Day 3

Okay, I think I will stop counting the days in the titles of my posts. Sounds too much like I'm keeping a journal on a desert isle. Also, it's somewhat depressing to think there's 177 more until summer! Actually if we can keep rolling like we have this first week, we'll be sad when summer comes!

Today I went up to visit Pinecrest School and check in with their opening. It was great to see Ms. Terry's 6th, 7th and 8th graders in doing "Reading Buddies" with Mrs. Knowles (formerly Ms. Hebert!) Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders. The older kids get a lot out of the experience of reading to their younger buddies, and it really helps build bonds across the school. It was great to see the interactions among the different ages, with some of the kindergartners leaning against the older students as they read to them.

Mr. Brown had his fourth graders working away on a language arts lesson. Since all of these students were third graders with Mr. Brown last year, they didn't have to spend too much time getting back into the swing of things. They've just jumped right in and are already moving through the new 4th grade material.

I then came back down the hill and held our behavior expectation assembly with our kindergarten classes. I forgot how quickly they hit their saturation point. Mental note... Next year shorten my presentation to Kindergartners to about one and a half minutes. Maybe I need to juggle flaming bowling balls to hold their attention. In reality, they are doing very well given it is only their 3rd day here.

In the afternoon we held our upper grade assembly. I covered the general behavior expectations with the students. Dress code and cell phones took up the majority of that discussion. After my part, the new student council held some spirit games to kick the year off. The games were fun, but I believe the student council learned a few things about crowd control... at least I hope they learned!

Have a great weekend everyone! Suddenly, I remember why Fridays are so highly revered!

Day 2

Today was another smooth day, so yesterday wasn't an illusion! Our new students are fitting right in. I was glad to see Isaac, a brand new 6th grader, out playing football at recess time. I made a mental note when I saw him make a great catch and run it in for a touch down to make sure we get our hooks into him (and his 8th grade brother!)for our sports teams.

This afternoon I held the "behavior expectations" assembly with Mrs. Berrys and Mrs. Stapp's 1st and 2nd grade classrooms, and the with Mrs. Ransom and Mr. Calbert's 3rd and 4th grade classrooms. We covered the three school rules, Safety, Respect, and Responsibility. Tomorrow I hit the other grade levels.

There's a great spread on the front of today's Union Democrat of our first day of school! Very nice picture of Ms. Sperry walking the kids to lunch and I wonder what Kenidee is whispering to her sister...

1 down, 179 to go!

One of the yard duty aides said, "1 down 179 to go" at the end of the day today. If they all went like today, 179 would be too few! It was a great day. Everything went smoothly, the buses ran on schedule, and the cafeteria had great baked chicken! Tomorrow I will begin my rules assemblies where I gather up the students and cover the expectations for their behavior. I'm hitting 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades tomorrow and K, 1, 5-8 on Friday. After that, no one can say "I didn't know"...

Go!

What a smooth start! Things have really started well. It was great to see all the returning students and to welcome our new students. With the exception of 4 students, everyone showed up, and had an assigned place! All of our kids found their classrooms successfully (I did have to assist a lost Kindergartner this morning), and our teachers did a wonderful job with their preparations. So far the kindergartners are doing great! No tears (from the kids, at least. The same cannot be said for the flotilla of parents this morning!)

Now to get everyone through the lunch line for the first time!

Get Set!

Today we had our teacher meetings. Today is basically like my first day of school as I have to prepare my "lessons" and make sure I have all the bases are covered for setting the course for the year. We spent time review the goals for the year, reviewing the CST testing data (this is a subject I'll spend more time on in later posts!), looking at schedules and planning for the year. It's a jam packed few hours in the morning where I have to throw a lot of information at the teachers in a short amount of time. I feel so much more prepared this year! Last year at this time, I was still learning the teachers' names! Now I really feel as if we will be able to really hit the ground running. The teachers, of course, always do a bang up job at the start of the year, and this year I feel like I'll be able to keep up with them more. Heck, maybe I can actually get ahead and do some leading! ;)

On your mark! ( I know, I did this last year...)

Well, I'm now going through my agenda for tomorrow's staff meeting making sure I am prepared for the staff meeting tomorrow morning. I spent some time getting the library study area cleaned and ready to go. I'll have to come in early in the morning tomorrow for final preparations. Tonight I am going to try to look for a great motivational piece to start the year off. (Last year I used Dalton Sherman, a 10 year old who gave the keynote speech to a huge school district in Florida, look him up on Youtube! Very impressive kid there!)

We've got class list mostly finished (had a new kindergartner, first grader, second grader and two new fifth graders show up today!) Our student counts are 143 for Black Oak, 132 for Twain Harte Middle School and 52 for Pinecrest. Those numbers one year ago were 149 for Black Oak, 137 for THMS, and 49 for Pinecrest, so we are down a few students from last year. One encouraging statistic in our student numbers is last year we had 34 8th graders graduate from the district and this year we have 44 incoming Kindergartners!

Dusting ourselves off!

Well, we are just about ready for the year to begin, and it is time for me to update this blog! I hope everyone had a nice and relaxing summer. The teachers have been buzzing about for the last week or so getting ready for the new year. It's exciting to see all the energy and new ideas! We'll be posting class lists on Monday, August 23rd, and school starts on Wednesday the 25th at 8:20. Wednesday is a minimum day so dismissal will be 1:35 for Black Oak, and 1:40 for the middle school.

Looking forward to a great year!