Teacher Talk Tuesday!

Advise for all the newbies:

  1. Make Friends-custodians are very important to the school community.  They can be very helpful to teachers every day.  Treat them well and they will help make your day.

-other teachers can be great resources, helpful, super listeners, and amazing with advise.

-office staff are terrific connections between home and school and the administration.

   2. Dress Professionally every day.  When you look professional you will be treated with more respect.

   3.  Read Teacher Blogs.  Blogs are amazing resources!!!

   4.  Smile and have fun every day! 

    5.  Never Give Up!  You can do it!  You're just doing it your own way!

Claire

Meet the Teacher Monday!

A Little about me!

I love teaching first grade.  Some mornings I jump out of bed excited to start the day with my little ones.  I live in NY and drive over a large bridge to teach in a wonderful little town called Highgate, Vermont!  I am a chocoholic and I love my once a day Diet Coke!  I am a crafter, always looking for great Christmas projects to make for others.  This week I am saying good bye to my two terrific kids Catherine and Bobbie who are both off to school.  It will be pretty quiet around here without them:(

How long have you been teaching?

   Well I started my teaching career by subbing for about 7 years before I landed in  a warm and beautiful school in Highgate.  I am starting my 22nd year!  I'm feeling old.....

You may not know....

I started my career wanting to save the earth in Natural Resource Management.  Soil Science and Chemistry were not for me.  Once I changed to Early Childhood Development everything just clicked for me.  I loved it.  Another little fact about me is..... I am one of 12 children!  I have family all over the US and I love them all.  We all grew up in Maine and I try to go back each summer to reconnect!

What are you most looking forward to this school year!

I am looking for to skyping with fellow blogger Laurie Hilton over at Morning Sun First Grade.  I am so excited to connect with another first grade.  I am also very excited about using our new ipod touches.  They will be a great addition to our program. 

Things I need to work on

   This year I will need to work on my time management!  I want to do it all.  I need to figure out how to be more efficient while I am at school.  I also want to work on keeping my desk neat and cleaned off.

What teaching supplies can you not live without?

My computer is my most important teaching tool.  I have an extensive picture book collection and I couldn't teach without all my books.  I think I'm obsessed with them.

Check out all the teachers from this linky party at

School starts for me tomorrow with Teacher In-service!   I am excited and looking forward to a new year!

Claire

Summer Slowly Fading Away

          This week I spent 4 mornings in my classroom working to organize, sort, and set up.  I think it gets tougher every year.  I have so much "stuff" that it's hard to keep track of it all.  I love trying new things but I can't seem to let go of all the old things.  As I looked around my classroom today I got a little worried that I wouldn't be ready for the start of school.  I always seem to get overwhelmed mid-August.  I haven't been able to talk my kids into coming with me to help set things up.  They're just too busy being teenagers.
         Well I up-dated my website's main page to reflect the start of the new year.  I created a new list for my kidblog.com site.  I bought some blue and red nylon to make up some new homework bags.  I forgot the ribbon to make the handles.  I guess I've got to make a trip to Michaels.
         Technology will be a big focus for me this year.  I will be involved in a couple of internet projects with my class that should be fun.  We will be starting out the year 4 new ipod touches.  I am excited about all the ways we will use them.  I'm hoping it will spark my students into working on some projects with them.
        I am looking forward to skyping with some classrooms this year (a first for me) and to working on some new and exciting projects with Mrs. Campbell.  I want my class to make connections with other 6-7 year olds this year.  We'll see what happens.
       One week left before I have to sit for three days with all my old teacher friends.  I'm sad to see summer fading away and excited for a new year to begin.

Claire

Slow progress and Target/Staples/Borders finds

   I went into my classroom today to continue working on my book collection.  I spent most of my time just sorting.  This is only about 1/3 of all the books I have.  Stacks Stacks and more Stacks.

 Here are a few treasures that I found in Target's dollar section over the last few weeks.

   I love these double sided dry erase boards 4 for $1.  A new Word Work activity, yippee!

Staples had these great dry erase notebooks to practice printing and number formation.  Cheap at a $1.  I bought 6.

