Image Map

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

New Adventures

On Friday, I was told by the principal at my school that the school board was not sure they wanted to rehire me for next year. I took this as God speaking to me. I have been thinking for the last year that it might be time to move on. I have a very long commute every day. It takes me close to an hour to get to school in the morning, and about another two and even sometimes three hours to get home at night. It is time to find something closer to my house. 
Of course I will miss everyone at the school, but I will not miss the long commute and the loads of paperwork that I have to do everyday. It will also be nice to have a contained classroom again. These last five years, I feel like I have really lost some of my creativity. 
The classes at the school I am at now are just so short that there is no time to be creative. By the time I get the kids from their classroom, it is almost time to take them back to class. There is so much time spent traveling back and forth.  At least when you have the kids all day, you are able to adjust things throughout the day so you can fit in some of the fun things as well. 
So I am hitting the ground running. At least I found out about next year pretty early so I will hopefully be able to find a job. I am already putting together my resume, talking to other teacher friends, and looking through job postings. I know that God has the perfect job out there for me. 
As you all probably know, I am finishing up my credential right now which means that I will be starting my student teaching next week. This is another new adventure. I am so nervous about it. I know it will be great once I get into it, and I am looking forward to seeing how another teacher does things and learning from her. I really do love learning new things. Do you feel that way as well? Until next time, I hope everyone has a great day. 

Saturday, January 12, 2013

A New Year

Well, it has been a crazy couple of weeks! I went back to school this last week not feeling well. While my husband and I were in Paris, I got sick and then got even worse when we got home. At least we had a really great time. We saw so many wonderful things and even got an extra day in Zurich, Switzerland at the loss of the airline! 
 This is us inside the beautiful Paris Opera House. It was gorgeous!
And of course we had to take some pictures with the Eiffel Tower. 

So this last week I was sick, and got even more sick as the week went on. By Friday, I was feeling really bad so I stayed home to try and get better. I lounged around and slept most of the day. Today I'm feeling better, but still not great. It is really hard to work when you don't feel well. 
At least now I am starting to feel better so I can get some blogging done and check out some of my other favorite blogs to see what everyone is doing. 

Well, on to other things! This last quarter, we started a new program for our upper grade math. My 5th grade math program is now done independently. They take no work home and it is all done in class. This allows me to see what the students are really understanding and what they still need help with. This new program also allows the students to work at their own pace. If a student needs a little more time on a lesson, they can take that time. Next year, when they move up to the next grade they will start math where they left off. If they finish through lesson 100 in the 5th grade book, they have to finish the rest of the lessons before they can move on to the next book. 

So here is how I organize the program. Organization is key with this because the students are all on different lessons. 

 I use this box to keep all the work the kids do. It also has all the tests copied so when a student is ready for a test, it is ready for them. I don't have to worry about remembering to get things copied for them.
Here is the inside of the box. Each student has a folder where I keep their work. At the end of ten lessons, they take a test and then all of their work gets handed back to them. I also have a folder for the graded work. This allows me to see what work needs to be recorded and placed into the students folders. 

What do you do for your math program? How do you organize the work?

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Craziness

Christmas has flown by and it sure was crazy! I am sitting in the airport right now posting from my phone. My husband and I are off to celebrate New Year's in Paris. This is our first time there and we are so excited!

Earlier this month, I participated in the Holly Bloggy Christmas exchange. I got to buy all my favorite things for Kelly Pate over at thirstiefirsties.blogspot.com. I hope she liked all the things I sent her. I am not able to figure out how to post pictures from my phone so I will have to show the pictures later.

Well, this is it for now but I will be back soon to tell you all about our trip to Paris, as well as what will be happening when school starts up again. What will you be doing with your class when school starts?

















LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...