Update

The year is flying by. This week we will already have our fall conferences. Granted they are earlier than usual, I am still shocked the time is here.

Today I went into my classroom, and it felt great to have a very productive afternoon. I was able to do some minor adjustments in my room that I have wanted to do for a while but have not gotten to with the end of the day rush during the regular week. For example, I turned my desk slightly so that it is at an angle rather than straight. I have been administering running records at my desk this year, and it has been working out really well. However, I wanted to have my desk at an angle so it would be a little bit more confidential.

Another mini make-over was cleaning out one of my new cupboards in the back corner and turning the cupboard and shelf above it into my word study station. I have all of my supplies in one place, and it will run much smoother and feel less chaotic. This year I am trying to manage more different groups than last year, and I have not had a regular 5 day English week yet since I implemented the different groups, so it is even more hectic trying to make the multiple groups work on less days. However, tomorrow will start the second week on the rotation, and I have high hopes that the reorganization as well as deciding to do a second group during writer's workshop when necessary will make all the difference.

Reading workshop is going the smoothest out of all the components in my classroom. Today I was reflecting that it should not surprise me since reading is the area where I feel the most comfortable, have the most background, and was able to set up most of the foundation for what I am doing now in previous years. It feels like this is going to be the celebration year when everything clicks together.

While not as smooth as reading workshop, writing workshop is also going well. There are many areas that I am adjusting and reflecting on, but I realized that this is the first year that I have really implemented a full on writer's workshop. Last year I attempted, but it was more of bits and pieces without having it be a consistent presence. Thus, there are some kinks along the way as I find myself making more notes about what I should have done to make the process run smoother. Nonetheless, the fact that I am able to get the workshop up and running and know that it will be a constant component in the classroom is reason enough to feel a sense of accomplishment. Each year it will just get better.

This week I received a curriculum kit from Teachers' Curriculum Institute (TCI) for social studies. I first heard about the program in Sarah Cooper's Making History Mine. Originally I was not going to have a commercially prepared program, but I met with my director to express my concerns of having a hard time finding sufficient resources to address the concepts on our 7th grade curriculum map (such as medieval Europe and the renaissance). I was thrilled to received the materials, and I am so excited to start using them tomorrow. I have heard feedback from a few different people saying that the curriculum changed them as teacher. I am most excited about all of the interactive activities and that they have an interactive notebook, so it will be perfect since this year is my first attempt at using INs. I will still continue to have students create pages in our class created INs, rather than switching to the program INs because I like the idea of still creating our own to specifically meet the needs of our classroom. However, I will use many of the ideas from TCI.

Today I was also able to program some more classroom blog posts. My projector has not arrived yet, and I will not really use the blog on a consistent basis until I am able to show it to students on the Smart Board, but it still feels good to start getting different posts up, beginning to establish a valuable resource for my students.

Whew! A month into the year I am still caught up in a whirlwind of activity. However, little by little I am getting more pieces in place, and with each piece an overall better sense of calmness. I still have not been able to cut out weekends, but I am hoping to do so shortly or to limit myself to a few hours.