September Currently

I can’t believe it is September already. We are starting week 4 here in North Georgia, and so far we are having a terrific year! Today I am linking up with Farley andOh’ Boy Fourth Grade for the September Currently.

Listening ~ Does anyone else LOVE Downton Abbey. I am obsessed. I have been the series on Netflix ( I think for the 3^rd time). I can’t wait for season 4 this January but will it be the same without Matthew?

Loving ~ I am LOVING my new kindergarten class! This is my first year teaching kindergarten and I can truly say that I think kindergarten is my favorite grade. My little class is absolutely precious.

Thinking ~ There is NOTHING like a Monday in kindergarten. In the older grades, the weekends come and go without any issues. Each week you have a first day of school ~ A MONDAY. What’s more crazy than a Monday? I’m dreading tomorrow, Tuesday after a long Labor day weekend.

Wanting ~ My favorite Starbucks drink has to be a white chocolate mocha when I am in need of something warm and a very berry hibiscus refresher when I can’t something cool and refreshing. The only problem is that all that caffeine makes me so jittery and my heart race. I think I definitely need to lay off the caffeine…maybe I will start tomorrow??? I also am loving all the cute clothes I see in the stores these days for adults and kids for fall. I love the changing of the seasons. I love decorating my house, my kids, my classroom. I can’t wait for a shopping day!

Needing ~ School has just started and I desperately need a work day. I am such a perfectionist and want everything in my classroom to be perfect. I am going to try and plan a work day next Saturday for a few hours.

For My Heart ~ I have two goals this month. First, I want to spend my time with my littles. My Eric and Caroline are getting too big too fast. They are the delights of my lives. My second goal is to be the best kindergarten and Sunday School teacher that I can be this month.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Happy September everyone!

Long time, no post...

School is back in full swing here in north Georgia. With starting a new year in a new grade level and dealing and sorting through my one year old's major food allergies to all dairy, pork, and citrus we have been just a little bit like the traveling circus. Oh, I forgot to add that our air went out too. Anyway, I feel like it has been a long time since I posted. 

I want to start by saying that I LOVE KINDERGARTEN! When my principal asked me to go to kindergarten, I was so excited but a little nervous. I had been teaching second and third grade for years, focusing my instruction on gifted and high achievers. But when she asked, I can truly say that I was so excited. I honestly feel like kindergarten is the perfect fit for me, and am so thankful every day that she placed me there. But... I have never been this tired in my life. As  a kindergarten teacher, you never get to slow down and rest. 

My school system started school on August 9th. We welcomed 23 precious babies to kindergarten in my class. On the first day of school, I introduced my kinders to the Daily 5. I have used the framework in the past and love it. I never have to worry about centers on Friday; they are already done. Students learn how to use the materials and can every activity can be easily differentiated to best meet individual learning needs. I was excited to be able to attend the Daily 5 conference for the 2nd year in a row. The "Two Sisters" are AMAZING and I truly recommend their workshop to all teachers. At the workshop, two things really stuck out at me.

First ~ They constantly stated that teachers need to make Daily 5 work for them. It will run differently in every classroom. That is okay. 

Second ~ I can't tell you how many times they stated, "we wrote this book in 2005-6. We do things a little differently" or "this isn't in our book but it should be". I always felt bad that I wasn't able to get in 5 rotations. Some years, 3 rotations were pushing it, and this year my kinders and I are pushing it to get 2 in. But listening to Gail and Joan speak, they too had felt this burden and some years only had 3-4 rotations. 

The first day, my kiddos made it to 36 seconds of stamina. A little scary for me. Honestly, I had the worst case of jitters and worried that this wasn't going to be possible for my kindergarteners. They were just too young. We are about to finish week 3. They are know up to 18 minutes (Yes, you read that right) of reading stamina. We have also introduced listening and writing. Today, my kinders made their first Daily 5 choices. It went a lot smoother than I thought it was going too. I still had a few that would say, "umm.. home center" but I think we finally got on track. Listening is still a little rocky. They really struggle with that whole volume control button ~ the whole class doesn't need to hear the story blasting while you are singing to the top of your lungs the Pete the Cat song. If you are worrying about the transition to Daily 5 in kindergarten, don't. Practice and model, practice and model. Even though I am only about halfway up and going (I still need to add buddy reading and word work), I feel like my kinders are getting this process down pat. I plan to add a few more detailed posts about Daily 5 in my classroom in the upcoming weeks. 

