Today my Grade 8 Science class joined the blogging world with the official launch of Mrs. T’s Classroom! They will be using their blog to:– Share their learning with an authentic audience– Catch up on lessons that were missed due to absences– Review lessons to get a better understanding– Connect with other classrooms around the world– Integrate multimedia of all descriptions (text, images, videos, podcasts)– Practice responsible digital citizenship– Receive feedback on their thoughts To celebrate we had a full-out Launch Party complete with whole-school announcements, a count-down to our first post, a visit from our… Read More
Resources To Start Off Your Week 78
We are now entering our second full week of school and I am getting into our first units with each of my classes. The following resources are resources that I am actually using with my classes this week! I am excited to share theses resources with you and hope you enjoy them as much as me and my students do 🙂 As always, I will be adding these to my lists of resources under the Fav Websites heading. 1 ) Ecosystem Labeling– This interactive, from the University of Alberta, allows students to explore a virtual ecosystem and answer… Read More
2 Stars & A Wish: Week 2
My first full week as a teacher is under my belt and I am feeling really happy to be getting into a routine (both in the classroom and in my personal life). Things are progressing like I expected, more-or-less, and I’ve managed to work around some of the obstacles that can be thrown at teachers like:– New students joining the class late– Fire drills– Broken photocopiers– Tech break-downs, etc All-in-all things have been going really well and it is hard to express just how rewarding this job can be. I feel blessed to have such a… Read More
Teaching Truths I'm Learning The Hard Way
It has officially been one week since school started and I couldn’t be happier with how things are going. I am so happy to be part of such a supportive staff and spending time with such amazing students! Overall, I am feeling confident in my planning, curriculum, and management… but I don’t think I was actually prepared for how busy teaching is! I spent a HUGE amount of time this summer planning and I am very organized. I have my supplies and plans in place, I have back up plans… and yet there is still just SO much… Read More
Missing Work Log
When I was student teaching I always had one, two, or more, students who didn’t get their assignment in on time. A lot of times, I would find that I would only get assignments in at the end of my student teaching placement because of the fact that they absolutely HAD to have them in because I was leaving and there was no other options after that. – I tried giving students choice in their assignments so that it would be more meaningful for them,– I tried giving flexible deadlines,– I tried offering assignment assistance at lunch hour… Read More
Resources To Start Off Your Week 77
Week two is underway and I wanted to share some of the neat resources I’ve been sitting on for a while. With school on now it seems like I haven’t posted a resources post in FOREVER but in actuality I only missed one week because last week I posted my classroom reveal. If time flies by like it is, it will be June before I know it (scary thought)! As always, I will be adding these to my lists of resources under the Fav Websites heading. 1 ) 4Mula Fun Math Blog– This is a new blog that… Read More
2 Stars & A Wish: Week 1
During my last student teaching placement I began completing a “2 Stars & A Wish” posts every week where I would reflect on the events of the week, mention two things that I was proud of, and identify one area to work on in the following week. As my my Professional Growth Plan, this is a practice that I want to maintain throughout the school year as well. If you aren’t a teacher, it could seem silly to be writing a reflection for the first “week” when we only actually had students for two days. Those… Read More
First Day of School
After all of the thought and planning that I put into my classroom, this is definitely how I felt when I woke up this morning! Our first bell rings at 8:50 a.m so I was at school at approximately 7:50 a.m. The reason for this is that I wanted to be in my room and relaxed when students first started arriving. It was a good thing too, because in the middle of the night the heater turned on in my room and it was SO hot when I got there. Furthermore, because of the heat, some of my… Read More
I Promise…
Students, tomorrow is not only your first day back to school but it is also my first day as a full-time teacher. I’ve spent hours over the summer accumulating resources, preparing lessons, differentiating plans, and attending PD… I’ve organized our classroom and tried to put my personal flare into the room while leaving space for you to make it your own… I’ve attending our back-to-school meetings and checked (and double-checked) to make sure I have everything ready for our first days together. As we enter this new, exciting, overwhelming, awesome experience, here is what I promise you: – I… Read More
Barbara Coloroso: Kids Are Worth It
Today was our first day back at school full-time for teachers! Although students don’t officially start until Thursday, teachers are back attending meetings for today and tomorrow. Today all of the teachers and support staff in “T-Division” had the opportunity to attend an PD session with Barbara Coloroso, an educator, mother, and author. To be honest, I was a little apprehensive about this session going into it because I couldn’t find a very strong online presence for Barbara and I wasn’t exactly sure what specific topics our session was going to address. I must admit, however, that I was pleasantly… Read More