The Call Family

Well, school has been back in session for a little over a month now. Things are quite a bit crazier being full time. I spent most of the summer getting my room ready for the year. My theme is “Crayon”. On the second day of school I read the book “The Crayon Box That Talked” and we had a discussion about how we are all different not one of us is the same color as another. You can’t make a beautiful picture with just one color you have to have every color to create a beautiful picture. With that, here is a picture of what my room looked like at Back to School Night.

This is the bulletin board right behind my desk. The “C” made with crayon was given to me by one of my students a couple of years ago for Christmas and it went right along with my theme. I love it.

These are my class jobs. I had the students color crayons that had their names on them on the first day of school to use as job markers.

We have the “Teacher’s Assistant” who does whatever I need them to do. The “Inspector” who makes sure that the other students do their jobs and also checks the room at the end of the day to make sure we are ready to go home. The “Banker” who checks to see if anyone has lunch money or other money to turn in to the office at the beginning of each day. The “Mail Carrier” passes out papers for me. The “Photographer” uses my special camera to take pictures of the different activities we do in class for me to use to create a slideshow at the end of the year. The “Line Leader” leads the line. The “Librarian” makes sure that all of my books are put away nicely. And the “Hall Monitor” walks beside the class in the halls and sets an example of how we need to act in the halls.

This is my Math and Writing bulletin board. I created all of the posters on the Writing board. I think they turned out really cute. We are using this new method of writing called “4-Square”. It is a great way for the students to be able to organize their ideas and put them into paragraphs. I am loving it so far!

This is my “Classroom Rules” poster that I created. (I had a lot of fun creating everything for my bulletin boards and walls as you can see!)

This is my Reading and Calendar bulletin board. You can also see my bench at the bottom of the picture. My teaching partner from last year left it for me to use. It used to be white, I took it home and painted it black and changed the cover on it and it looks completely different. I am loving it.

As I mentioned earlier it is a lot crazier teaching full time than I ever expected it to be. The first couple of weeks were a blur. I felt like I didn’t have enough time to get anything done at work or home. Things are starting to settle down now that I am getting the hang of things. I am loving having my own room and being able to do things my own way. I feel like I have more control over what happens in my classroom.

The biggest downside to teaching full time is having to leave my kids all day. Luckily, we have a neighbor who does day care in her home. I took Avery and Kaden over to meet her about a week before school started and they loved it so much they didn’t want to come home. I am so thankful to have such great people taking care of my kids when I can’t. I am so grateful that my kids love to be there. Avery asks me every day if she can go to day care and play. As hard as it is to leave my kids every day I am extremely grateful that they love to be there and that they are being loved and taken care of.