       Look at these cool things, Wonder Tubes.   I know everyone has heard of discovery bottles that you can make.  Well, these are tubes that have lots of little sequin and pictures inside to discover.  Each label has I Spy riddles and rhymes of things to find in the tube.  I think at the beginning of the year I will have them use the tube to find different items and write what they find into their vocabulary notebook.  Each tube is different.  I love the sparkle.  I bought them at Borders Books for about $2.50 each.  I will probably only use a couple at a time to stretch out the activity throughout the fall.  There is an A set, a B set, and a C set.

We finally had some rain today!  It was a much need relief from all the dryness.

Have a great day!

   

  aClaire

    

New Design

   Well, I was ready for a little change.  I've been playing around with a new design and I decided to use images that my students created of themselves.  I think it looks great.  Tell me what you think.
    I am happy that the hot sticky weather has finally moved on.  I love the sunshine every day, though it is pretty dry and we really do need rain, I love not mowing the lawn every week.  My deck garden is thriving because I'm able to water it every day.  My pool is sparkling and warm.  I just love summer.

I changed up my picture, too.  

Enjoy,

  aClaire

The Middle of Summer

    I just love summertime with it's warm sunny days and beautiful peaceful evenings:)  My on-deck garden is flourishing and my pool is crystal clear.  I just finished my first book of the summer called Bossy Pants by Tina Fey.  It was so funny.  Just what I needed.  I love easy mindless books in the summer to just relax with.
      I got a call 2 days ago, that my room had been finished, (you know cleaned and ready to be put back in order).  So yesterday I headed over to Highgate to start the process of reorganizing and rearranging.  I told myself that my goal this summer was to reorganize my massive book collection.  I spent about 3 1/2 hours yesterday and really made some progress.  I completed one corner and was able to throw out quite a bit of stuff.  Boy, I am such a pack rat.   I started to organized my collection according to the calendar and the themes.  It will definitely make my life easier at the end of every month when I switch out the books. It's funny how as the year progresses I seem to run out of shelf space to house all of the books.  All I really need was a little organization and boy, now I have lots of extra space.  I really like going into my classroom for a few hours at a time during the summer to get my self reset for the fall.  Once or twice a week takes away the stress of "how will I ever get all of this done".

        Here are 2 shots of my before.

   As I go through the process of setting up and reorganizing I plan of posting a few more pictures of the room.  

     I came across this great internet Chicka Chicka Boom Boom project that I joined today.  Brooke Perry on her Primary Perspective blog is setting it up.  Check it out!  I am looking forward to this project.  I hope more first grade classrooms join in.

http://www.eduperry.com/2011/07/chicka-chicka-boom-boom-letter-exchange.html

   I hope everyone is enjoying a great summer!  I think the weather is grand!

Claire

Happy Father's Day

Here is a picture of my dad and I in Ireland 2 years ago.  I took a trip with my sister Helen to visit him there.  I got a chance to talk to him yesterday with all of my brothers and sisters.  It was great to hear his voice (and all my 11 siblings, too) and got a sense of how he is.  He has dementia and is in a nursing home there.  Recently he fell and broke a shoulder and a hip.  He is on the mend and I could definitely hear that in his voice. I miss him living here in the states but he just loves his Ireland.  Yesterday, he asked about my kids:)  I hope his memories never fad.  He is one fantastic dad!

Here are some pictures of my father-in-law with my kids about 5 years ago.  He recently had some health problems and won't be able to make it to my son's graduation this week:(  We are missing his visit.  He is a terrific dad!  I look forward to our weekly chats.

And of course, here is a picture of my children's dad, Michael.  He was a very special man:)  He passed away nearly 17 years ago.  We have missed having him with us all these years:(  He would be so proud of both of his children.  Thursday's graduation will be bittersweet for me, having my son graduate and not having Michael here to be part of it.  It's been a long road and marvelous journey.  I miss you sweetheart!

I am finally out of school and loving it!  Today's weather will be gorgeous and the pool is open and heating up.  Time for some R and R.

I wish a Happy Father's Day to all my brothers and brothers-in-law Bob, George, Chuck, Joe, Mickey, Jeff, Allen, and Paul.  Have a great Father's Day everyone. 

Love, Claire