30 Days.

Hey there everyone! Life has been so crazy lately. It has been absolutely amazing, but crazy! I'm now fully moved into my new apartment and just got back from an unforgettable vacation to the Seattle area in Washington. I even finally got to try kayaking! I love getting to have new experiences and getting to cross things off of my bucket list.

Ok so I haven't just been having fun this summer, I've also been busy getting ready for the upcoming school year. It's crazy that school starts in exactly one month! I'm absolutely in love with my new Erin Condren Lesson Plan Book! This is one of best investments I've made so far. I mean besides being practical, it's adorable too!

It has been so useful as I have been finishing up my year plan. Year plans are so important but I was so nervous to create mine. I just had no idea where to start. I finally figured it out, but I think it would have gone smoother if someone had taken me through the steps first. I created this post to help new teachers like myself create their first year plans. So what is a year plan? A year plan is a long-range plan of everything you're going to teach during the school year. They are important because they help to keep us on track throughout the year. It may sound like an overwhelming task, but I've broken it down into three easy steps.

Step One: The first step is to look at the standards for your district/school. For most of you that will be the Common Core. However I teach at a private school and as a result we have are own set of standards. As you look at the standards, highlight the standards that must be developing or mastered at your grade level. This will make it easier as you're deciding which lessons you would like to use from your text books. As an example, here is a page of my math standards.

Step Two: The next step is to go through your text books and see which lessons match up with the standards. For example once I was done highlighting my math standards, I went through each chapter of our math textbook and wrote down which standards each chapter covers. As you can see below, some chapters cover more standards than others. This will also help you determine how much time you need to spend on each chapter.

Step Three: For step three, you will need to have a year-long calendar. I used the one in my Erin Condren lesson planner and it worked great. Now that you've figured out what standards each chapter covers, you will need to decide when you'll teach each chapter so that you can for sure cover all the chapters that you need to. Below you'll see my completed year-long plan to give you a visual.

Phew! It feels so good to finally have my year-long plan done. Now it'll just be so much easier to create my daily lesson plans. I hope this was helpful for everyone! I hope everyone's having a fantastic summer! :)

The First Days of School

Hey everyone! The past few days have been a whirl wind! I move in exactly nine days. I still have so much to get ready before I can move. So what have I been doing? Instead of getting ready to move, I got drawn into an amazing book called The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong.

 I received this book as a graduation gift and I decided to start reading it. It is one of the best books on teaching I have ever read! It's an easy read that is filled with all sorts of practical advice on what do on the first few days of school. As I was reading this book, I realized it addressed a lot of different little things that I didn't learn in college. For example I learned so many different practical things like how to greet your students on the first day, what your classroom should look like on the first day of school, and what procedures you should set up in your classroom on those first few days of school. I recommend this book to all first year teachers! I think that it would even be a great book to read prior to student teaching. That's all for today, I just wanted to share this awesome resource I found! Now I better get started on this whole packing thing. I've realized that you don't really know how much stuff you have until you try and pack it to move. Wish me luck and have a great weekend everyone! :)

67 Days.

I have 67 days until the first day of school. Somehow the first day of school is much scarier when you're the teacher instead of a student! The thing is, I'm so excited about teaching that the planning doesn't feel like work. I'm sure there will come times when that will change, but right now I'm living in the moment. I feel so blessed that I have been given the opportunity to teach the second grade! As I've started planning, I'm already falling in love with the second grade curriculum. There next few weeks are going to be crazy with planning, but it'll be worth it in the end!

One of my favorite aspects of any classroom is the word wall. I love seeing new and unique ways to update the traditional word wall. My first project of the summer is creating my own word wall! So far I have created a chalkboard alphabet and my matching math vocabulary words. I have linked both of those below! If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know! I love having input on my designs! :)

I'll keep you all updated on the progress throughout the summer! Between planning, moving and a few little vacations, this summer is going to be crazy! Then again, what's life without a little bit of craziness?   I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer! :)

Click here for the word wall alphabet!                  

  Click here for the math vocabulary words!