New School, New Room!

It's been awhile since I have posted!  I kind of skipped the whole semester after that snow day.  I ended up staying in that position for the remainder of the school year.  It ended up being great experience for me and will help ease me into my "official" first year of teaching.  I will be actually teaching in a different school district this year, and I couldn't be more happy about that!  I will be in the same school as my 2 oldest children.  It will be extra nice to be there for Bailey's senior year, especially since she has an extra free period that she can spend in my room helping me!

I haven't been able to spend any time working on my room yet, but I did manage to get in there this week to take some pictures after they cleared out all the furniture to clean the carpet.  

I pretty much love it!  It looks much bigger than it actually is though.  As you can see I have a whiteboard wall instead of the traditional whiteboard/smartboard.  Supposedly it's interactive paint, but I am not so sure it actually works the way it's supposed to.  You can also see that there is no storage!  According to my principal, I will have 4 bookshelves, a locking storage cabinet, a locking storage standing desk/cart, and a teacher desk.  The kicker is that even the teacher desk has no drawers!

My plan is to start looking for some cheap storage options.  I am going to need somewhere to store supplies.  I will be on the lookout for shelves that will accommodate the bins I bought to house the student's interactive notebooks.  I am sure that my classroom will be a mish-mash of found shelving for a few years and I am okay with that!  

You can also see that I have no bulletin boards, so I am going to make one out of paper, but I am not sure just yet where it's going to go.  I guess I will have to wait to see how my furniture fits in.  I do love that about this room; I am not limited in where I can put things.  I don't have to work around all of those things!  

I am not going to be able to get into my room to start working until August 1st, but I will definitely be documenting all of my process both here and potentially on YouTube as well.  So stay tuned!

My first "snow" day!

I am off today, along with just about every teacher within 30 miles.  We were expecting a big ice storm, so most schools actually called school off before the school day was even over yesterday.  As is turns out, we probably could have had school today, but it's nice to have a "snow" day so early in the semester.  It was 71 degrees on Wednesday!  The ground is not cold enough for the ice to accumulate currently, so it's icing over on trees, cars, grass, etc. but roads look fine from what I can see.  It's also supposed to be above freezing later today and then for the rest of the weekend, so we will have to wait to see what happens with the freezing rain that is coming down right now.

I am going to take advantage of the longer weekend by trying to get caught up on some reading for classes.  I have 3 reading classes currently.  One is reading Unwind by Neal Shusterman and the other two are reading Hate List by Jennifer Brown.  I have never read Hate List so I need to get that one read if at all possible.  I probably need to reread Unwind, but I don't know if that's going to happen this weekend or not since I also need to read Romeo and Juliet for my other 3 classes that are getting ready to start that.

This week actually went by really quickly for me, obviously even more so since we didn't have school today!  Naturally, since it was my first full week the teacher I am subbing for had duty this week.  It's not just afternoon duty like I was used to doing in Neosho, though.  This one is morning and afternoon; morning duty is 20 minutes in the commons (lunch room) and afternoon is really less than 10 minutes outside waiting for the buses to load and leave.  Let me tell you, that morning one was literally the longest 20 minutes of the whole day!  I was not sad that my week was cut a day short.  Luckily, I don't have duty again until the end of March and that will be only if I end up being there longer than initially anticipated.  I was spoiled at Neosho since I had my CT there to talk to during the 20 minutes we had duty.  Standing there alone, for 20 minutes,  in a room full of kids you don't know yet is not easy to do.

Next week should be a fairly smooth one.  We have PD all day Monday; kids are out for MLK day.  Then I have several blocks where we are in the library for work days.  Most of my planning for the week is already done.  I just need to work on a few things for the reading classes.

I did make a video to show you all my classroom and how it's currently set up, but I need to edit and upload it.  Once I get that done I will post a link to my new YouTube channel that I have set up for this blog!

Have a great "snow" day!

Welcome!

Welcome to my new teacher blog!! 

Let me tell you a little about myself in case you don't already know me.  My name is Shelly and I just graduated from college.  I was a non-traditional student; you know the one that all the college age kids hate because we ask questions, talk a lot, etc...  Except I wasn't like that, most of the time.  This was my 3rd go at college.  I did that one horrible semester back when I graduated high school in 1992 (now you know how old I am!).  Then I went back in 2000 and managed to get in 4 semesters before I had my 2nd child.  The 3rd child followed very shortly after and it seemed my college days were over.  Fast forward to 2014 where I was working as an aide in my kid's elementary school... it was then that I decided that it was time to go back to get my degree and it was a good thing since the district cut that aide job in all the elementary schools at the end of that school year.  

Initially, I was going to get an elementary degree because I really wanted to teach 5th grade, but I knew the likelihood of that actually happening was not great.  I made it through that first semester and decided pretty early on that I didn't want to teach elementary school and since I was an English major previously it only made sense that I switch to secondary English.  

I had a great experience in college this time around.  I met people that I know will be friends for life.  I was a good student who actually cared about my grades instead of all the things I cared about that one horrible semester way back in 1992.  And to be fair, I do still care about one thing from back then.  I met my husband that semester and we have now been married for 20 years, so something good did come of that semester! 

So long story shorter, I graduated in December and I am officially a certified High School English teacher!  I don't have a permanent position as of yet, but I do have a job for most of this coming semester.  I will be a full time, permanent sub for a teacher who is having surgery in just a couple of days.  I will be guaranteed a position until March 8 with the option that it may run longer depending on how the surgery goes and whether she is able to return when she plans.  I will be teaching 9th graders.  I have 3 reading classes and 3 Language I classes.  Two of the reading classes are semester long classes so the students will be new to the class completely.  

So that's pretty much it.  I wanted to start a teacher blog so I can document my experience as a first year teacher and beyond.  This first semester will be a bit of a preview as I get my footing in the classroom and a feel for the whole experience.  I am kicking around the idea of starting a YouTube channel as well where I can post vlogs and more fun things.  We'll just see how it goes.

If you have anything that you would like to know or see here on the blog or possibly on a YouTube channel please leave me a comment.  I am more than happy to answer any questions!

Have a great day and I will see you soon!