As excited as I am about being back in the blogging world, I am nervous that I will fall off the wagon again as soon as Baby Thompson arrives in 2 weeks?… 3 weeks?…. any day now?… I know I will need to maintain some semblance of focus, however, because I also resume my master’s classes at the start of September. I am hoping *fingers crossed* to attempt to set aside some time every 2-3 days while baby sleeps (is that delusional thinking?) to work on my classes, blog, and attempt to maintain my sanity. Resourceaholic Reflects. (2014).… Read More
Classroom Reveal!
During the last week of school in June our school began major renovations which included redoing the exterior walls of an entire wing of our building, some roofing restructuring, and a brand-new science lab/classroom. While everyone in our building was (and still is) excited about these upgrades, the construction may continue all the way until January. Understandably, this is creating a lot of inconveniences as we all adjust to new classrooms, half-finished classrooms, unavailable resources, loud noises, etc. Amidst all of the craziness, however, I was surprisingly able to keep my classroom! I am so thankful… Read More
Random Back-to-School Thoughts & FREEBIES!
Today begins the LAST week before school is back in full swing and, to get a sense of how my day is going today, check out my latest tweet: I find that when I sit down to work on stuff for school during the summer I have NO problem flying through the curriculum aspects… you know… the content, “what do I need to teach” stuff. The small details, however, like anchor charts, hand-outs, course outlines, organizational labels, etc, are SO much harder to get done. I’m one of those people that has a hard time visualizing… Read More
How Much Time Is Enough?
In Manitoba students will be back in the classroom in approximately three weeks… three seemingly-short weeks… and I am beginning to plan out how those crucial first few hours, days, and then weeks, will play out in my classroom. When I look back at the beginning of last year, my first year in the classroom, I strongly feel like everything went as smooth as it could have been. I had over planned to compensate for my lack of experience, nervousness, and excitement… the students were reserved while they got used to the new setting and were pretty accommodating… Read More
Classroom Furniture: IKEA Edition
August is almost upon us but I am not back in my classroom quite yet. We actually have a significant amount of construction happening in our school this summer (redoing the roof, redoing exterior walls…. AND a brand new science lab directly beside my classroom!) so I am unsure of when I will actually be allowed back in my classroom. In fact, depending on how the construction goes, there is a chance that I may not be back in my same classroom at all; I may be relocated for part of this year until everything is back to… Read More
Teaching Interviews 1 Year Later… Interview Prep
It has officially been one year since I went through the interview process and was offered a position at my dream school only a 10 minute drive from our farm! This was also the same school where I completed two of my hour student teaching placements so I felt very comfortable with both the students and staff. My husband was offered a job in the same division (15 mins down the road from my school) two weeks later and our grad, wedding, and 8 months of teaching later we are in May again…. can someone say busy year!? With… 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