I want to leave you with an adorable picture of my littles. My family owns a chalet in Pigeon Forge, Tennesse and we try to get away whenever possible. Not having any air last weekend was a pefect opportunity for a get away. I snapped this adorable picture of my two littles riding the duck ride at the park. My daughter clapped and waved the entire time. I sure did love my weekend with these two precious littles after a long week of work. 

Now I'm off to bed to get ready for Friday. Happy Friday everyone and have a wonderful long weekend!

Teacher Week Day 4 and 5

Today I am posting day four and five of Teacher Week at BlogHoppin together. The theme for the days is Taming the Wild ~ Tricks for Classroom Management and Teacher tips. We have just completed our first full week of teaching. With this being my first year in kindergarten, I am feeling very excited but very busy. Add a one year old with newly diagnosed food allergies, and my life resembles a circus just a little bit. I decided to post the last two days together to save a little time.

Classroom management is so important. It is an area that every teacher must improve on every year because every single class is different. I spend a lot of time at the beginning of each school year focusing on classroom procedures and routines. While it takes a lot of time in the beginning, the payoff later makes it so worth it. Later in the year, I am able to quickly manage my classroom and focus more heavily on instruction without constantly having to stop instruction to correct a behavior.

A few of the things that I do…

·      Classroom Stoplight ~ Our school uses a stoplight program to help monitor behavior. I do think that it is effective for young children because they understand the concept of a stoplight. Green means go, yellow means slow down, and red means stop. This year, I opted to use pizza boards as my stoplight. After adding a little cricut vinyl to them, they are too precious. I printed each child’s picture in wallet size and added it to the board. Now students only have to “move their picture.” This really helps with my kinders who can’t recognize their own names.

·      Lunch Count Clipboard ~ I LOVE my lunch count clipboard. It makes taking the lunch count so easy. I am also able to easily carry it to the lunchroom to make sure none of my kindergartners are changing their lunch choices. Each child has their name on a white plastic clothespin. It honestly takes about 2 minutes for me to ask each child for their lunch choice.

·      Daily folders ~ I know that some teachers only send home weekly folders in kindergarten, but I am doing daily folders. While work is not going home each day, I do like sending home the folder for communication purposes.  I would rather look in the folder each day for a transportation change then chance depending on a 5 year old to remember to give me the note that is floating in the bottom of their book bag. I call my daily folders my B.E.E. folders. I was a little concerned when all I could find at Walmart was black plastic folders-YUCK! But my bee themed turned them into a cute communication method. I will post pictures later.

·      Pencils ~ I HATE pencils! I hate sharpening them, I hate pencil shavings, I hate kids sharpening them, I hate how dirty they make your hands. This year, I used my cricut vinyl to make a pencil holder out of a straw dispenser. It turned out cute and is so easy for students to use to retrieve a pencil. Plus, I can easily sharpen any dull pencils and then drop them in the top.

·      Student numbers ~ Why did I not think of this earlier??? With my older kiddos (2^nd and 3^rd grade), they could always put themselves in number order quickly. With my kinders, umm… not so much. The night before school started, I quickly cut out numbers with cricut vinyl. It took about 5 minutes honestly to cut them out and put them on the tile. The first day, my students learned their number and could easily line up with no problems. This was especially helpful since we had a fire drill during the first two hours of school! Bless my kinders hearts- they were so scared! Anyway, I highly recommend that any teacher do this. This vinyl will easily peel up at the end of the year, but is stuck tight now. The wonderful custodians have even mopped without any problems. This is a must try!

My teacher tip is to never stop learning. I never want to be the teacher who decides that she has everything perfect and doesn’t need to change up her teaching. I purposely throw my lesson plans away at the end of each year because I never want to use the same plans again. I thrive on finding new ways to best meet my kiddos. The best teachers are constantly improving on what they already do. Don’t get stuck in a rut.

