Well I’m mostly done.  I jetted in this morning for a couple of hours to do some last minute setup tasks and came to the conclusion that I will truly never be ‘done’ so I came home and decided to try and enjoy the long weekend before we hit the ground running next week. One [...]

Yesterday was even more difficult than I had expected. I got to work early, but it still wasn’t early enough to get everything done before the big meeting.  The meeting was actually quite productive; Mom showed up, with Little One in tow, and Mom was very helpful.  (Little one came over and collapsed on my lap, not long after I had mentioned that ...

It's important to have the children leave happy for so many reasons.  For one, you want them to feel good about school so they'll want to come back tomorrow.  Maybe even more important, if they're feeling bad, that's how they're feeling when mom asks, ''How did school go today?''   This can lead to bad feelings and/ or bad communication, which we ...

I need to get to school soon, to give the school secretary a letter from me to send out to my new students’ families.  I used to request school supplies (Crayola crayons and markers, pencils, Elmer’s glue, glue sticks, tissues, etc.) but I ended up with enough tissues to last me 4 years (seriously, this will be the fifth year and there are still ...

Ah the internet (or World Wide Web as the local newsman calls it...). I'm never surprised at the amazing networking opportunities it provides. I get tweets and emails weekly from teachers, students, and parents. Usually they are kind comments and questions. Occasionally, I'm asked to read and review a book (who doesn't love a free book?) - a ...

We all know the drill. The sprouts with the highest academic and behavior needs get the higher percentage of our attention… day in and day out. Is it fair? Absolutely not. Unfortunately, it’s just the way the cookie crumbles and there’s not much you can do about it. Lucky for me, with a team teaching situation this year, I’m finding I can ...

No matter what they say, size does matter. Class size that is. Having only taught in one area of the country, my class sizes have always stayed rather uniform. When I taught second grade, I would have as many as twenty-three, which seemed like a lot. In kindergarten I’ve had as much as twenty, which, when they’re all there, seems like a whole ...

I love spring student led conferences. It’s what I affectionately like to call, ‘The Big Show’ because it takes us weeks to prepare and practice for the day. In addition to getting all our materials together (it’s a long extensive list of items, including work from the first day of school to compare against recent work and entire Goldilocks ...

The spread of germs in a preschool classroom is something that we all deal with on a daily bases. This year we have set up a system in each classroom for the staff and children to use. When we see a child put something in their mouth or if a child has a runny nose and that child is done using an item (toy) we put that toy in a container marked ...

Parent involvement is key to school success. Building the bridge between school and home is a vital part to creating a classroom with the child’s success in mind. There are many ways to help build this bridge; one of the most successful ways that I have found is to place a dry eraser board where the parents sign in and out. We all know that it is ...