Figuring out Finances

It's pretty well known that teachers don't have the highest salaries. Yet it takes a lot to teach a child each year. Schools do have budgets and materials they give out but I have yet to meet a teacher who doesn't have to pay for supplies and resources out of their pockets. I'm still learning but I do feel like I've learned some good tips for getting what you need. 
At the beginning of the year I think you really need to think about what you're going to put on your supply list for parents. Coming from a low-income area I knew that I wouldn't get everything so I put things that would be used all year and kept it to a pretty short list. I didn't put anything on my list that would greatly affect the year if any of my students didn't bring in.
One of the hardest things to get has been a good supply of books. Even though I thought I had a lot of books, my kids went through them pretty quickly. I've been able to add in a couple of new books every week or two by using Scholastic points and Kellogg's rewards. You get Scholastic points for every purchase your students make and can redeem them for free books. They also give out free book coupons, I used these to get a class set of books that I am going to give out for Christmas. Easily I have gotten close to, including the class set, 50 free books from Scholastics. With Kellogg's it takes a little longer to get free books but it still helps. You save codes from the inside of their products and enter them online and get a free book for every three applicable codes. 
Another good way to get funding is through Donors Choose. You can create a project for resources, a guest speaker or a field trip and then anyone can go to your site and donate. With these projects I think it helps to think about when you need the materials and how much your project costs. If you need them sooner then it's better to focus the project and keep it within a few hundred dollars. 
While all of these seems like a lot of work it absolutely saves money. I still spend money on my class for crafts and specific lessons. In the past month though I have been able to cut back significantly on my out-of-pocket spending. 

Fun with Fairy Tales

November has flown by! I feel like it was just Halloween and now I'm getting set for Thanksgiving break. This month we worked on story elements, comparing and contrasting and opinions with a unit on fairy tales. My students really enjoyed reading fractured fairy tales and then writing their own versions. For a couple of my students, even a couple of my high kids,  this was very difficult to do. They could not think of a fairy tale being different than the original version and it made me see how much more we need to work on thinking creatively. 
We did a couple of projects with our unit where the kids also worked on  their writing. Last week we did, "If I Had a Magic Wand..." I really saw each students personality come through in this project. Some made wishes straight from a story we had read and some really thought about what they already like and what they would want. 

This month I also spent some time working on how to write letters. It's not a first grade standard but it helped with my students' conventions and seeing a purpose for writing. We wrote a couple of letters as a class to staff members and then we also wrote individual letters for Veterans Day. My kids really enjoyed this unit and I saw tons of growth in their conventions in just a week. 

We only have school Monday and Tuesday so I'm reviewing a ton and doing some Thanksgiving stuff. After the break I'm starting on habitats and plan on doing deserts first. It's the habitat my kids are most familiar with and it'll help them learn the vocabulary and concepts. 

Spiders, bats and Halloween

Last week we started our bat and spider unit. We focused in on spiders and how they are not insects (which was our last unit). We also learned about how spiders use different types of silk and spin different types of webs. For this project I also introduced symmetry. The students traced their hands and laid them on top of each other with the thumbs making the spiders head. Most of them understood how each side of a spider is the same but then when they put it together they glued it however they wanted. To make the webs I punched holes along a paper plate and tied a long piece of string and then the students weaved it through the plate. 

This past week was super busy for me and my first graders. On Tuesday I had an observation with my district mentor in the morning and then with my AP in the afternoon. Probably not my best idea to schedule two observations in one day but it was a big relief to get them over with. On Wednesday we had our district personal narrative writing assessment. At first I was concerned that my students would struggle with the prompt but their writing has grown so much in the past couple of months. My students were all able to write a personal narrative and the majority wrote one that was at of above grade level. Our school also had our Halloween carnival Wednesday night. It was a really long day and evening but we did have a good turnout. 

Then of course there was Friday. In the morning we had a school wide assembly, where I did win an award!! Then we did a book study with Stellaluna and Night Song where the students had to decide which bat they liked better and explain why. In the afternoon we did a short math activity with addition facts and pumpkins and then it was just all about the Halloween party. We had tons of food and I set up some art materials and games for the kids. They had a great day and it was good to see them so excited but it was an exhausting day.

Next week we will be starting our fairy tale unit. I'm going to be spending a lot of time with comparing stories and the theme. I'm interested to see what stories the kids connect to and what stories they aren't as interested in. The following week progress reports will also go out. Last quarter I was just trying to get through each day so I didn't get to the reports until a couple days before they were due. This quarter I'm a little more ahead so I already got my science and writing grades finalized. I also started writing the comments for the students who need a longer explanation of whats going on. It's a really good feeling to be at least a little bit ahead so I don't have to stress about getting them done. 

Finally Fall Break

This year is flying by! It's hard to believe that a quarter of the year has already gone by. There have been some ups and downs this past quarter but overall I think it's gone well. I have seen my kids grow and make huge gains academically and socially. This week was parent-teacher conferences and it was amazing to have parents notice how much their kids have learned and to hear that they actually like to come to school. Hearing those kinds of things helped to get through the long week. They definitely don't tell you how hard parent-teacher conference week is in college. It's a full week of work plus twelve hours of conferences plus getting the quarter wrapped up and the next quarter prepped. And hopefully you have some time to eat and sleep in between all of that.

