New Teachers Unite

     Yet another day of professional development in the books, almost, and yet another tired teacher! The past two days were just for us first year teachers so it was more tailored for some suggestions about assessment and management and grade level specifics.Yesterday I was in a class with pre-k to 2nd grade teachers so we all shared a love of the little ones :) Today I was only with my fellow first grade teachers so a lot of the things we discussed today were strictly for first grade. It's really helping me reduce some of my stress a little bit because we are going over all the different procedures and things that need to be present in a first grade room, something I have been stressing over! The two teachers that are "presenting" for first grade are extremely helpful in all areas. They are emailing us copies of their procedure books, behavior charts, and pretty much any resource they have. Knowing that there are all of these people that are available to help and give me resources for my first year makes me a tad bit less stressed. Everyone I've met has really emphasized the fact that it is my first year and I will ask a ton of questions but that's ok!
     I've also got to give a shout out to some of the amazing people in my district. I'm not sure who or how many of them did but someone donated a TON of books, organizational things, teacher bags, and furniture for our classrooms, and each school created a gift basket as door prizes (none of which I won :( ). It was pretty much a free for all once we were let out for lunch and I ended up snagging about 10 or so books for my classroom library...all free :) It's the little things like that that my district is doing that really makes me happy about my choice to be in this district. We are a pretty well known district, not only in the state of South Carolina but also nationally. We've won awards for technology use and, if I heard correctly, we are one of the top districts with teachers who are nationally board certified (I think they said we've got about 1,000 or so teachers who are!). I know it sounds like I'm bragging, because frankly I am. It's amazing to be part of such a wonderful, supportive district and I haven't even begun my school year yet! There's so much I've still got to learn and I know that but right now I'm definitely calming down a bit because of all the support I've been given by the district.
     Another awesome thing I've been given the opportunity to do is sit down with my fellow first grade teachers and actually plan out the first few days of school. Today we are getting to talk with some veteran teachers about planning the first few days. Their plan is to give us suggestions and copies of activities they do with their students and actually plan those days with us. That's definitely a weight off my shoulders because that was something I was definitely getting concerned about. I don't really know what to do! I know procedures and things are a big part of the first few weeks but I wasn't quite sure how to go about them. Some people have said to jump right into the content and teach procedures at the same time. Obviously I'm going to do some little review things at the beginning but there's no way I'm going to say, "Ok guys, open your Treasures reading book to page one...we're going to discuss elements of a story." That's just not something I would want to do my first day!
     Sorry for the long post but I've just been so overwhelmed with information that I just had to share some of it! I finally get to go back to my classroom on Monday and actually get to set some things up since summer school is over, YAY! I'll definitely be posting some pictures of my room as things start to get finished...slowly, but surely!
     I would like to pose a question to some of my fellow teachers, and this is centered around behavior management, of course! I've got a clip chart that I'm going to be using in my classroom. It's your standard colored chart the gives students the chance to clip up for excellent behavior and clip down for negative behavior. My question to you is this: What is your procedure for either documenting daily student behavior over time or sending notes home to parents for negative behavior? I've heard multiple things about how teachers do this and I'm curious to know some other opinions! Any suggestions or comments are appreciated :)