My New Room

Tuesday I moved into my new classroom. Thursday was the first Parent Teacher night. I needed to have my room some what put together by then! Not to mention have it function-able for class on Wednesday! Let the work begin.

Here are a few pictures of my new room:

2nd Week: Moving Classrooms

On Thursday of the first week of school, myself and another teacher were called for a meeting with the principal and superintendent of our school. We found out that we needed to switch classrooms. One of my student's parents has a physical limitation that limits her from safely climbing stairs. My room was upstairs. So, we were told we were switching rooms to accommodate the parent's needs. What an overwhelming thought! My thoughts were conflicting: Of course I want to help out this parent, but my room....I spent so much time getting it ready - my first classroom. Then the Lord helped me realize that I didn't come all the way to CA just to decorate a classroom. I came to impact lives and minister to families. This was a very practical way to live that out. And so, I packed up my beautiful classroom with some help from my students and we moved rooms.

I wish I had pictures to show you of the tremendous support and group of people that showed up Tuesday of this week to help move but I was a little busy running between rooms, directing traffic, and figuring out logistics. Parents from both classrooms volunteered to help. Teachers stayed late to help. It was an incredible moment of seeing a group of Christians coming together with one goal in mind. Even though the news of changing classrooms was difficult to hear, I must say that I love my school even more now after seeing the great community of people that are a part of the school family.

And now the unpacking begins again and the classroom redecorating and reorganizing begins - all before my first parent night on Thursday. :)

How to Challenge an "Above Level" Student?

Getting to know my 3rd graders this past week has been so much fun! I absolutely love my kids! I do need some help though with one of them:

One of my students is above grade level in everything. He finishes his work in record time and gets just about everything correct. He is very knowledgeable and likes to read our class encyclopedia or make origami when he is finished with his work. I want to give him something challenging to do. Making origami and reading the encyclopedia are great things, but this is school after all and I want this year to be a year that he is really challenged in school so that he can keep growing in his academic gifts.

Do you have any suggestions on how I can help him do this? I don't want to just give him complicated worksheets or what not. Those are great, but I want to do more than that. I thought about putting him to work on a big research project for him to work on for a couple of weeks. He likes learning new things and loves reading books. I'm thinking I could get him started on a research project. He chooses the topic from a list of topics I give him and then he could learn to find books in the library and how to research a topic. After researching I could then help guide him through the writing process and he could make a little "book" on his topic. Hmmm....what do you think? Any other ideas?? Please help! I really am at a loss right now.

Fish Net for Pictures

A little while back I posted about a fish net I hung up in my classroom to paper clip the students' art work onto. Several people commented on it and asked for a closer up picture. Below is a closer up picture of the fish net idea. I don't have one from my classroom yet, but this is it being used at a children's home in Kenya. While doing Bible studies there we used the fish net to paper clip their pictures and verses onto. It is such a nice easy idea that saves on tape, paint, and time!  Just hook a paper clip through the fish net, put the paper through the paper clip, and you're done!

I found my fish net at Party City. It was only about $9. Great buy in my opinion!

First Day of School!

What a day! It was fun and exhausting but I was so thankful for how it all seemed so normal at the same time. What a great sense of peace that comes from knowing you are doing what the Lord has told you to do. :)

Well, no earthquake happened! At least on my side of the country...I heard there was one on the eastern coast....

The morning started off with pretty much every parent crowded into the back of our room taking pictures, hovering, etc. So I gathered all the parents up and had them make a circle around their students. Together we prayed for the year and dedicated the students and the year of learning and growth to the Lord. It was a touching moment for me. After that I gently thanked the parents for coming and praying and wished them a good day! They left and our morning began.

It certainly had its crazy moments, but overall things went really well! We learned a lot of procedures today and actually got a bit of work done too. The BIG thing in 3rd grade is that this is the 1st year they can use big 3 ring binders. So we spent an hour today learning how to organize a binder. What an ordeal! I had no idea how difficult that would be...but it was fun at the same time to see their excitement in this new learning phase!

My kids are great - I will have my hands full but they are all so wonderful. I love them so much already! Several of them even came up and gave me big hugs before they left today! Talk about feeling loved. :) I'm looking forward to tomorrow and can't wait to see them again!

Finished Room, Open House and Back to School BBQ

Today I got to meet my third grade students and parents! How exciting!! And slightly overwhelming/intimidating, but overall, it was great! Here are a few of the questions I was asked today over and over:

- "Benscooooter? Is that right?" "Umm...no it is Benscoter with a long o...haha"
- "Where are you from?" "Alabama." "Whoa! But you don't sound like you are from there." "No...no I don't really..."
- "How long have you been here?" "3 weeks!" "Only 3 weeks! My goodness! And what do you think of the Bay Area so far?" "Well I haven't really seen the area much yet....I have only seen the school, my apartment, and Target"

And so on and so forth. :) It was fun meeting everyone! The parents are the most wonderful parents who are very supportive and seem very happy to have a new young teacher. My students are great and seem full of life! I will definitely have my hands full ;)

So, I am looking forward to tomorrow but I am also nervous about the first day! Ahh...but it will be good. Tonight we had a Back to School BBQ with K-12 and parents, etc. It was a great time. All the teachers helped out manning a booth (I was at the Bouncy House). It was exhausting but so much fun! I got to meet many more parents and just being around kids in general energized me and reminded me why I was doing what I was doing. Overall, a great but exhausting day! Who knows what will happen tomorrow. Let's just hope my first earthquake doesn't happen during the first day of school.....haha....But no, seriously...let's hope not. :)

Below are pictures of my finished classroom!

A Decorated Classroom!

Today I finally finished decorating my classroom! I still have organizing to do but the walls are completed :)

Here are some pictures:
The board area. My college's motto was Christ Above All. What a great reminder to see every day while I teach and hopefully to the kids as they learn more about their Creator.

 The discipline system of the school uses tallies or "reminders". HOW I ACT stands for:
- Hullabaloo, Out of order, Work not in, Intentional disobedience, Attitude lacking, Compassion lacking, Talking
- There are purple tallies for "plus" tallies to give to reward good behavior.

My door area: "Adventure's Out There!" Great quote from one of my favorite Pixar movies. (Can you name it??)

I got a computer today!! So excited! And I have TWO file cabinets. Not sure what to do with both of them...but I'm sure they will fill up quickly. The fish net will be used to paper clip student art work to. The Kenyan family I lived with for two months (at a children's home outside of Nairobi: homes4children.org) had a fishing net that they used for this purpose. Thought it would work well in the classroom. :)

 fANTastic work wall - yes, I have given into the elementary teacher pun world ;)

Cubbies stocked with books for each student!! YAY! This took a while today...going through all the textbooks, numbering them, etc. But I'm so happy it is done. :)

And under my board I put this as a good reminder of where to stay grounded in life and in all the subjects we study together.

Now, let the organizing begin!