Welcome Back to Mrs. V's Grade Threes

Wow! I can't believe how time has flown. Two years ago I started a blog and had hoped to stay on top of everything. If you go back through old posts I am sure you will notice that is not really the case. 

Heading into the next school year I am hoping to jump back into blogging and am setting a goal of posting on a semi-regular basis. When I first started this blog I wasn't really sure if anything would come of it or if anyone would get anything out of it and then today I found a Pin on Pinterest that links back to one of my blog posts! If my ramblings about classroom life, projects, and teaching in general can help inspire even one other teacher out there then I feel like it is worth it. 

So all that being said here is a little update about last year:

I taught a grade 3/4 split with 29 students. I learned a lot about my management style and also that I can actually handle a class of that size. Before this my largest class was 23 students. I am very fortunate that my principal understands how difficult it can be to teach a split so he hired a part time teacher for the grade 4's Math, Science, and Social Studies so I only had the full class a little more than half of the time. While I welcomed the support for the core subjects I also learned how much I have come to depend on having some flexibility in my schedule so having to stick to a specific time frame every day in order to accommodate the split schedule took some time to get used to. 

I had the opportunity to attend some PD on Project Based Learning last year as well. As with most things my first unit didn't work out exactly how I wanted but I am eager to try it again this year with a little bit a lot of tweaking. Stay tuned for an update on that later this year. I did absolutely love the fact that the unit was basically all hands on learning and the students seemed really excited about their final projects. I think the hardest part is each group created one final project and then had to decide who got to bring it home. I'll have to see what we can do about that this year. 

Outside of my regular classroom teaching I also continued coaching volleyball, basketball, badminton, and track and field. My husband and I have put a lot of time and effort into growing the current sports program at our small school and it is so exciting to see it taking off. As the school continues to grow so do the teams and they have done well competing against the much larger schools in our district. 

Since I don't want to bore anyone with a long rambling post... which let's face it may have already happened, that is a basic overview of my 2014 - 2015 school year. As usual I have been using a bunch of my summer to prep for the upcoming school year and I am excited to share more ideas and insights with you as the year goes on. Welcome back to another year of Mrs. V's Grade Threes!!

Summer Work Out Time

Well hello again! It has been forever since I have posted anything. Isn't it amazing how easy it is to put things aside when you get focused on school? I know for me it can be hard to focus on anything else sometimes. Which is one of the many reasons I like adore summer. It is time for me to catch up on all those things I have been putting off... like working out. I am usually the first to find a reason to avoid working out and during the school year it is all too easy to come up with excuses.

In the summer all my excuses are null and void since I really don't have anything super important stopping me. I definitely can't say I don't have the time.

So with that being said I have whipped out my running shoes and my workout gear and have started to hit the pavement. I haven't been totally consistent but at least it's a start. I've set some goals for the end of summer but ultimately I just want to make sure I increase my current level of fitness and stay healthy. With how hard it can be to balance everything during the school year I am going to embrace the chance to be out in the sunshine. On your mark... get set... GO!!

The Almost Organized Teacher: My Basic Organization Rules

One of my big goals for this year is to work on my organization skills. I am notorious for piling papers on various surfaces until I am no longer sure what still needs to be marked, what needs to be put away, what needs to be sent for printing, and what can be put in the recycle bin. This year I would like to improve on this and keep my desk and papers organized. In my few years of experience I have discovered what works and doesn't work for me and I would like to share a few basic rules I have discovered when it comes to staying organized and creating a system that works.

Organization Rule #1: Organization takes time and consistency.
No matter what system you may use to keep yourself organized it only works if you take the time to use it. For myself I am still trying to develop the habit of clearing off surfaces on a daily basis. In other words I need to take a few minutes every day and put everything away, whether it is supplies we used in Science, a homework assignment the students handed in today, or extra copies left over from the day's lessons. The big thing to remember is that moving clutter from a table to a teacher's desk doesn't count. This is a big thing for me to keep in mind as I am still working on defeating my tendency to simply pile stuff on my desk so I can ignore get to it later. So far I haven't managed to accomplish this completely every day and that is fine... creating new habits takes time. If I don't get to it every day I definitely make sure I take time on Friday afternoon to catch up and make sure everything is clear and ready to go for a new week.

