Count Down Begins!

This is my last Friday before school begins, and I haven't been to my classroom all week!  Whohoo!  I'm actually impressed with myself, because I'm usually there at least once a week, so not having been there since last Friday is really good for me.  So, I wonder what's waiting for me there...

Our first workshop day is Monday, but it's district-wide, so I won't be spending any time in my building until Tuesday.  So, my plan is to head over there early Monday morning before I need to be at the district wide workshop and just make sure everything is all set.  I have a couple of things to drop off and I probably have some parent or student letters waiting for me.

A couple of weeks ago, I sent out an introductory letter to my parents and a separate one for my students.  I asked parents to tell me about their child.  It gives them a chance to brag.  In all the years I've been doing this at the start of the year, I only had 1 parent who 'warned' me about how annoying, talkative, and inattentive her child was.  As sad as I felt reading it, I strongly believe it was the best thing, because it gave me an idea of what this little gal went home to, so I was able to give her the positive attention she deserved at school.

As much as I enjoy sending and receiving these letters, I usually only receive a fraction of what I sent out.  For example, this year, I sent out 12 letters and have only heard from 4 families (which includes parent and child).  Like I said, I might still have some waiting for me at school, and last year I received one more on the first day of school.  Oh well, some is better than none.

As of last Friday all of my bulletin boards were finished and my areas were set up.

This is one of my bulletin boards behind where I'm going to have our small groups.  I have a small table with some station work (math & language arts), and the expectations on anchor charts.  My classroom will be loosely based on CAFE, using some of the concepts, but I found a structure that I found worked well last year.

This is how I'm planning to approach our social studies unit.  I have a drawing of our state (I have fixed the paper since this picture was taken so it looks neater), and we're going to spend the first couple of days talking about what we know about our state.  The capital, where we live, other places that we know of (national parks and state parks), then go from there.

This is where I'm keeping track of my classroom jobs.   I've decided to forego the student of the week, at least the way I did last year, and rotate responsibilities instead.

This is my help wall.  Some of what's up there has changed, but the green and blue poster boards are still there.  There are lots of masking tape and Command Strips behind those posters, but I couldn't see undoing them, and the different colors helps divide the subjects.

This is where our calendar is located, as well as our daily schedule.  As long as I can remember to make the appropriate changes each day, I can avoid the usual questions of what do we have today.  Next to the schedule are hanging pockets where I store my concept charts that I'll display on my document camera.

Here is where I've place my classroom management chart.  This is the first time I'm trying it, so  I hope it works out well.

       I thought I had a picture of our meeting/reading area, but couldn't find one finished.  I'll add that picture later on.  Cosmetically, it looks like I'm ready.  Curriculum wise, I feel like I'm ready.  Now I have to get back into the school/teaching zone.  I spent all summer in school mode, and this week I managed to take a break from it.  I just hope I'm there on Monday when we have our first workshop.