monday! If you choose to do any of these activities, leave me a comment letting me know how they went!   Wishing you all a spookatuclar Halloween filled with many sweet treats!







Apples, Apples, Apples!

Hope everyone had a fun and relaxing weekend!  The weather this weekend made it hard to get anything done.  There were many clouds, rain, and that fall chill in the air!

This post is a fun one!  This past week, we spent a day working on some fun and engaging centers.  Our week started off by making our "apple people!"    We brainstormed a list of ways we like to eat apples: slice apples, carmel apples, applesauce, apple pie...you get the idea!  They filled in the sentence on how they like to eat apples and then glued the sentence in order on the apple.

The next day, the firsties had the chance to graph their favorite way to eat apples.  

Thanks to Fun in First, the firsties had so much fun sequencing the life cycle of the apple tree AND putting together the apple facts puzzles!  Time was a factor, so we weren't able to create the book from Fun in First or some of the other activities from the bundle.  Click here if you want to check out the apple centers from Fun in First

The last center we did was using adjectives to describe apples.  The adjectives went along with the five senses...let's say we had some "interesting" adjectives.  

Now, we are on to PUMPKINS!!!!  

Mystery Student

It's officially fall!  I can't believe that we are almost at the end of September already!  All of FIRST GRADE LAND from our school took a field trip to an apple orchard today and I think FUN was had by all!  Thanks to a great group of teachers, parent volunteers, and the staff of the orchard, everything went pretty smoothly!

One reason why I think everything went pretty well was because my kiddos knew the expectations for their behavior!  Classroom management is so incredibly important in and OUT of the classroom!

I wanted to show a small "system" I started a long time ago that is used in both settings: Mystery Student. There are variations of this floating around! 

Each student is given a number at the beginning of the year and that number is written on a stick.  I can pick one, sometimes two, sometimes even three students in the morning when our day starts. The students don't know yet who the mystery student is but find out at the end of the day!  In reality I'm watching all students, but the firsties think I'm watching only the "mystery students" during the day. I watch to see if good choices are being made, manners are being used, hard work is put forth, and rules are being followed,  At the end of the day, the mystery student(s) is/are announced and they are awarded 10 tickets each.  We have special tickets at our school that the students can save and use to buy something at the monthly school store.  In the picture, you can see that as a "reward" you can give raffle tickets, a certificate, sticker, etc. to say "AWESOME JOB" or how proud you are of them for having a great day!  What's even better is, the rest of the class ALWAYS cheers for the mystery students.  This has been such a positive way for students to work extra hard throughout the day and a way for the class to be a team and cheer their friends on!  

Let me know if you have put something like this to use in your classroom or what you do to create positivity and how you set clear expectations in your classroom!