I am so glad I have a chance to start over....
Being the teacher that I am, I have to make a list.
1. Christ: I plateaued this year. I made my job more than a job; it became my idol. Everything about me revolved around teaching, preparing lessons, & working in my room until all hours of the day & night. I was going through the motions at church & instead of enjoying sweet time with Jesus, I was dreading the chore. Awful isn't it? Preparing for Super Summer & Super Summer itself brought me back to my knees. I realized what an IDIOT I've been this past year & how MAGNIFICENT my Creator & Savior is. Amazing He never left my side. Could have, should have, but chose not to because He knew His plan was going on.... He knew I'd see my struggles & would turn away from them & back to Him. He knew I'd learn how to relate to people again at Super Summer... how to worship Him again.... and how to be a reflection of His love. Sure wasn't a pretty reflection this past year.
2. School: My first year was not bad. My students will always have a special place in my heart. I am obsessed with knowing who they have for first grade, and I know they will be successful. I am so glad all of the first grade teachers are experienced so they will have a balanced first years of school after having a crazy first year teacher for Kindergarten. :) I learned a lot about a lot. I've described all that before, but I am itching to get back into room 109 and start fresh with a new group of students. I have tricks up my sleeve.... research-based tricks, I might add, and it's going to be a great year! However, I am going to learn to balance job-life-Jesus MUCH better than I did last year. So far, I've done an impressive job at not living at the school decorating & cleaning like I did last summer... so that is a good start! I'm planning to do Zumba/Boot Camp during the school year to keep my physically healthy... I'm working within the youth group at church, which as you may know, I LOVE & truly GROW in Him when I'm doing this. .. and I'm helping with a children's musical this year -- another thing I love doing but do NOT want to be in charge of. :)
Research-based tricks I'm doing this year in Pre-1st Grade include Whole Brain/Power Teaching for classroom management. This gets the students involved with following rules & procedures of the classroom. The Daily 5/Cafe/Guided Reading is how I'm structuring my reading instruction. This will be students working with & in books & spelling/sight words while I'm teaching reading lessons to small groups/individuals. Centers are going to be developmentally appropriate for 6-year-olds, & I will be working with students in their centers...not teaching reading during this time. We're doing a poem/interactive chart each week to help the students learn to read whole-language style. Math is going to be part-Kindergarten/part-1st grade to prepare them for the BIG things they'll learn next year. My lessons are going to be in UbD format and will not follow a program (like Saxon or Houghton Mifflin). It's a lot of hands-on experiences, journaling/problem-solving, and games. There will be sheets at times, but it's got to get BEYOND sheets for it to be truly learned & engrained into their sweet brains.
I am so thankful for second chances. :)
1 comment:
I love that you are taking math beyond worksheets! So many kids need, need, need that! And your reading approach sounds interesting. We did workshop style in my student teaching, which sounds like a variation of what you are doing. Jesus is ALWAYS there to catch us when we fall, isn't that WONDERFUL!!!! Good Luck as this year begins!
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