First Week of School

Wednesday was the first day of school!  YEP, earlier than my east coast friends (and, well, than most of America).  I was glad to get started though.  Green Valley is an innovation school, meaning because the school has not met the goals for testing set by the state, we were able to adopt brand new curricula and approach our school year differently.  We have a school year that is extended by 10 days and a school day extended by an hour each day.  I am thrilled to be on the Green Valley Dream Team as we work hard to bring about positive change so our children can succeed.

The first three days went great!  I did feel a big difference in a class size of 33 kids and counting, compared to my average 17 at Westside, though!  I also felt exhausted after normally getting out by 2:25 and now we stay until 4:00.  The afternoon is three hours long without a true break (other than brain and body breaks) which is .... well, LONG.  But I imagine time will fly once we get into the curriculum.   GVE has a lot of great teachers with high energy, and my fourth graders are really bright and mature, so it's easy to want to come to school every day!

A few pics of some the things in my classroom...

I may not have a SMART Board, but I have a projector, doc camera, macbook, and ipad.  I'll take it!

Sometimes I crack myself up.

Painter's tape schedule... note how LONG our day is... but it's for the better.

We added b'day cake glyphs on the second day of school which I forgot to take a pic of.

Team incentives--10 links earns prize box for the team.

My Eric Carle Grouchy Ladybug from Holly (Cookie, my other ladybug is on my ladybug table which was a blurry picture so I didn't post!)

A new way of taking attendance--kids remove clip with their # on it and add it to the bucket.  We shall see if this beats me taking 30 seconds just to call everyone's name, lol.

This was written on the back of a girl's paper when we were working on the Heart Maps activity (which I also forgot to take a picture of). 

Mrs. Sayre actually gave up control of writing the rules and let children do it/sign the agreement.  

All of the first day of school supplies.  Wow!

When asked what their #1 goal is for the school year, this is what I got from one kid.  

Me too, buddy, me too.

I totally think it's important for me to know that this student is, in fact, a football.

Will continue to post more... forgot to take a picture of the room as a whole, will do soon!