With a few hours of work yesterday, I am on my way to crossing things off of the aforementioned list. I hope that after putting in the hours on this stuff that I actually use it.

One of my fears about having my own classroom is that I'll have trouble with follow-through. There's a lot of steps in education, especially when you're talking about assessment. Pre, during, post, formative or summative, plus that assessment has to be authentic, and you have to use the information you gather to create some kind of grade that reflects what the student is actually capable of doing. Phew.

One of my main goals for myself this year is to be organized to the point where I can keep track of all the routines I set in place and finish everything I start. I don't want things to just peter off toward the middle of the semester because I forget about them or because we're doing something else. In order to show my students that I'm serious about consistency and quality of work, I have to expect the same of myself.

Yesterday I went to my friend Amy's fifth grade classroom for her first look at what her year will be like next year. She also has a blog (and is a far better writer than I) that will chronicle her first year of teaching fifth grade. It is: juiceboxesandcrayolas.blogspot.com. Anyway, helping her go through the things left behind by the previous teacher and move furniture around renewed my excitement about the approaching school year. In just 2 short weeks I will begin new teacher training, and I'm really looking forward to it. In the meantime, however, I've got a lot of work to do.


(An approximate floorplan of my classroom)
---------->
Projects for the coming weeks:
Create a classroom profile inventory to get to know the kids and have their info at-a-glance style.
Create a reading log, photocopy, and bind for kids.
Create a calendar for kids to keep track of minutes read every month
Draft and put up bulletin boards
Go through stuff left in my classroom - i.e. science materials, math manipulatives
Organize classroom library

And that's just the short list...

There's something so overwhelming about an empty space. While I"m not going into this position blindly by any means, there is still a great deal of unknown for a teacher. I'm hoping some of the mysteries will be revealed in the coming weeks.

I have decided to revive this blog and use it as a means to track my progress throughout my first year of teaching. I hope those of you that decide to follow me on this journey will enjoy having the opportunity to keep up. I can't make any promises about writing, but I definitely think it will be a healthy way of venting, a useful way to keep track of successes and mistakes, and a fun way to keep my "fans" informed.

I will be teaching fifth grade in the fall with a group of no more than 24 students. This class is in the middle of a loop. For those of you who don't speak teacher-ese, that means that the same group of kids has the same teacher for two grades in a row. Their previous teacher who had them for fourth grade is moving to a different classroom this fall, so I will be taking over for their fifth grade year.

Right now, I'm beginning to prepare for the year ahead. As a baby teacher ( as I refer to myself) there is an unbelievable amount of prep work to be done to feel even remotely confident when the kids show up on the first day. I'm so thankful to have secured my job so early in the game. It has allowed me to mentally prepare at least some. Now I'm down to the business of planning, scheduling, and purchasing everything I'll need to fill my classroom.

I've been working on scheduling quite a bit lately. It is crucial to keep in mind that a teacher needs to be very flexible when considering the school day. Of course I'm planning to do this- I'm a very go with the flow person when it comes to the classroom- but if I have a plan, it will be easier to stick to. Let's hope the creative juices keep flowing so that my kids aren't cursing me within the first two weeks of school :-)