My First Meet the Teacher in Over 5 Years!

Wowsers! I always knew that being a teacher is tough business, and apparently being out of the classroom for over 5 years has made me a softie! Tomorrow is the first day of school in Casa Grande, Arizona. I will be debuting as a 2nd grade teacher! If you follow my blog, you may know that I am a district specialist, but as of yesterday, I am a new member of Mesquite Elementary! Go Roadrunners! I will be temporarily taking over this second grade classroom until a teacher is hired.

Today was meet the teacher. I had to go big! I, I mean my friend Azure, filled baggies with goldfish and I attached a little card that read....I want to o-fish-ally welcome you to 2nd grade...THANK YOU PINTEREST....but wait, there is more. Then I  decided that I really wanted the kids to be super excited so I ordered balloons to tie to the baggies. (Thank you, Andrea, for helping me with this!)

First impressions are everything, right?! I wanted to start by offering the students choice, so I handed them their name thingy to place on the desk they wanted to be their seat and in return they take the balloon and snack. Win-win! Choice....snack....balloon....and while they did that I could chat with the families about transportation. We all know how important those transportation lists are!

Here is what the room looked like before the kids showed up to meet me!

It really did make the room look festive and made each and every one of them smile! I love that!

I was shocked at how many parents prefaced their introduction of their child with a warning about how they are talkers. I looked right at one mother and said, "Great! I love to talk too, I can't wait to talk about how math works and all of the super wonderful things we will read this year!" Now, the mother did kind of pause and then she smiled. She may think I am crazy now, but wait until her kid comes home talking about what we talked about in class! I know I totally threw her off, but it just bugs me to hear kids get in trouble for talking! Talking is a part of processing! Talk it out! I can't wait to get them talking!

I've got lots of work to do tonight. I still need to make a newsletter and I am going to go to Matt B. Gomez's blog to look for great classroom apps! I am going to be using my iPad and appleTV to work my magic and get them learning in different ways! I am so super excited! I am not sure how long my stint at a Roadrunner will be so I really REALLY want to maximize my time.

More tomorrow.....Day 1 of 2nd Grade!!!!