New teacher inservice

I have learned so much over the past two days at inservice! I am fortunate to be teaching in a county that values pd so much! I am also blessed to be working in one of the best schools with the best staff! The principal at my school as well as the instructional coach are both amazing women and I look forward to following their examples and working with them. They are so supportive and I truly believe they would have my back no matter what. My mentor teacher is also amazingly supportive. She will answer any question I have no matter how goofy. I am the only new teacher in the building which kind of scares me to death. Buuuttttt I know that I am with awesome teachers that will help me and have the backing of an awesome administrative team! My classroom is getting close to done which is exciting and of course I have taken pictures!! I am so excited about this new Adventure! I was scared to death about first grade but during inservice I heard the best thing ever: " a good teacher is a good teacher no matter what no matter where and no matter what grade." dr. Knipp
Here are pictures of all the free stuff from the jmcss inservice sponsors as well as progress pictures!

Progress made, a LOT more to do!!!

So I went and worked in my classroom today. I got alot accomplished in the 8 straight hours I worked. I still have tons to do though.  I worked the first 3 hours cleaning and organizing.  By this I mean that I pulled out every piece of material in the entire classroom, cleaned underneath it, got rid of stuff I didn't want/need, and then put stuff back where it made sense for it to be. I put reading stuff together and math stuff together.  I got all of my student books put together in their cubbies and got their supply "totes" cleaned and ready for their extra supplies they don't need everyday.  I made alot of progress today.  I still have stuff to finish moving from the room that my supplies are coming from and hopefully I will finish all of this on Monday and Tuesday next week.   I think I've made alot of progress but I know how much more I have to finish before my wonderful students hit the door on Friday!  I am more and more excited about this new adventure and my year of firsts!

This is the beautiful sign my Amazing CT made me when I left my first placement

This is my classroom library.  I have a reading bench with leveled baskets
underneath, 2 bean bags, and a butterfly chair.  

These are some of my student cubbies.  I am going to put
their excess supplies in the colored bins and their books
are at the bottom where they can reach.  There are
5 student books to the reading series so that the books
aren't so big.

You can actually semi see my desk now.  LOL I still have a TON of work to do but it's coming together.  The blue boxes on the right are individual math manipulative kits for every students

I finished my door today.  I am going to put each students name on an owl once I know exactly who is in my class.

A year of Firsts

I have decided that I want to start blogging again.  This time however, not about myself or about weightloss, but about my year of firsts, literally.  I have accepted a position as a first grade teacher and I know that everything will be a first.  I want to have a place where I can reflect and learn from my mistakes as well as my triumphs.  First grade is very new to me and I never saw myself teaching the primary grades. I am excited about this new adventure though.  Hopefully I can gain some insight into myself, my students, and my teaching style by writing about it.  I will share funny stories from my day with no names of course and will upload pictures of cute projects and decorations.  Here are a few to start.  I finished my classroom management board and most of my door yesterday. I am doing Owls as you can see from my blog title.  I am getting ready for the year.  I plan on doing different leaves on the door tree as the year goes on to keep with the seasons.  I will post more pictures tomorrow after I finish my room which right now is a disaster!!!!

Thought this was cute:

Everything I Needed to Know 

Everything I needed to know, 
I did not learn in Kindergarten. 
Everything I needed to know, 
I DID learn in first grade. 
Everything I needed to know, 
And some things I didn't, 
My students taught me, 
When we shared first grade.

-       Debi Landrum

Tool of inspiration

Hi! I decided that I would give blogging a try. I am currently about to embark on my last week of my very last semester of classes for my degree in education. It has been a LONG journey! I started college in 2003 and am finally graduating in 2012. God has allowed me to overcome quite a few obstacles, endure trials, and receive blessings beyond measure to get to this point. Over the past 9 years I have had 7 major brain surgeries, had life threatening staff twice, gotten married, moved away from my home, and had two beautiful but challenging children. As I look back at my journey I realize that my life story is what makes me who I am. I serve an awesome God and He is shaping me for His service and glory. This is part of the reason I arrived at the decision to become an educator. Public education is a mission field. While I do not have a heart or a call for international missions, my husband and I feel we are called to local missions. This is one of the things that brought us to Ripley and continues to hold us here. God has a plan for us and for this area. Over the past 10 weeks I have had the privilege of file working with some of the best teachers. I have learned so much and feel privileged to call them colleagues and friends! I have also learned that to be a teacher means to experience great joy and great heartbreak, much like being a parent. I have come to love the students I have had for the past few months and I feel both a pride when they succeed and heartbreak when they fail. For the past 2 years I have heard more than anything else the best teachers are reflective ones, so this is what this is; a way to reflect and express my heart. I truly love teaching, for all it's heartbreak and it's triumphs, it is what I am called to do. Being a teacher is both a passion and a calling and I have both! I look forward to many more joys and depend on God to get me through the many heartbreaks that come with this job. "I can be an instrument of torture or tool of inspiration." God please make me a tool of inspiration to all those I come in contact with. Romans 12:1-2