After the first couple of weeks of the school year, it's always a great time to reflect on the days and think about what went well, what didn't, what students need, what schedule changes do you need to make etc.
Well our first full week was interrupted by some crazy hot days which made it hard to get into a routine. This made it pretty difficult to see how an afternoon might look. But I did realize I had to make many changes to our morning schedule. And after thinking more about it, I realized again, we might have to tweak some things in our morning schedule to make our afternoon work better! It's an ever changing thing and it will take a few more days to get things fully figured out.
We did get a chance to start up our language arts/reading times. It went pretty well, but boy we didn't get everything done we needed to. With missing the afternoon all of last week, there were still many things I had to go over to get things in order for our reading time. So yeah. We have work to do. But I am excited about our DEAR (drop everything and read) time. The students seem to be really engaged in the books they are reading. They are finishing books at an alarming rate.
Our writing has also gotten off to a great start. The students are working on a personal narrative. They are also very excited to be using BLOGS to reflect on their own school week as well! Our technology hasn't cooperated with us as much as I would like, but we are working though it.
Now I can't say the same thing about math! We are moving right along. We will be taking our first unit test next week already! I think the students really love the tables in our room. I painted them with whiteboard paint and they are able to do most of their work on them. This will be something we will continue to use for the entire year. I love them!
Same goes for Science. They are loving our current project. This is what most of them are writing about on their blogs. Makes sense. They are pretty free to do what they want.
As we move forward with the year, keep in mind, things change. We have to adapt to the changes or we will all fall behind. Kids love to be free to make choices and to talk! I've learned that again this week. I love where we are right now, but we still have lots of work to do! Stay focused on the process!
