Sight Words

Since my car is in the shop today I can't go to the beach. It's beautiful out, about 88 degrees. I decided I'd use this time to work on my sight word assessments and word rings.

Here's my plan - 

I've made three different color coded folders. Blue for grade 1 sight words, yellow for primer and green for pre-primer. Each folder has a sight word assessment for each kiddo. Then, I've made word rings with the corresponding colors. 

These will be given after the assessments. Each student will get words according to their level. The blue words (grade 1) won't be given out unless a student is struggling with the words that we're working on whole class. The green and yellow words will be changed weekly, or as often as the student feels comfortable. I'll start out sending 3 - 5 words home a week and asking parents to review them daily. On Friday I'll review the words with the kids during reading!

It's been taking a lot longer than I was thinking it would. Between running out of colored paper, black ink and laminating pouches I'm thinking it will be another two weeks before I finish. 

This is a sneak preview and I'll post a final picture when everything is done!

Online Yard Sales

As a first year teacher my very first thought was "I HAVE NO BOOKS!!!" Now of course this was a little bit of an exaggeration, but not by much! When I started graduate school I decided I'd pick up a few books here and there. I had probably accumulated maybe 10... I had also been planning on stealing my childhood books from my parents. I had to look at every book I took because there are always those special books (Love You Forever, Make Way For Ducklings and other favorites) that I want to save for my kids someday. 

After scavenging all the books I had probably about 70 and then this is where my obsession began. Savers is THE BEST place to buy books. My local Savers has a deal - buy four get one free. I've made about 3 trips and purchased about 100 books each time. 

After telling my mom how I thought I needed more books she suggested the online yard sales. You know, the ones on Facebook? Well these are GOLD MINES!!!!! People post all sorts of things: books, shelves and containers. You have to be quick when you want something! Also, make sure you mention that you are a teacher (it helps even more if you let them know you are a first year teacher!) people tend to either lower the price, or decide to just give you the items for free!

So far from the Yard Sales I've been able to get two shelving units (they need paint but that's easy!) and 5 boxes of donated books! I keep an eye on the Facebook in hopes to find some more storage items! 

End of June

Oh my gosh! It's been SO busy around here. I don't even know where to begin.

Let's start here...

I got to meet with my first grade team (minus one teacher) for next year! I went in and shadow all of the teachers for a day. It was fun. I saw some things that I thought were AWESOME ideas and can't wait to get started! I got to see both of the classrooms that I may be in. My principal isn't sure yet but as soon as I saw the rooms my mind started spinning! So many great ideas. 

After that I got an email asking if I'd like to mail a welcome letter out to my new kiddos as well as a supply list. This was both exciting and scary. I worked on my letter for hours. I wanted to sound excited, but not immature, confident but not pushy and finding a balance was tough. I Googled tons of samples and took different aspects from each letter. In the end, I think they'll love the letter! As far as supplies go - this was the hardest thing. I'm sure I forgot something, but hey! what can you do? I also rememberd supply shopping with my parents. I can hear my dad saying "REALLY?? How much for a notebook??" and I tried to keep that in mind...Here's everything I included on my list. I tried to cover all possible bases but of course I'm hoping some families will continue to donate supplies the whole year! 

-2 boxes of #2 pencils

- 2 highlighters (1 must be yellow)

- 4 pack of expo markers

-2 boxes of tissues

-2 containers of disinfecting wipes 

- 1 box of baby wipes

- 5 pocket folders

- 2 boxes of crayons

-a colored pen (not blue or black)

- 1 inch binder

- pocket dividers

- document sleeves

-pencil top erasers

-2 primary composition notebooks

- scissors

- headphones

- 5 glue sticks

- sandwich bags

- hands wipes

- crayola washable markers  

What else have I been doing? Today I made some CVC card games. The kids will take a word and read it. If they can they get to keep it, if they can't they put it back. If a student pulls a "SPLAT!" card they have to put all of their words back. 

Other than that I've continued to make poems for each month. I'm trying to take a break from school stuff and enjoy the sun! If anything super fun happens I'll be sure to let you know! :) 

Busy Busy Bee!

What a busy weekend it has been.I hope all you fathers out there had a fabulous Father's Day today!! I was lucky enough to see my Dad today :) 

I'm starting my day camp job in two weeks so I'm trying to get some prep stuff out of the way before I get too busy. The first thing I did was pick a theme. I picked owls!. I did this early so that I could tell my family and friends. This way, if they are out and see anything they can snag it! :) 

Here's what I did this weekend : 

• Made some poems on easel paper. I found some super cute ones on Pinterest and wanted to get them laminated before school. As far as anchor charts go I'm going to wait on that because I think kids will get more out of it if we make the chart together! 
• Started to label my books - this however,  is a task I'm going to put off for as long as possible..
• Made bathroom passes. Pinterest inspired antibacterial passes. The kids will put them on their desks when they go to the bathroom. That way, when they come back they remember to use it! I'm crossing my fingers for a healthy year!
• Bought more books. After my half started labeling and leveling escapade on Friday, I realized I still need a ton of books. Savers is an awesome place to get books. They're about 50 cents each and they have a buy 4 get 1 free deal. Needless to say, I have to limit myself each time I go. The first time I went I spent 90$. To better control my spending I told myself that every weekend from now until school I'd go and spend 10$. Well, of course that didn't happen. My lovely boyfriend bought me 50$ worth of books. Then I went to Barnes and Noble and used my giftcard. In the end I ended up with another 60+ books! 

