So much to say!

WOW! The first couple weeks of school are busy! I think I forgot. Short-term memory loss, I guess. No seriously, this is the absolute busiest I've been at the beginning of the school year in my 5 years...AND I'm job sharing! I actually think that may contribute to my craziness because I have to cram pretty much a full week of work into three days. I'm taking a lot of work home, happily, so that I can find a balance between teacher and mommy. :)

Another reason I'm so busy is because we are implementing a TON of new things this year. Blogland is sure to kill my teaching partner! I've spent the entire summer researching, reading, and stalking some amazing blogs. It's landed me in "I've got to try this" mode. But honeslty, after 4 years of doing pretty much the same thing, I'm ready for a change. A lot of it is going well, some would be better next time with some tweaking, and some I won't do again....

Before I get all wordy and long-winded...

WE GOT OUR TEACHING EASEL/STORAGE CART TODAY!!!

I am so amazed by the generosity of our friends, family, and Lakeshore Learning! In July, I wrote a project proposal for the teacher grant website, DonorsChoose.com. Lakeshore offered to give us a 50% match on the project that also included this classroom rug.  We had the funding in no time and even were able to give back by donating some of our funds to Donors Choose. If you've used Donors Choose, you know how excited I am... and if you haven't go there now! The coolest part is, my husband came to my school this afternoon and stayed with me until 6:00 p.m. to put it together for me! SWEET! 

Ok, so back to work...

Here's what we have or plan to implement that's new this year:

• Daily 5
• Word Study, inspired by Beth Newingham
• Bucket Filling
• Whole Brain
• Morning Meeting

I'd love to know your thoughts on any of these awesome ideas! I plan on devoting a post to each of them in the coming weeks... but until then, please share! :)

Sons of Anarchy is on... so more to come soon! 

My jump into Whole Brain Teaching...

I don't have time to post much right now. Sundays are always busy for me. Teaching Sunday School, church, lunch, the softball this evening. However, I finally followed my supernatural teaching instincts and looked up Whole Brain Teaching on the web. What in the heck have I been waiting for?!? And why in the world am I discovering this on my own? And why haven't some of my lovely colleagues tied me down and made me read this book? I, for one, plan on employing the WBT "Fair Use Agreement" and hope to reach out to plenty more teachers than the ten they require. The eBook is free, and a must read. Anyone out there using this with as much success and I anticipate? More to come!