Still Here

I'm still here, I promise. I just have been swamped with the first week of school starting and have not really had much to share yet that could be that helpful.

School started on Wednesday. I teach 5 class periods: 4 of them are Language Arts and 1 of them is an elective Language Arts class where I get to teach something I want but still meet the language arts standards.

Of my 4 Language Arts classes that I teach 1 is a collaborative class, 1 is a core class and 2 are advanced class. I would even prefer to say that 1 of my advanced is really crazy advanced and the other is just slightly above my core, if that makes sense. My really advanced kids are going to give me a run for my money! They are crazy fun but eat up material like crazy! They are just like giant sponges wanting more and more literature. Ha! Great analogy, I know.

I have briefly mentioned my mom before but I haven't really told you too much about her. My mom teaches Spanish at my school! She floats from room to room and teaches it as an exploratory class. She has two 7th grade classes and uses my classroom when she teaches those classes.

My mom and I are really close. When I was little we moved around a lot because my dad was in the automotive industry, so you go where the plants are and where the companies need you. He did a lot of consulting work for these companies so some of it was more short term and some was long term. By the time I was 7 I had moved 6 different times. So say that my mom was my rock was an understatement. When you growing up moving on an almost yearly basis your family really is your everything. My mom and I are a lot alike and I can tell her just about anything. I think because I was so close to her when I was young it just really helped our mother-daughter relationship. She is one of my best friends. So no, for me it is not weird teaching with her at the same school, I love it! I love sharing my classroom with her too because it is not some unfamiliar person using my room and I don't feel like I have to give her space or leave all the time. I can just tell her that I have stuff I need to work on and that I need to use my computer and she gets it.

We also carpool in the morning to work. I live close to my parents (about a 10 minute walk) so it makes sense that we just save on gas. My mom prefer to drive and I prefer to ride passenger so it just works for us. I am also NOT a morning person so it gives me lots of time to wake up. HA!

So the first three days of school have been really busy. I have gone over all of my classroom rules and procedures as well as a summer reading project. I have also been talking to the kids about the ISN notebooks that we will use in class this year.

I think next week will be quite a bit more of the same as we just get into the routines of school. Monday is our very first library day for the new school year. I also plan on playing a game with the kids to see how they work in groups, see who my leaders are, my followers, etc.

So even though I'm not blogging very much right now, I promise, just bear with me during the first few days of craziness and I will be back. I am just exhausted from getting back into the school routine and these mundane but important things that we have to do to prepare us for a successful year of school.