This week was no exception. Here is a picture of my small group working table from Friday after school. Don't worry this pile wasn't there during the school day... I moved it off of my desk so I could get some work done.

 Before I left today I made sure to put everything back in its place and now both my desk and my small group table are ready for the students again on Monday. I am still working at making sure I devote the time and consistency needed to keep things organized but I can already see improvement from last year :)

Organization Rule #2: Put your spin on whatever system you decide to use.
I have spent a lot of time looking at other teacher's classrooms and marveling over their systems for staying organized. I'm the type of person who tends to find an idea and jump in with both feet before I really think things through. (Don't worry, I'm getting better at that too!) The result is I have tried a variety of different organization techniques in the past two years and they have all taught me one thing... just because it works for someone else doesn't mean it will work for me. Of course I encourage you to still look at what other teachers have done as there is no reason to re-invent the wheel and there are a lot of fantastic teachers out there who have been doing this a lot longer than I have. However you need to look at their systems and decide what parts of it may or may not work for you and make a system that works for you and your organizational needs. There is also some trial and error involved... at least that is the case for me.

Organization Rule #3: Be ready to change your system if needed.
As I said earlier, I have tried a few different systems for keeping myself organized. While I don't necessarily recommend changing your system completely, especially in the middle of the year (been there, done that, it doesn't work very well) you need to be ready to try different things if your system doesn't seem to be working. It takes a while to come up with a system for things that suits you and works within the demands of the job. Remember that you will get there! I'm pretty sure I have... I guess we'll have to wait and see.

In a future post I will go over some of the systems I am using for keeping myself organized this year. Don't expect them to be revolutionary, in fact most of them you will probably have seen before. Just in case you haven't though... stay tuned.

Blog Goals

One week done, 39 more to go! The beginning of the school year has come and gone and it is time to begin getting into the swing of things again. I am amazed to discover how much adjustment time is needed when welcoming a new class. My first two years of teaching I had the same group of students (I moved from gr.2 to gr. 3) so there was very little adjustment time at the beginning of last school year and my first year I was so overwhelmed at the beginning I'm lucky to remember anything at all. I have a smaller class this year but that does not mean it is without its challenges. I am excited to see where the year takes us, to build new relationships with this group of students, and to see how I grow as a teacher. With all this excitement and the craziness of a new year though I figured it would be a good idea to set out some basic blog goals for myself.

I can get a little one-tracked when I get stressed out or when something is really important to me which means that during the school year I can ignore almost anything. I don't want that to happen this year and as I already mentioned one of my personal goals is to actually spend time with people and have a social life this year. For my blog I have a list of 3 basic goals:

1. I hope to keep up on my blogging this year especially since I am still new at this. I don't want to become so focused on school that I completely forget about adding to my blog. I am really enjoying the opportunity to share and remember all the things that happen in my classroom and I hope to continue it as the year progresses.

2. I love the chance to link up with other bloggers on a common theme and share what has been happening in our individual classrooms. One of the things that drew me in to teacher's blogs was the opportunity to share and learn from each other and I think Linkys are a great way to do it!

3. I have found some great little tid-bits in my exploration of other blogs. One of my main goals for this blog is that it becomes a place where other teachers can discover some new information, gather some creative ideas, and have fun learning from each other.

I hope you can tag along for the journey!

Back to School Goals

It is that time of year again! The students will be arriving next Tuesday and the teachers are busy assembling their classrooms. The last few weeks have been a little crazy and I must admit I have been ignoring my blog a little. Thank goodness for the link-up at I {heart} Recess.

Personal: This goal is a double whammy. My husband and I have been running this summer and my cardio has gotten way better. I definitely don't want to lose that progress now that school is back in session so keeping up with exercise is key. The other part of the goal is to try and keep a balance between school and the other aspects of life. I tend to get slightly majorly focused on work and ignore having a social life or keeping up with stuff at home. This year I really want to get better at keeping things balanced by working less.