I can’t wait to see what other classroom management tricks and teacher tips teachers have up their sleeves. Our greatest strength as teachers is our ability to learn from each other. This blog party is sure to be a great asset to all teachers. Have a great week!

Teacher Week '13: Classroom Digs

Today is the second day of the 2013 Teacher Week hosted by Blog Hoppin'. The theme of the day is classroom digs and I am so excited to share my adorable classroom. I wanted a classroom that I wanted to be in, a classroom that was happy and fun. I LOVE this room!

I want to start by showing you a before picture. This made me want to cry. It is never a good sign when the custodian is begging you not to cry as you walk down to your room for the first time all summer. All I can say is YIKES!!! 120 something boxes a 3 weeks later, it is perfect.

Here is the after pictures.

One thing that you may notice is that I do not have a teacher desk. I felt like this was a wasteful piece of furniture that took up a huge amount of space and provided no use for students. Honestly, I haven't even thought twice about it. I would much rather spread out at a table instead.

I hope you enjoyed the tour around my classroom digs. I hope you have a Terrific Tuesday!

Let’s Talk About Me!

This week I am linking up with Blog Hoppin’ for Teacher Week. It is a wonderful way to connect with other teachers and share wonderful ideas that can help all of us be better educators.

The theme of the day today is “Let’s Talk About Me!”

1. My name is Elizabeth Davis and I live and teach in the mountains of north Georgia. I just started my 8th year as an elementary school teacher last week.  I have my bachelor’s degree in early childhood and special education. I received my masters in early childhood education. I also hold both a reading endorsement and a teaching of gifted endorsement. I have taught first, second, and third grades, focusing on gifted education the past few years. This year I am so excited that I am teaching kindergarten!

2. I love teaching. It is a passion in my life, and I wake up everyday excited to go to work. I learn so much everyday from my kiddos. The biggest influence on my life had to be a precious group of students that I have the privledge of teaching three years ago. One of the students in my class had a terminal illness and passed away during the school year. I watched my students grow into such wonderful people with such servants hearts. That class taught me so much and changed my outlook on teaching and life. I am so thankful that God put these precious individuals in my life.

3. I am married to Mr. Davis (as my kiddos at school call him). He is a fire fighter. We started dating while I was a freshman in college and have been together ever since. We just celebrated our 7th anniversary. 

4. We have two precious littles that are the delights of our lives! Our son, Eric, is four and is a comedian. He has the quickest wit that I have ever seen. He loves visiting aquariums, and wants to go to Sea World to meet a “killing whale”. Recently I took him to the Ripley’s Aquarium in the Smokies in Gatlinberg, Tennessee; he thought it was a pet shop. He keeps asking me when his pet penguin is coming to live at our house. 

5. Our daughter, Caroline, is one. She is a little princess, and has her daddy completely wrapped around her finger. She LOVES playing with her baby dolls, wearing big bows (the bigger the better), and following her big brother around. I think a trip to Cabbage Patch Land is in our very near future. 

6. I am a Christian and strive let God’s light shine through me everyday with my actions. I teach children’s church each Sunday. It is so much fun because most Sundays I have a lot of my students from school in my class. 

7. My hobbies are baking (when I have time), reading, blogging, and making things on my cricut. I also love to to sew but don't have the time. I was so excited to get a cricut for my house and a cricut for my classroom. I use them that much.

8. My husband believes that I also have a hobby of shopping, and he is right. I am a huge compulsive shopper. I love buying things for my kids (baby gap and kid boutiques- I love anything smocked) and for my classroom. I love to shop at Coldwater Creek and the Loft for me. 

9. I am also a Disney fanatic and up for a Disney trip EVERYDAY! We took the kids to Disney at the beginning of summer and are already planning a return trip next year. Growing up, I wanted to work at Disney and be a character. 

10. I have two sisters that are my best friends. I talk to them at least a couple of times a day. Amy is a doctor of physical therapy and Susannah just started college. I am a very proud sister. They are the "honeybees"  to my kids- Aunt Honey and Aunt Bee. 

I can’t wait to meet so many new friends through our linky party.

I love Back to School time!