Current Projects

I have many things that I am currently thinking about and working on in order to make my classroom, and this blog a success! I often find myself browsing the oh so many spectacular teacher blogs that their are out there, and I notice how many followers they have, and how active they are in the blogging community. At this point I feel two things: 1.) I can't wait until I reach that point! 2.) How in the WORLD do these people manage both their classrooms and such a successful blog that they post to regularly. It takes everything I have in me not to pull my hair out EVERY day because I feel such an overwhelming sense of defeat at the end of each school day. This job is more than a full time job, because I spend EVERY waking minute planning and preparing for the next day. 

However, I am currently working to feel less overwhelmed, and I feel I am getting there... slowly but surely! Although... I will let you know how I feel in a couple weeks... 

Currently I am working on a few projects and I would like to share one of them with you all :) I hope you like it! 

Weekly Digital Newsletter: 

Since my classroom is an independent studies classroom, my students to a great deal of work independently, which makes it challenging to keep track of all this work. Furthermore, parents want to know what their kiddos have been working on all week, and are hungry for some feedback. I do send home Daily Learning Logs that keep track of what the student completed/worked on for that day, but I was still in the market for something a little more comprehensive to help me keep track, and to keep the parents well informed. 

I began to think about the possibility of using a newsletter. This was something I had used in the past that got great feedback from parents. It featured information about out week, upcoming important dates, and some feedback about their child for that week. The downside: I used a TON of paper to pull this off on a weekly basis. Not to mention at the time, these newsletters were attached to a weekly homework packet. 

This is not ideal, so I considered creating a newsletter "website" and having individual student information for the parents to click on. I played around with google sites for about 5 minutes until I realized that my plan was way too time consuming, and not very practical in the way I was thinking of using it. 

Then it hit me... create a document on Microsoft Word, and use a Mail Merge to input all the student information, that way I can email parents and attach the document! No printing, or web site figuring out required!!! 

The creation of the document and the spreadsheet that I will be using for this project did take me about an hour to complete, and then another hour to refresh my memory with the mail merge. The reason this took so long, was because I had to open and save EACH mail merged document individually. I also had to go back and re-save my documents as PDF's because I realized it would be unprofessional to send them as word documents. 

However, I have finished now with this project (I am in the process of emailing them all individually) so I figured I would show you all what I created :) I must admit, I LOVE the end product, however... it is taking a minute to email each bulletin individually... I am on the hunt for an easier way to do this! 

Page 1 of the newsletter features a note from me, our week at a glance, and upcoming important dates for parents to remember, I also included a picture from the week of the students participating in a brain-based activity. 

Page 2 features all the independent work from the week. It informs parents of whether or not work was completed, and if their child has some work to do over the weekend. Scores for certain assignments are also reported. 

The last page is simple, just a quick thank you for reading and some extra information about this very first newsletter. I think future newsletters might just be 2 pages.

Emotional Roller Coaster Ride

I am four weeks into my first year as an elementary school teacher. I did everything possible (even without knowing it) to prepare for this moment. My second block of student teaching was spent in a 2/3 combo class. My first long term sub assignment was in a 3/4 combo class. My second long term sub position was in a 4/5 combo class at the school that I signed my contract with. Everything I did prepared me to teach in a multi-age classroom at Aveson. My experience and my attitude together should have been enough to get me through this first year of teaching without having to deal with ANY of the first year teacher blues that I have heard SO much about ever since I decided to get into this profession. 

I was wrong. 

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING could have prepared me for this year. I'm not complaining... just stating the obvious fact. This job is HARD! I spent so much time resenting the teachers that complained about their jobs in the lunch room while I was substitute teaching. I used to think they were so lucky for having a job, and I thought if I was ever given the honor to have my own that I would NEVER complain, because I would just be so happy to have a job in the first place. Now I have one, and don't get me wrong... I feel VERY lucky! However, I am starting to realize a bit where these other teachers are coming from. 

Some days I come home feeling like I was crazy for choosing this profession, and that I can't handle it... and other days I come home feeling extremely fulfilled because I know I am doing what I am supposed to be doing; and yet still others I am just so tired that I don't even have time to think. Everyone keeps telling me that what I am feeling is "normal," but a big part of me knows that these types of up and down emotions shouldn't be normal. Luckily for me, I am currently feeling fulfilled :) Let's hope this keeps up! Week 5... BRING IT ON!