Organization: I have spent a lot of time this summer getting my classroom cleaned up and organized. Now the trick is for me to keep it that way and make sure I stay in the habit of putting everything in its place. Part of that is keeping up with my marking. The faster I can get things marked, entered in to my marks book, and handed back to students the less paperwork gets piled up in various places in the classroom.

Planning: Our district has a central printing office that takes care of all the teacher's printing. The challenge is they need 72 hours to get everything back to you. My goal this year is to stay on top of planning so I don't get caught unprepared in terms of photocopying.

Professional: Last year I got the chance to attend a conference on differentiation and I am still trying to figure out how to best implement all the strategies I learned. This year I want to continue building on what I know and practice more strategies for differentiating. One of my big plans for doing this is introducing math rotations (thanks to 3rd Grade Thoughts for getting me started) to help meet each student where they are at with my math instruction.

Students: I love the book "Mindset" by Carol Dweck and her take on learning. She has the attitude that every person is good at learning and every person can improve themselves in multiple areas by applying themselves. This is such a great attitude to try and pass on to kids - if something is difficult that means you are growing your brain and learning.

Motto: As a Christian school teacher I love this verse from Proverbs 22. It reminds me there is more to school and teaching than covering curriculum; it is my job to try and instill in students skills and attitudes that will enable them to be life-long learners and continue to grow beyond their years in school.

Gotta Love Accomplishing Goals!

Well it's official, at least three of my summer goals have been accomplished so far!

My husband and I recently returned from a week long trip in Niagara Falls. We had a lot of fun and it was wonderful to have some time to relax. There was so much to see and do and we had a blast checking out all the tourist attractions.

 I love to travel, have fun, and experience new things and I always try to make the most of my time away,  but I think one of my favourite parts of travelling is the chance to come home and get back to my usual routines. So as wonderful as it was to take a holiday it was also great to come home and get back to normal life. Especially since in two weeks we are off again for a week long stay in BC for my brother's wedding.

Anyway, enough about me and my travels, now it's time to get back to the classroom related goals. Just before we left I had the chance to install my sliding bulletin boards and guess what? It worked!! I am beyond happy with how they turned out and best of all it was relatively inexpensive and easy to do. Check out the before and after pictures!

I love, love, love, all the storage in my classroom but I wanted to hide it so I can keep my classroom looking a little more organized and have more space to hang important anchor charts and student work.

So after a little bit of fun (I love the chance to use some power tools) and some work...

Just needs a coat three coats of paint and...

 Ta da! The finished product!!

 The boards are made of a material called "donacona" which is cheaper than cork board, is soft enough for staples and light enough that the rails can hold it up. I purchased some sliding door tracks from the hardware store. After installing the tracks it was pretty easy to install the hardware onto the boards and get them hung up. Thankfully I had my wonderful husband there to help me since it definitely made getting the boards up and into the tracks a little easier.

I can't wait to get some borders and decor stuff on them. Stay tuned for pictures in my upcoming classroom tour!

Finally, I have also managed to create a much more detailed year plan than I have in the past. It took a while but now that it is done I am glad I have it. I put it into a calendar format so I can look from week to week and try to keep myself on track in all the different subjects. I still have to see how it works for this year but it definitely is more organized and specific than my previous year plans. I'm excited to see how it goes.

If you would like the template add a comment and let me know. I would love to hear from you and I am happy to share!

Wow that seems like a lot. Apparently July has been very productive! Let's see how August goes.

Summer Goals

Woohoo!! Summer's here!! I am so excited for summer and have some goals I want to accomplish.

 I know I know, it seems like there are a lot of school items on this list considering it is summer holidays. If there is one thing I have learned about being a new teacher it is to take the time to organize and plan when you have it. So I will be taking some of the time I would have spent doing nothing relaxing and use it to get ahead for September. My hope is by getting myself more organized now I will be able to take more time during the school year to relax and have some down time.

 My summer won't be all work though, my husband and I are running a wedding circuit this summer with 3 friends and 1 brother getting married in the next 2 months. The nice thing is the weddings are spread out basically over the entire country (BC to Ontario) which gives us a chance to play tourist! We are off to Niagara Falls for the first time in our lives!! So excited to take it all in and spend some quality time away from the normal routine with my hubby!