Meet The Teacher Planning

     Since there's about a week and a half left until school starts, the anxiety is starting to kick in! The biggest thing I'm getting a tad anxious and nervous about is the infamous Meet the Teacher Night. Our meet the teacher night is Monday, August 18 (2 days before school starts). I don't quite have all the details of things that are expected at my school that night but I've begun planning how I want to go about this night and things that I want parents to do. I know I'm going to have envelopes for parents to take when they walk in the classroom that have all the paperwork they need to fill out and anything for them to take home. I'm going to have labeled baskets for them to turn in the papers as well. I've seen different things about sending home a "brochure" for your classroom or a pamphlet about rules and expectations but I'm not sure what I'm going to do just yet.

     So this post is really just a call for help. I would LOVE to hear how you plan your meet the teacher night and what things you have out for parents to fill out. Suggestions, comments or any tidbits that I should know for this night would be awesome!

Thanks guys!

It's Crunch Time

     2 weeks. 2 weeks and counting until I'll be face to face with 18 little first graders. I am a ball of emotions just thinking about how little time there is left. I'm anxious, nervous, excited, worried, and pretty much every other emotion! There's also the feeling of "holy crap my room's not even close to being done yet". I am making progress, however! Whenever a teacher walks by they always tell me "It's starting to come together!" and I see that, I just know I have SO much more to do. Of course I've started different projects and just haven't finished them yet. Fortunately for my sanity I had to take a day off because I just got my wisdom teeth removed today. Ouchie. And tomorrow I've got a full day of grade level planning with my team...yay for a great first impression (chubby cheeks and all).
     Besides all the negative things I just talked about I'm SO happy to see some of the things in my room come together. I've got some updated pictures so you can see some of the things I've done...which really doesn't look like much but to me it is!!

View of my room from the door.

 

My behavior management chart that I LOVE! This is probably the thing I'm most proud of in my room since I made it completely on my own :)

 

My reading corner so far. I want to make it a bit more cozy and comfortable so stay tuned to see more progress here!

Book buddies in my reading nook for students to "read to someone". Got these for $1 each at Dollar Tree.

Classroom library. I'm still thinking about ways to organize my books and labels and such. Any suggestions would be great! Got these bins at Dollar General for about $3 each.

The beginning of my writing center. Still experimenting with how I want the bulletin board to look but this center is complete with sharp/dull pencil cups, journal prompts jar, student dictionaries and a crayon organizer (hello OCD).

Classroom computers that I moved against the wall. Some people suggested I turn them the opposite way so students not at the computers can't be distracted by what's going on on the computer but for me I need to be able to see what students are doing on the computers.

My teacher corner (since I don't have a desk). My word wall is going to be on the white board to the right and on the actual wall I'm going to put up some pictures of myself and my family for an "All About Miss Oliver" wall.

We are a "Leader in Me" school so these are the 7 Habits posters that my school gave me. I'm still working on some extras to put at the top and around the posters to jazz it up a bit.

Lastly, here's a view from the back of my room to the front. I love the fact that there's a huge space in the middle for whole group time. The bulletin board to the right is going to be home to our classroom timeline (stay tuned for info about that). The bins on the bookshelf under the SMARTboard (which I've replaced with cuter ones) have my math manipulative kits and some other center materials...still a work in progress.

 

 

Well, that's all I've got so far! It's already a change from when I first walked in my door and I'm proud of what I've accomplished so far. Can't wait to actually start finishing all the projects I've started!