Monday, July 23, 2012

First Day of School!

Yeah, you heard me right, school started today! I know most people have weeks of summer vacation left, but we are already in learning mode!

This is the start of my 9th year and it is starting out to be so different than the previous 8. The biggest difference so far, is that I haven't been stressing, and that is a HUGE deal for me. I still haven't finished unpacking from my classroom change and even though the school was open on the weekend I didn't go anywhere near campus. Usually the weekend before school starts is full on anxiety and moping (can anyone say 'pity party'!). But not this year! It was a weekend like any other.

Then this morning came around, I walked into my room and was not greeted by a nice, cool, air-conditioned room. My AC wasn't working! So my new fifth graders and I endured in there for an hour until they headed to specials. We were drenched, but we persevered, and I continued with my theme of not stressing. An hour later the air was fixed and the rest of the day was much more comfortable. Despite the AC fiasco, this was the smoothest first day of school in my career.

I have a lot to share in the coming days/weeks as I get my classroom completed as the kids start diving in. Probably the highlight of the day was Classbook. Each kid (I have one too!) has a status box on the news feed and the kiddos wrote their first day "status" at the end of the day. For now they have the generic Facebook profile pic, but I will be adding their photos soon. I am also going to be introducing a like button and a comment box as well. For now I will be using the Classbook as a place for reflection and for students to write what they have learned. It seems to be a hit so far!

My favorite status of the day: "I had one of the best days of all my school years."

Stay tuned for more Classbook updates!

13 comments:

  1. Wonderful start to the year! I too am teaching 5th grade coming from 6th where I will be looping with this group. I've been teaching for 17 years and need to change things up big time. Would you mind if I use your ideas? I'll be following you as I don't start until the end of Aug. I hope to share with you as well. Good luck for the rest of the week!

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  2. Hi Jelaine, I'm here to share! Looping is the BEST! I'm going to suggest to our new principal that we should start having the 5th and 6th grade teachers loop with classes.

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  3. Love this idea. Are you possibly selling the graphics for it? Love to adapt for my classroom!

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  4. I'm not quite finished with it, I may consider selling it when I do finish. Sorry I don't have it ready now.

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  5. I'd love to be able to get graphics too. I want to make a facebook-style bulletin board where kids recommend books to each other using the "like" button.

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  6. My friend just sent me this page after I told her about my Scholarbook idea haha! Excited to read more of your wonderful ideas. I love including social media in school. It's all around us anyways!
    -Becca

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  7. I was wondering if you have a link or pdf of the graphics you used? I would love to recreate!!!

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  8. Can you post a pdf for the sheet you used for the status updates? I really want to do this!!!
    Email me at ASwindle@cfl.rr.com I'll pay for it of course! :)

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  9. I'm working on it, I'll let you know when it's ready for purchase :D

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  10. Love your idea and just finished making my own for my first day..I teach middle school English I I made some for each of my 3 classes. Can not wait to try them tomorrow. GREAT IDEA!! Have a great school year.

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  11. Awesome L.B., I'd love to see what you came up with. Your middle schoolers are going to love it!

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  12. I just came across your blog, and I LOVE this idea! It's great that the kids get to comment on the success of their day. I think I am going to try to integrate this with a "ticket out the door" where students can also put post-its of reflections of certain lessons on their name card as well. Great idea that will appeal to my upper elementary students!

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