These past few weeks our theme was Insects. We spent the first few weeks learning about the anatomy (yes that's the vocabulary we use) of insects and the different kinds. The last week students wrote a report about an insect including what they looked like, eat, and what they can do. We also worked on time so I did a project I did during my methods semester with the Grouchy Ladybug. They turned out so cute and it helped them connect analog and digital time. 

I'm happy with how this year is going but I'm really happy to be on fall break. It'll be good to get away from the classroom for awhile and come back refreshed for the next quarter. We will start working on place value, comparing story elements, and will wrap up personal narratives and start informative pieces. 

September; Space and Substitues

The past few weeks have been so busy. I finished my community unit and started on space. The kids have loved space and have surprised me with their ideas and thought process about the solar system. I wasn't even going to focus in on rotation but when it came up in a book the class really started to question it and begin ti develop an understanding for why the planets have different time lengths for rotating around the sun.

For this unit I did two book studies, one with a nonfiction book about rockets and spaceships. I wanted the students to understand that rockets do not stay in space, they just help the spaceship get into space. After we discussed the book they then made their own spaceship and used objects in space for their setting. I let them use aluminum foil, glitter and construction paper. The kids had a lot of fun and they turned out so good.

For my second book study last week we read Green Wilma Frog in Space and then the students made an alien and had to decide what planet it would live on. For this book I focused on setting and how two characters do not always do well on the same setting. With this project I had painted puzzle pieces and made the worksheet to make the setting and give some information on their alien. They had to give the alien a name, a planet to live on, describe the planet and say what the alien likes to do. I thought with this project the students' personalities really came through in how they saw their alien and what they thought an alien would do.

 

This month I also had to spend quite a bit of time outside the classroom. I started working on my professional development where I am focusing on math instruction, specifically with my lowest math group who need a lot of help with number sense and number in base tens. I really enjoy teaching math and believe that it is a strength of mine. But within 6 days I was out for 3 and not did not enjoy writing sub plans. Being gone last Thursday I felt like I had to go back over all the rules and procedures on Friday. While I think reviewing is important I also feel that my kids are missing out on real instruction time. My next day out was Monday and it went so good. The sub left a great note and actually worked through the lessons. The kids enjoyed her and I felt like they were valued while I was gone. That all changed though with my sub today. She was exactly what I was afraid of. I use a behavior clip chart and she had my entire class clip down numerous times. Yes they are not perfect but I cannot imagine what they all could of done to warrant that. My coworkers also told me that a few of my kids were crying through out the day and just seemed to be incredibly sad. I felt horrible and instead of making up for the lack of teaching I felt that I had to rebuild some of their self esteem. So hopefully after this chunk of time I won't have to leave them for awhile. 

An Upward Swing

I've almost made it to that one month mark. The first two weeks were by far the hardest two weeks I've ever experienced. I knew they would be hard but I wasn't expecting to feel so discouraged. Every night for those weeks I questioned what I was doing and if I was truly ready for my own class. But clearly I made it through and this week I started feeling like I was starting to get it. Those first two weeks I was getting to school around 6 and staying to almost 5. Even being there that long I still felt like I was behind and was just trying to get through each day. This week I still get there pretty early so I can beat traffic and use the copier without anyone being there. But I'm able to leave close to 4 and I even left my laptop at school one night because I didn't feel like I needed to work at home. 

There are still some aspects of the job that I'm struggling with. My team lead is in her second year and is following a different curriculum than the rest of the team. She also was as she said, "screwed" with having so many high kids who won't show as much growth. So she isn't someone who can provide me with much support or even someone who I can relate to with our teaching styles. This week I also started filling out the CST  paperwork for a student but it's been tough figuring out what I need to have for it and having to wait and keep teaching while she is struggling and needing interventions and modifications that I can't provide. 

This week though I also started to really get to know my kids and see them settle into the classroom and the routine. During meet the teacher night a mom told me her son barely talked and never really spoke to his kinder teacher. However, this week he was talking and when he was calendar leader he was able to talk in front of the entire class. I have seen students start to really use the material we have learned and use the vocabulary across subjects. We have been learning about community and yesterday one of my girls commented that the character from our read aloud was a community helper. 

I'm hoping that this upward swing continues and the rest of this month continues to get better. 

Week 1

Well I survived. It was one tiring, amazing, nonstop, and chaotic week. Here's some of the highlights of the week:

• On Monday despite my planning I went through my activities too fast and had to make copies in the middle of the day. 
• I had a "crier" whose grandma said I wasn't nice enough and tried to go behind her parents back and get her transferred to another class. 
• First fire drill of the year happened and I was more freaked out than the kids. 
• I found out that scarlet fever still exists and already have a student out sick.

Despite all of that I still think it was a good week. I already love my class and can't imagine having a different group of kids. I could have had some back up worksheets ready and practiced lining up more for a fire drill. But now I know and know I will have things set up for the second week. 

The hardest part has honestly been keeping track of all the school/district/state pre-tests. I swear in the first three weeks those kids have to take about eight tests. And most of the material is stuff they don't know and I can't answer questions about. They get so stressed out and I hate that I just have to sit there. They are also annoying because about half of them need to be done one-on-one. The rest of the class isn't independent enough to do much meaningful work so I feel like it's wasted time for them. 

Starting on Monday I am beginning my first thematic unit, community. During student teaching this was one of my favorite units I observed my mentor teach. I love seeing the kids think about jobs and discuss citizenship. I also thought it would build on the first week stuff on rules and procedures. Hopefully getting into more of a routine next week will help cut back on the chaos. 

But now I need to finish getting my lesson plans typed and make a better seating chart.