What a Week and Classroom Pics!

WHEW!
This was our teacher week and let me tell you...it was a bit of a blur!

Tuesday was our official first day back to school as a staff.  We start out our day at the high school for a welcome back breakfast and then district meetings.  Throw in a union meeting and the morning is filled!  During the afternoon we were trained on our online grade book called Power School.

Wednesday morning we were able to work in our classrooms and we had our staff meeting in the afternoon.  Ummm...any other Ohio teachers out there hearing about this Third Grade Guarantee?  Is this in other states too?  Yowzers!  Curious??  You can read about it here.  Click on "Guidance Document" for the details.  It gives me anxiety...so you may want to have your "kool-aid" nearby!  :)

Thursday was our day to spend in our classrooms to get ready for open house.  So...here are my pictures!  I have a few other things to add this weekend but for the most part, I was ready for open house!  I'm in a Pre-K to Second Grade building so our open houses start with Kindergarten from 3:30-4:30; First Grade from 4:45-5:45 and Second Grade from 6:00-7:00.  Open House went well!  All of my families came!

So here we go...This is my front door!  I put my calendar on my door this year because I won't be doing a calendar routine with my kiddos.  Since we're departmentalizing this year, my friend who is teaching math is going to do a little calendar work during her time with the kiddos.  Most of the new teachers have those "Daily News" posters that they leave messages for their kiddos each day.  All last year I watched how their cuties would stop and read their messages each day so I'm going to try it this year with my bunch!

This is the bulletin board outside my classroom.  I  hung my class roster, "Miss Long's Crew" and a few letters from last year's firsties that I retyped about how great first grade was for them.  Can't wait to add some "kid art" to my walls!

I found this quote on pinterest and as the reading teacher, I thought it was perfect.

 My "First Day of First Grade" frame...

The view from my door...

A peek around the room...

My Brag Tag "wall" (the back of the bookshelf my dad fixed for me)...

Classroom Library area...

Listen to Reading area, Crayon heaven and the bus tags my new families were supposed to complete and return...yeah...I kind of forgot about this...oops!

My little corner of the world...

I had some space to fill above my windows...

"We can do HARD things!"

"Proud to be PIRATES"
(Our mascot is a pirate.)

Just two more...Work on Writing and Word Work activities...

So there we go!  Ready for the kiddos on Monday morning!  Well...except for one small detail...LESSON PLANS!!!!

Spent tonight catching up on the 400+ posts on my Google Reader...Holy Smokes!  You've been busy!  

Talk soon!