This week should be pretty exciting. I'm going to try to get into my classroom to take a quick peek! The kiddos are still in school but it would be nice to just get an idea. I also want to get the curriculum materials ASAP! 

**Here's a good tip - write down ALL of your questions. I have a different piece of paper for each topic such as technology, procedures, and curriculum. That way I can ask the questions to the appropriate people and more importantly, I won't forget my questions!!

Cover Letter & Applications

Tons of my teacher friends, and of course my mom,  have asked me about my cover letter. Both principals I interviewed with commented on how original and thoughtful my letter was. 

Here's the deal with my letter. It's out there. It's weird and quirky, but hey! so am I. I got the idea from a Professor my last semester in grad school. He told us to take a chance and be different. His advice was also quickly followed up by the warning that some principals will hate it. What I took from that was, if a principal hated it then they probably wouldn't like my teaching style. 

My letter started out as a story. I went into detail about how I used to play school outside with my stuffed animals and how they were all excellent students. After telling the story I mentioned a few things that make me stand out in a sea of applicants such as: my ability to integrate technology into lessons, my creativity and my personality. But, for an administrator to get far enough into the letter to read my qualifications I had to make sure my hook was interesting enough that they would want to keep reading. 

As far as applications go here's a few things I think are super important to remember when you start to apply:

• Personal touches - I made envelopes with scrapbook paper. They were bright and attention grabbing. I also put all my paperwork inside a purple folder. This was another recommendation from my Professor. He said he always remembered the girl with the purple folder! 
• Use snail mail! - Tons of districts post their jobs online with an online application process. In addition to online always send an application packet. If the district hasn't seen your online application but they get your packet it'll put the seed in their head about you! On the flip side, if they've already opened your application following up with a packet never hurt. 
• Make a website -  This was something I thought of on my own. It doesn't need to be super fancy, I made a weebly blog. The blog had sample lesson plans, my letters of recommendation, an easy contact button and an online resume. This simple gesture shows your administrators that you're comfortable with technology.

Once you've sent out one complete application the rest are easy peasy! 

Landed the job!

This is it! I've spent years in college and graduate school. I've spent hours researching, practicing and teaching. I've spent days awaiting job postings. All for this! To get my very first teaching job! 

Starting in April I was scanning the online job postings as if it was my full time job. I applied online to 10 positions in 6 different districts.I mailed out applications in cute homemade envelopes and hoped they would be the attention grabber I needed. Once I hit the send button the hardest part came. Waiting. And waiting. And guess what? More waiting! 

Two long weeks went by and I still hadn't heard anything. Then, all of a sudden, my phone rang! It was the vice principal to an elementary school that had 3 open positions. He said my cover letter was outstanding and stood out to him. He invited me in for an interview the following week. I was elated! Someone finally recognized my accomplishments and thought I may be a good fit for their school! 

That wasn't all! As soon as I hung up with district 1, I received a phone call from district 2! The principal also mentioned my cover letter and that he had 4 positions open. The next step was interview prep. I'll post about that later. That was a stressful event in itself. 

Anyways, I went to both interviews. One on Wednesday, the next on Thursday. My interview with district 1 was a little intimidating but overall it went well. District 2 however went amazing. The interview panel and office staff were so welcoming and comforting. Both interviews were fairly short which made me think they had ruled me out. 

I was told I'd know more by the following Tuesday. They were true to their word! Tuesday morning I got a text from my cooperating teacher saying she got a voice mail about a reference for district 2 (referring to them as district 1 and district 2 reminds me of the hunger games...) Before I could even text her back I had a voice mail from the principal wanting to discuss offering me a position! As fast as my fingers could dial I called him back, trying to contain my excitement! 

After a conversation with the principal and a verbal offer he asked if I had any questions. He had yet to tell me the grade I was teaching. Of course it didn't really matter, I was just thrilled to already have an offer the first week of May! But, I decided I really wanted to know what grade. So of course I asked. His response? "We think you'd be an excellent fit for first grade". I'm sure he could hear my squealing! First grade!!! This was officially my dream job.

Two weeks later I went in, toured the school and signed my contract. It's been a whirlwind of events already and I'm so excited to see what comes next! 

A Sneak Peak Into Year One

Hi there! Thanks for checking out my blog! I'm super new to blogging, both reading and writing them. Here's a little information about me -

• I graduated with my Master's degree in Education in December 2013.
• I completed my student teaching in a first grade classroom and was completely obsessed with everything about it.  
• I got a long term substitute position after graduation as a fifth grade Science/Social Studies/Writing teacher. 

Since I graduated I've been reading teaching blogs and finding TONS of great information. However, something that I found that was lacking was some insight into the job search and first year of teaching. I figured I'd start a blog and document my experiences so that maybe next spring a student teacher will come across it and be a little more at ease about the whole process because let me tell you, it's overwhelming!