I have not been on my blog in a few weeks now.
My
mother passed away on the night of September 1st; the night before
school started; so things have been a bit out-of-sorts. I have been busy playing catch-up with my
class as well as other things in my life, so my blog took a backseat. I will try to get back on track and fill you
in on all the fun things we have been doing in class.
I did manage to go into school the morning of September 2nd. I think I was in a state of shock – my mother’s
death just wasn’t registering with me yet.
(It still isn’t really.) I was
able to greet my students outside. (Somewhere
around 9, they found a supply for me.)
At the bell I led my students inside. I followed Sarah Meador’s 5 Steps for the
First Day of School. This introduces the
basics of Whole Brain Teaching. The
students responded perfectly (well nearly...).
After learning the students names, I asked who had visited the class
website. Oh, let’s backtrack... About a week before school started, I mailed
out letters introducing myself, supplies needed, the class website, permission
forms for photos, etc. I got the website
set up ahead of time. I highly recommend
Weebly for an easy class website. I have
used it for 4 years now – absolutely free!
From Amy Lemons and Around the Kampfire blogspots, I got the idea for
the fantastic book, “Where Were You?”, by Melanie Watt. Our board’s library didn’t have it so I
ordered it from Chapters Indigo. I got the book
trailer from Around the Kampfire and put it on my site. It is so cute and makes you really want to
read the book.
I asked the students, “So...where were you???” They came up with great responses, from being
on a Disney Cruise, to driving from a cousin’s, to getting Tim Horton’s before
school. At this point, I had a supply
teacher in my room as well as my EA. As
the students told me where they had been, I had them go to one of the adults to
jot it down on a post-it and put it on our chart. This ran nicely into my prep time. At this point, I filled the supply in on some
plans I had for the week and then I left to be with my dad and daughters.
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